A number of opposition parties, lawmakers and journalists gathered outside the lower house in the Italian capital Rome on Tuesday to protest the country’s complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
The protest was part of a sit-in in solidarity with Gaza, which activists have been staging in front of the Italian Parliament since May 28.
When foreign minister Tajani, came to the Chamber of Deputies on our request, he did not once mention the name of Benjamin Netanyahu, as if he was terrified to make that name. This only means that our government is complicit in the massacre of Palestinians.
Laura Boldrini, Democratic Party Lawmaker
The Italian government keeps saying it is a friend to the Palestinian people, but it doesn’t recognize Palestine statehood. The Italian government has urged Israel to halt its massacre in Gaza, but it does nothing to sanction Israel and suspend all ties.
Marco Grimaldi, Greens and Left Alliance
Journalists from the No Gag Network also attended the protest. A spokesperson for the network criticized an Israeli ban on foreign journalists reporting on the Gaza genocide.
We are here to denounce that ethnic cleansing is underway in Gaza and in the West Bank and that foreign journalists can’t report on this genocide firsthand because of Israel’s ban. This is coupled with Tel Aviv targeted killing of reporters in the strip.
Francesca Fornario, No-Gag Network, Journalist
Protesters are also calling on the Italian government to suspend the memorandum of understanding of military cooperation with Israel, which is set to be tacitly renewed in a few days,.
According to legal experts, Italy would be violating its constitutional and international legal obligations by continuing military cooperation with an entity charged with extremely serious crimes before the world’s top courts.
I want to speak clearly to the Italian government, while Israel’s air strikes killed dozens more people in Gaza today, Italy must stop being complicit in this genocide. We have to immediately suspend all socioeconomic and military accords with Israel.
Angelo Bonelli, Greens and Left Alliance
According to some legal experts, the Italy-Israel memorandum has been in violation of general international law and Italy’s constitution since its imposition in 2003 as the details and activities related to the memorandum have been kept secret from the Italian people.
