50,000 people expected at Rome rally on Saturday.
Italy’s opposition centre-left parties have organised a major rally in Rome on Saturday calling for an end to Israel’s war in Gaza, with at least 50,000 people expected.
“We appeal to all those who feel what is happening is unbearable, let’s mobilise together to stop the massacre and the crimes of the Netanyahu government in Gaza”, reads a statement on the website of the centre-left Partito Democratico (PD) party.
The appeal was signed by PD leader Elly Schelin along with the leaders of opposition left-wing parties: Angelo Bonelli (Europa Verde), Giuseppe Conte (Movimento 5 Stelle) and Nicola Fratoianni (Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra).
The meeting point for the rally is at 14.00 in Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II from where the procession will set off towards Piazza di San Giovanni in Laterano.
Joining the political leaders on stage in the piazza will be around a dozen guest speakers including journalists Rula Jebreal and Gad Lerner, musician Paolo Fresu and historian Anna Foa.
Speaking on Italian television channel La7 on Thursday, Schlein said there was “no ambiguity” about the rally whose “mobilisation platform is very clear: it calls for a ceasefire, the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas terrorists, it calls for sanctions on Netanyahu’s government and the suspension of the cooperation agreement with Israel, a total arms embargo to and from Israel and full recognition of a state for the Palestinians.”
M5S leader and former Italian premier Giuseppe Conte said on Thursday that the “genocide” being perpetrated by Israel in Gaza was an “outrage against humanity”.
Noemi Di Segni, president of the Italian Union of Jewish Communities (UCEI) on Friday expressed “strong concern” about the Rome rally’s “shortcomings and inconsistencies”.
“We are concerned about the choice to defend only one people, the Palestinian people, and not the Israeli people too, with one flag and not two,” Di Segni wrote in an article about the demonstration in the capital.
Matteo Salvini, deputy Italian premier and leader of the right-wing Lega party, took aim at the rally, saying: “I hope that no one uses the deaths in Gaza to push people to go and vote” [in the upcoming referendums on citizenship and labour reform which the government is against].
A separate event was held in Milan on Friday evening, organised by the centrist Azione and Italia Viva parties – led respectively by Carlo Calenda and Matteo Renzi – calling for an end to the military offensive on Gaza and the release of hostages while emphasising the need for dialogue and the fight against anti-Semitism.
“I have nothing against the demonstration in Rome, of which, however, we do not agree with what is missing: the bit about Hamas, the bit about those who want the destruction of the state of Israel, the bit on anti-Semitism ever stronger and more pronounced”, Calenda said.
The Rome rally will result in a heavy security operation and will lead to numerous street closures and traffic restrictions on Saturday.
Photo credit: Fabrizio Maffei / Shutterstock.com.
