Pro-Palestinian Chaos in Italy

The National

"[Ms Meloni condemned the] outrageous images [and the rioters as] self-proclaimed ‘pro-Pal’ individuals, self-proclaimed ‘antifa’ members, self-proclaimed ‘pacifists’ [who were] “wreaking havoc”."

"[The violence and destruction was nothing to do with solidarity and] would not change a single thing in the lives of people in Gaza, but will have concrete consequences for Italian citizens, who will end up suffering and paying for the damages caused by these thugs." 

"[Law enforcement officers have been] forced to endure the bullying and gratuitous violence of these pseudo-protesters." 

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni 

 

"This doesn’t mean we’re anti-Jews or antisemitic, and we’re tired of the media and politicians playing on this misunderstanding." 

"It just means we’re against a government that’s committing genocide while the international community looks the other way."

Alessandra, Italian student 

Clashes break out as thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrate across Italy – still from video

 In part of a day of action to "denounce the genocide in Gaza", tens of thousands of people in Italy demonstrated across the country, including transport strikes and port blockades. Italian unions were front and centre, aiding and abetting the organizers with their union clout. There are now close to a million Muslims living in Italy, mostly from North Africa. Their  collective voice is substantial enough, yet adding the support of Italian students and union members gives them even greater voice. Everyone sympathizes with the victimhood of Palestinians, lacking the knowledge that these are self-made victims.

While pursuing their victimhood status with great gusto, as a badge of empathetic honour, it is the Palestinians and their terrorist leaders who are the aggressors, those whose intransigence over refusing to diplomatically argue in good faith with their Israeli neighbours to negotiate agreeable terms for statehood. The  terms that Israeli negotiators emphasize are the beginning and the end of any agreement that boil down simply enough to recognition of Israel's right of existence, and peace to cement that recognition.

 

A bridge too far for Palestinian leadership who have time and again over the plus-70 years since Israel's re-existence have instead plotted unremittingly to destroy the state, disinterested in two states living side-by-side if not amicably, then with a restrained peace agreement. Instead Palestinian leadership generation after generation, incited the population to believe that Israel must be destroyed, that all the land in question must be exclusively 'Palestinian'. The very designation of Palestine historically was a name given to Judea by the Romans. How ironic is that?

 

Protesters pack the central railway station in Naples. Photograph: Matteo Ciambelli/Reuters

Following the Holocaust and the end of the Second World War, only 28,000 Jews now live in Italy, far fewer in number than the figure given for Muslims dating to 2021. Jewish influence in the country is minimal in comparison to that of a demographic of some 800,000+ Muslims whose narrative echoes that of the Palestinians from abroad. The very day that France, the United Kingdom, Portugal and Canada declared their readiness to accept and support a Palestinian State at the United Nations General Assembly, massive demonstrations appeared throughout Italy; not spontaneous, but pre-organized.

Italy's government, speaking through Prime Minister Giorgia Melono is not prepared to recognize a Palestinian state at the present time. For her, and for the government she leads, it seems far more sensible and just for a government-in-waiting to be one for which constant violent attacks against a neighbour stop. The Palestinian Authority is notorious for paying a 'martyrs fund' for Palestinians who commit violent crimes against Israel; funding terrorism, aside from inciting its children to aspire to martyrdom against the Jewish 'enemy'. 

Italian protesters gathered at the main Terminal train station in Rome, among them students shouting "Free Palestine!" and carrying Palestinian flags. Those  at the front of the march held a giant banner proclaiming "Against Genocide, Let's block everything". "Italy must come to  standstill today", 52-year-old Federica Casino, a worker protesting with the students, stated. "Italy talks but does nothing." 

 

Dock workers and protesters block the port of Genoa. Photograph: Matteo Minnella/Reuters

 

Organizers boasted in the northern city of Milan that 50,000 people had turned out, where protesters burned an American flag and in Bologna, over 10,000 marched through the streets, protests also taking place in Turin, Florence, Naples and Sicily. In Livorno and Genoa, dock workers blocked entrances to ports. Local buses and the metro service were disrupted by strike action in Rome; national train operators warned of delays and cancellations.

 

The Italian government states it does not intend, for the present, to recognize a Palestinian state, and is reluctant over implementing the European Union's proposed trade sanctions on Israel. On the other hand, it has condemned the Israeli assault on Gaza, and has not sold Italian weapons to Israel since the October 7, 2023 attack inside Israel by Hamas. Close to 64 percent of Italians feel the humanitarian situation in Gaza to be "very serious", and 41 percent support recognition of a Palestinian state, according to a recent survey. 

 

Workers took to the streets in many of Italy's biggest cities in pro-Palestinian protests Anadolu via Getty Images