Tens of thousands of protestors marched in dozens of Italian cities Monday while strikes brought trains and highway transport to a halt after unions called a nationwide walkout in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government is under pressure to recognize Palestinian statehood after the U.K., Australia, Canada and Portugal did so, following growing international condemnation of Israel’s attack on Gaza.
The protesters also want the Italian government to suspend commercial and military cooperation agreements with Israel, and to protect a flotilla of 60 boats crossing the Mediterranean carrying aid to Gaza.
Meloni has said the government in Rome will recognize Palestinian statehood only when conditions make it practically possible, and her government has been one of Israel’s staunchest supporters in the EU.
The strike was organized after dockworkers in Genoa vowed to support the Global Sumud Flotilla, which includes prominent activist Greta Thunberg, by threatening to prevent the exit of container ships carrying goods to Israel. Last week, stevedores in the city of Ravenna refused entry to trucks said to be carrying arms destined for Israel.
Protests took place in 81 Italian towns and cities under the slogan “Let’s Block Everything.” Trains and buses were canceled, and schools and universities were closed as local transport workers, teachers and students went on strike.
In Florence, protesters blocked access to a key highway. In Genoa, dockworkers obstructed the entrance to the port, while students blocked entrances to universities in Turin, Rome and Milan. In Venice, demonstrators marched to the port with banners reading “Gaza is burning, we will block everything.”
One senior lawmaker from Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, Giovanni Donzelli, told ITALPress news agency Monday, “I think this is not the moment to recognize Palestine, even if it is necessary and useful, but it must be done in a process where the Arab states also recognize the state of Israel.”
War has been raging in the Gaza Strip for almost two years, after an attack by Hamas-led militants on Israel in October 2023 killed some 1,200 people, most of them civilians. Some 250 people, including children, were captured by Hamas and other groups and taken into Gaza.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, which is under the Hamas-run government, more than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory assault on the coastal enclave. U.N. agencies and independent experts consider the ministry’s casualty records as generally reliable.
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