Pro-Gaza demonstration: over 300,000 in Rome. Schlein: in the streets the Italy that is not silent

In Piazza Per Gaza manifestazione promossa da Pd Avs Movimento5 Stelle - Roma (photo by Cecilia Fabiano/LaPresse)

"They tell us: do you want to make the wide field? No, with this square we want to give an historic and unrepeatable chance to the Italian people to take the side of humanity, seeing the horror of Gaza is unacceptable. You are an extraordinary response to the infamous accusations of anti-Semitism. They do not want to hear the word genocide: what is all this if not the will to destroy the Palestinian presence with the colonies that are expelling populations and families?" said the Greens' co-spokesperson Avs MP Angelo Bonelli from the stage of the demonstration. "That is ethnic cleansing, it will be the courts to say if it is genocide".

Manifestazione nazionale Gaza stop al massacro Italy Photo Press/Marco Mattei

"I am the first Palestinian woman to speak publicly to a square, a square filled with affection, love and solidarity. All genocides are also carried out with words, words that deny the humanity of a people, words that criminalise the victims, turning them into an existential threat against which everything is permitted. But words are also essential to resist. I believe that things must be called by their right name, otherwise we do not see them. It is very important to call what is happening in Gaza genocide, because that is the only way to stop it,' says Palestinian journalist Rula Jebreal from the stage in Piazza San Giovanni, greeted by applause and a chorus of 'Free Palestine! "Terms such as humanitarian crisis, war crimes, are a deception and are not enough to redeem moral, legal imperatives to stop the genocide," she adds, "Imperatives that compel the international community to mobilise to stop the extermination taking place, the extermination of my people.

"We Italian Jews who take to the streets are a minority, sometimes they call us traitors, but we feel the urgency that Israeli pacifist Jews feel to defend Israel from itself," says journalist Gad Lerner from the stage of the demonstration. 'Those who speak to you are Zionists,' he says. 'Being a Zionist is not the same as being a fascist and a murderer. It is clear that the criminal conduct of this war by the Netanyahu government has aroused the atavistic hatred against the Jews' and Netanyahu, 'who abuses the memory of the Shoah to give himself a moral justification, feeds this sentiment'. Lerner concludes by recalling how under Nazism many Germans 'wanted not to know what was happening against the Jews. Even today there are many people who want not to know, but we are here to let people know'.

Maximum attention is being paid to today's demonstration in the capital where some 50,000 participants are expected. Under the lens are the most extreme fringes of the protest. Alert, in particular, for possible blitzes and demonstrative actions that could be carried out along the route.

The entire route is being closely monitored by the police. There will also be wide-ranging controls in the city: from the metro stops along the route leading to Piazza Vittorio to the motorway toll booths where dozens of buses with demonstrators arriving from other regions will pass through. From Tuscany alone, 13 are planned, organised by the regional PD. The security plan was fine-tuned in a Committee for order in the Prefecture and perfected by the technical round table in the Questura. The appointment is for 2pm in Piazza Vittorio. From there the procession will leave for Porta San Giovanni. Traffic diversions and road closures are planned for the passage of the demonstrators.

ANSA/MASSIMO PERCOSSI

On stage, in addition to the speeches by the leaders of the promoting parties, Angelo Bonelli, Giuseppe Conte, Nicola Fratoianni, and Elly Schlein, testimonies by activists and journalists alternated. Among them are Rula Jebreal, Gad Lerner, Anna Foa. There are also Abubaker Abed, a Palestinian journalist; Iddo Elam, a young Israeli who refused military service; Atef Abu Saif, former Palestinian minister of Al-Fatah and Feroze Sidhwa, a surgeon who has operated in Gaza and testified at the UN. On the eve of the event, the Union of Italian Jewish Communities expressed its concern "for the choice to defend only one people, the Palestinian people, and not the Israeli people as well". For this reason, stressing that they "do not recognise themselves in those who announce plans to empty Gaza of its natural inhabitants", Italian Jews launched an appeal to "always show both flags, never just one".

In the square there are Palestinians 'in a personal capacity' also because the Palestinian Student Movement has distanced itself from the mobilisation, judging the demonstration to be late. "This square is not ours. It is the square of accomplices, not solidarity - they attacked -. It is the square of the fake opposition, not of liberation, it was organised because they are parties that are going to the ballot and need to recover consensus". The president of one of the promoting parties, Giuseppe Conte, claimed the choice of siding with the demonstration 'not to be partners in a genocide' and rejected any possible accusation of anti-Semitism: 'against a genocide is just a rhetorical device'. Nicola Fratoianni (Avs) also rejects any attempt to charge the organisers with anti-Jewish sentiments: 'To mobilise for Gaza is not anti-Semitism, it is an infamous accusation'.