Italians protest arms sales to Israel (File Image)
Rome, June 4 (RHC)-- 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 28th.
One of the protesters, Marco Grimaldi with the Greens and Left Alliance, said: "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."
Another protester, Francesca Fornario with the No-Gag Network, told reporters: "The Israeli parliament has extended a law allowing the shutdown of foreign media outlets deemed a threat to the security of the regime."
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."
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.
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.
[ SOURCE: PRESS TV and NEWS AGENCIES ]
