Rome, June 7 (RHC)-- Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in the Italian capital, Rome, to demand an end to the Israeli war on Gaza, while accusing the government of being complicit in the ongoing genocide.
According to the organizers, up to 300,000 people marched through the streets of the capital city on Saturday, as they waved Palestinian flags and held a wide banner reading, “Stop the massacre, stop complicity!” as well as “Free Palestine” signs.
The rally made its way from Rome’s central Piazza Vittorio to San Giovanni, where opposition parties’ leaders urged an end to the aggression and denounced “the silence” of the far-right Italian government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Elly Schlein, the leader of the center-left Democratic Party, called the turnout “an enormous popular response” in opposition to the war. She went on to say that the protest was “to say enough to the massacre of Palestinians, to say enough to the crimes” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right cabinet and to show the world “another Italy.”
“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 added.
The Italian Five Star Movement (M5S) and the Greens-Left Alliance were also behind the protest.
Pro-Palestine demonstrations have been held in Italy to condemn Rome's relentless support for the Israeli regime time and again. Back in April, 15,000 people in Milan staged a rally in solidarity with the besieged Gazans.
So far, the Italian government has unrelentingly sided with the Israeli regime despite hundreds of pro-Palestine demonstrations across Italy over the past months.
Last month, Meloni called the humanitarian situation “increasingly dramatic and unjustifiable,” saying she had had “often difficult conversations” with Netanyahu, while at the same time noting that “it was not Israel that started the hostilities.”
Since early March, Israel has imposed a blockade on Gaza, having unilaterally terminated the ceasefire established in January and resumed its genocidal offensive against the Palestinian population in the territory.
The United Nations has censured Israel for weaponizing humanitarian assistance, warning that the entire population is at risk of famine.
[ SOURCE: PRESS TV and AFP ]
