The Japan Times - Clashes as tens of thousands join pro-Palestinian demos in Italy

The demonstrations came on the same day as France and other countries prepared to recognise a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, following recognition by the UK, Australia and Canada on Sunday.

Italy's hard-right government under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said it will not recognise a Palestinian state for now.

In Rome, some 20,000 people gathered in front of the main Termini train station, according to local police, many of them students, shouting "Free Palestine!" and holding up Palestinian flags.

Some had marched via the Colosseum, those at the front holding up a giant banner saying "Against Genocide. Let's block everything."

At Termini station, Michelangelo, 17, told AFP he was there to support "a population that is being exterminated".

Francesca Tecchia, 18, was protesting "for the first time", because "what is happening (in Gaza) is too important", she said.

"Italy must come to a standstill today," said Federica Casino, a 52-year-old worker protesting with the students for Gaza's "dead children and destroyed hospitals".

"Italy talks but does nothing," she said.

- Teargas, water cannons -

In the northern city of Milan, where organisers said 50,000 people turned out, protesters burned a US flag, an AFP reporter saw.

Some demonstrators clashed with anti-riot police at Milan's central train station, with police throwing teargas and protestors launching projectiles and smashing windows, an AFP photographer saw.

In Bologna, more than 10,000 took to the streets, according to local police, with a group of demonstrators blocking the motorway before being dispersed by water cannons.

Protests also took place in Turin, Florence, Naples and Sicily, while in Genoa and Livorno, dock workers blockaded port entrances, according to Italian media.

The USB union organised a 24-hour national strike to demand that the government break off relations with Israel in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Local buses and the metro service were disrupted in Rome, while national train operators also warned of delays and cancellations.

Meloni's government, which is ideologically close to US President Donald Trump, has condemned Israel's relentless assault on the besieged Palestinian territory.

It says it had not sold any Italian weapons to Israel since the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas inside Israel.

But it has said it will not recognise a Palestinian state for now and has also expressed reluctance about implementing the European Union's proposed trade sanctions on Israel.

According to a recent survey by polling company Only Numbers, published by La Stampa newspaper, almost 64 percent of Italians consider the humanitarian situation in Gaza "very serious" and almost 41 percent want Italy to recognise a Palestinian state.

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T.Ueda--JT