A Coherent inconsistency: Italian cultural diplomacy in Palestine, 1918–1938

A recent report of the Italian NGO COSV (Coordinamento delle Organizzazioni per il Servizio Volontario) suggests that “it was not until the 1995 Euro-Mediterranean Conference that Italy began to take on a prominent role in the Mediterranean region”.1 It is possible Italy lagged behind other countries in the development of cultural diplomacy, nevertheless Italian cultural infuence in the Mediterranean, and in Palestine in particular, certainly predates 1995. Studies of European cultural policies in Palestine have often focused on Britain, France and occasionally Germany, however very little scholarship has been dedicated to Italy. The works of Nir Arielli, Daniela Fabrizio, Lucia Rostagno and Arturo Marzano shed light on some aspects of early Italian cultural diplomacy and relations in Mandatory Palestine.2 Yet the literature available, but more importantly the research currently carried out on this topic, is rather scant and often unclear on how cultural diplomacy should be defned.