Hundreds of thousands of people marched through Rome’s streets on Saturday to protest the Gaza war, in a rally organized by opposition parties to condemn the government’s alleged “complicity” in the battle.
Protesters held large banners at the start of the march, surrounded by red, white, and green Palestinian flags, peace flags, and “Free Palestine” banners.
The peaceful rally drew a large turnout, estimated by organizers at 300,000 people.
The peaceful protest attracted a massive crowd estimated by organisers at 300,000 people.
It made its way from Rome’s central Piazza Vittorio to San Giovanni, where speakers took to a stage to urge an end to the violence and denounce what some called the silence of the far-right Italian government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
The demonstration was “to say enough to the massacre of Palestinians, to say enough to the crimes of Netanyahu’s far-right government” and to show the world “another Italy”, Schlein told journalists.
“An Italy that does not keep silent as the Meloni government does, an Italy that instead wants peace, wants an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, humanitarian aid, and wants recognition of the state of Palestine,” she said.
The leader of the Five Start Movement, former prime minister Giuseppe Conte, told the crowd he was there “to not be a partner to genocide” and rejected any accusation of antisemitism on the part of protestors.
Israel has come under increasing international criticism over the dire humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory, where the United Nations warned in May that the entire population was at risk of famine.
In Italy, Meloni has been pushed by the opposition to condemn the actions of Israel’s leader Benjamin Netanyahu in Gaza, but her criticism has been tempered.
Many protesters came from across Italy to participate in the demonstration in the capitol, including Gabriella Branca, a lawyer from Genoa.
