Italians stage strike in support of Palestinians

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

Large crowds took to the streets of multiple cities amid a growing wave of protest across Europe at Israel’s bombardment and blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Italy’s Interior Ministry says up to 400,000 protesters came out in total in 29 locations; trade unions claim the number was four times that.

Anger intensified this week when the Israeli military boarded a flotilla of boats full of European politicians and activists and stopped them delivering food and medical aid to Gaza, where UN-backed experts have confirmed famine in Gaza City and its surrounding areas.

Israel dismissed the flotilla as a publicity stunt. There were more than 40 Italians on board.

Italy’s hard-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni criticised the general strike, arguing that it would not advance the Palestinian cause and only hinder Italian people trying to go about their lives. She suggested the unionists just wanted a long weekend.

Her deputy, Matteo Salvini, called the strike illegal, announced without sufficient notice, and threatened sanctions.

Large numbers turned out regardless, behind banners with slogans like “Stop the Massacre” and “Hands off the Flotilla!”.

In several cities, including Milan and Bologna, there were clashes, with protesters throwing stones at police then being sprayed with tear gas.

In Pisa, a group with brightly coloured flares stormed the airport runway, halting flights for a time, while in Naples dockworkers blockaded the port. In Turin, protesters pulled metal barriers onto railways.

There were protests in other European cities, too, from The Hague to Madrid.

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

“Governments, especially the Italians, are not taking action against what is happening in Gaza,” said university teacher Francesca, explaining why she’d joined the walkout.

Students at Sapienza University where she works are staging sit-ins at several faculties.

“We’re here to say that it is time to intervene and solve things,” Francesca said.

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

After marching calmly past that and through the centre of the capital, a section of the crowd briefly occupied part of the motorway around Rome. Waving giant Palestinian flags and holding flares they shouted “we’re blocking everything”, then marched through a long tunnel which amplified their chants as police stood back and watched.

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

The Democratic Party leader argued that Italy’s prime minister had failed to call out “the crimes of the Israeli government” in Gaza, as she sees it, and described it as a “shame” that Italy had not joined the growing number of countries now recognising Palestinian statehood.

Israel has called that move by many a “mark of shame” itself.

Giorgia Meloni has made recognition by her government conditional on the release of all Israeli hostages and the exclusion of Hamas from government. She also stresses Italy’s support for the Gaza peace proposal drawn up by her close ally and Israel’s main backer, President Donald Trump.

But Meloni has also spoken recently of “too many innocent victims” in Gaza and said the response of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to the Hamas terror attacks of 2023 had “gone beyond the principle of proportionality”.

“This is serious. Certainly, the whole Gaza issue has been putting pressure on Meloni. She actually changed the government’s position to be more critical of Israel,” Prof Giovanni Orsina, a political scientist at Luiss University, told the BBC.

He points out that Catholic public opinion has been “outraged” by events in Gaza. Most of all, though, he sees the protest wave as “an awakening” of Italy’s left-wing forces.

“It’s a very clear demonstration that there’s a surge in militancy and that involves a very significant number of people. The government is under pressure and I think it’s nervous.”

As unionists, students and activists were still marching in multiple cities, the four Italian politicians who’d been detained on the aid flotilla to Gaza landed back in Rome.

Deported by Israel, they were greeted at the airport with warm hugs from family and colleagues.

More than 40 fellow Italians are still in custody.

The flotilla’s cargo of aid was confiscated and humanitarian access to Gaza has not improved but Benedetta Scuderi, an MEP for the Green Left Alliance, still calls the trip a “huge achievement”.

“Lots of us went because we felt impotent, that we couldn’t do anything about what’s happening in Gaza,” she told the BBC soon after landing back home. “I like to think it’s given some hope to the population.”

“Everything around the flotilla, the protests, the strikes – they are huge. We haven’t seen them in a long time and I don’t think any responsible government can just pretend nothing’s happening.”