Italians are the strike to support the Palestinians

Workers in Italy joined a general strike on Friday, not for better remuneration or conditions, but in solidarity with the inhabitants of Gaza.

Large crowds have descended into the streets of several cities in the middle of an increasing wave of protest across Europe in the bombing and the blockade of Israel of the Gaza Strip.

The Italian Interior Ministry indicates that up to 400,000 demonstrators left in total in 29 places; Unions say the number was four times.

The anger intensified this week when the Israeli army rose aboard a flotilla of boats full of European politicians and activists and prevented them from providing food and medical aid in Gaza, where unabled experts confirmed the famine to Gaza City and its surrounding areas.

Israel rejected the flotilla as a stroke of advertising. There were over 40 Italians on board.

Prime Minister Hard-Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, criticized the general strike, arguing that she would not advance the Palestinian cause and only hinder the Italians trying to spend their lives. She suggested that unionists just wanted a long weekend.

His deputy, Matteo Salvini, described the illegal strike, announced without notice and threatened sanctions.

A large number turned out to be, behind banners with slogans like “Stop the Massacre” and “Hands Off the Flotilla!”.

In several cities, including Milan and Bologna, there have been clashes, with demonstrators throwing stones on the police and then sprayed with tear gas.

In Pisa, a group with brightly colors in colors stormed the airport track, interrupting flights for a while, while in Naples Dockers, blocked the port. In Turin, the demonstrators fired metal barriers from the railways.

There have also been demonstrations in other European cities in Haye in Madrid.

Here in Rome, the main walk was large, but peaceful.

“Governments, especially the Italians, do not act against what is happening in Gaza,” said University Professor Francesca, explaining why she had joined the ranging.

Students at the University of Sapienza where she works organize sit-ins on several faculties.

“We are here to say that it is time to intervene and resolve things,” said Francesca.

Outside the Termini station, a small tent camp was born with a sign declaring its address as “Piazza Gaza”. Nearby, a giant minimalist statue of Pope John Paul II was dressed in a Palestinian scarf.

After walking beyond this and through the center of the capital, a section of the crowd briefly occupied part of the highway around Rome. Fund of the giant Palestinian flags and holding enlightening rockets, they shouted “we block everything”, then walked through a long tunnel which amplified their songs while the police went back and looked.

“It is the best face of our country. Italy is better than the people who are now in government,” the head of the opposition Elly Schlein told the BBC at the start of the Rome walk.

The leader of the Democratic Party argued that the Italian Prime Minister had not called “the crimes of the Israeli government” in Gaza, as she sees, and described it as a “shame” that Italy had not joined the growing number of countries now recognizing the Palestinian state.

Israel called this decision by many “shame brand” itself.

Giorgia Meloni was recognized by her conditional government for the release of all Israeli hostages and excluding Hamas from the government. She also underlines Italy’s support for the Gaza peace proposal written by her close ally and the main funder of Israel, President Donald Trump.

But Meloni also spoke recently about “too many innocent victims” in Gaza and said that the response of the government of Benjamin Netanyahu to Hamas terrorist attacks in 2023 had “exceeded the principle of proportionality”.

“It is serious. Admittedly, the whole problem of Gaza put pressure on Meloni. She in fact changed the government’s position to be more critical of Israel,” Professor Giovanni Orsina, political scientist at Luiss, told the BBC.

He underlines that Catholic public opinion was “indignant” by events in Gaza. Above all, however, he considers the wave of protest as “an alarm clock” of the Italian left forces.

“It is a very clear demonstration that there is an increase in activism and which implies a very large number of people. The government is under pressure and I think it’s nervous.”

While trade unionists, students and activists still worked in several cities, the four Italian politicians who had been detained on the Gaza aid flotilla landed in Rome.

Expected by Israel, they were welcomed at the airport with warm cuddles of the family and colleagues.

More than 40 Italian compatriots are still in detention.

The cargo of the flotilla has been confiscated and the humanitarian access to Gaza has not improved, but Benedetta Scuderi, a deputy deputy of the Green Left Alliance, always calls a “enormous success” trip.

“Many of us went because we felt helpless, that we couldn’t do anything for what’s going on in Gaza,” she told the BBC shortly after landing at home. “I like to think that it has a certain hope for the population.”

“All around the flotilla, the demonstrations, the strikes – they are huge. We have not seen them for a long time and I do not think that a responsible government can only claim that nothing happens.”