Pro-Palestine Marches Halted on Holocaust Remembrance Day in Italy

On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, police stations across Italy have halted pro-Palestine marches scheduled for tomorrow. This has ignited a conflict. 'Repression will not stop us,' assure the young Palestinians who confirm the appointments in Milan, Rome, Naples and Cagliari. 'We take to the streets against the bans because we remember,' they emphasize. The police station prescriptions were notified in the morning and welcomed the invitation contained in yesterday's circular from the Department of Public Security to foresee a postponement of the marches scheduled on the day of the Shoah commemoration. The decision 'It's an issue that concerns us quite a bit at this moment beyond the merits of the demonstrations because in Italy, as you know, we respect the right to demonstrate,' said Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni this morning. The indication given to the promoters for the Rome march is to move it to another date, starting from Sunday. 'It is extremely serious that the Jewish community influences a decision already made by the competent authority that had authorized our march,' is the immediate comment of Maya Issa, president of the Palestinian Student Movement. 'It's a decision that increases anger - she adds - We will reserve the right to decide whether to demonstrate on the 28th but we cannot guarantee that there will not be people who will still take to the streets tomorrow.' And in Naples, the Network for Palestine launches a sit-in at 11 in Piazza San Domenico: 'We challenge Piantedosi's bans' to 'scream never again to the genocide of a people' and 'ask for a ceasefire.' The marches While the association of Palestinians in Italy, in compliance with the ordinance, has decided to move the Milan march to Sunday, calling for a press conference tomorrow afternoon. Therefore, the attention of the police forces remains high in the areas where the various protests were announced. Meanwhile, today in Rome there were moments of tension during a sit-in at the Farnesina when some demonstrators tried to smear the flag of Israel depicted on signs with red: the agents prevented it. A picket line was also expected by Gabriele Rubini, aka Chef Rubio, always active for the Palestinian cause. The well-known television personality, however, during the journey to the ministry was stopped for a check by the police who found in the car a can with five liters of a substance compatible with animal blood. Taken to the police station for the necessary checks, Chef Rubio reported that it was bovine and porcine blood intended for culinary uses. The scientific police took a sample of the substance to carry out the analysis and, based on the outcome, they will proceed according to law. In the meantime, the person directly involved, in a statement read by the demonstrators, assured: 'Every Saturday we marched and every Saturday we will march until Palestine is free again.' The reactions And the choice to postpone tomorrow's sit-ins was welcomed by the institutions. For the president of Friuli Venezia Giulia, Massimiliano Fedriga, it is 'the minimum sense of civility that can be expected, out of respect for the drama that the Jewish people have undergone and for the persecutions.' According to Fedriga, those marches would represent 'emblematically an act of pure anti-Semitism.' More cautious is the mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, who considers it 'senseless to discuss or comment on such a decision.' While for the mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, 'Holocaust Remembrance Day has a particular value that must be kept out of the legitimate discussion about the war. This right political discussion - he adds - it's ugly that it happens on the day we remember the Shoah, which has its uniqueness and is not comparable to another crime. I deeply feel this uniqueness, and it's not nice that just that day this debate could lead to expressions of anti-Semitism, of attack.'