"Israel's presence at the Vicenza Gold Fair is unacceptable". With this watchword, the North-East Social Centers convened a demonstration, in the morning of 20 January, publicly declaring their goal of disrupting the Israeli pavilion. The march, which started from the Bocciodromo Social Center, was attended by more than 500 people from all over the region and the rest of Italy. The protesters opened the gate on Arsenale Street to head toward the exhibition area. Here, they were blocked by the police with two charges and the repeated use of water cannons. Five people were detained, and several people were injured. After the confrontation, the march regrouped and returned to the concentration site. It then headed to the afternoon national demonstration organized by the Palestinian communities.
The slogan "No peace without justice, no peace under occupation" shouted throughout the demonstration summarizes a day dense with political significance. "With today's demonstration, we show that we stand with the Palestinian people and with the oppressed peoples throughout the Global South," protesters say, affirming the universal value of solidarity with the Palestinian cause. In recent months, there have been demonstrations around the world targeting Israeli business interests: boycott campaigns, blockades of ports where ZIM (the Israeli-flagged shipping company) operates, strikes at production sites that are in various forms related to the constant oppression and slaughter to which the Palestinian people are subjected. "Having in our territory a direct expression of these interests," the protesters say, "represents an important opportunity not only to continue denouncing Israel's crimes and the complicity of much of the international community, but also to build a level of mobilization that matches the escalation we are witnessing in the Middle East and beyond."
In the speeches that followed, the many reasons for the mobilization were explained. The Israeli pavilion will trade diamonds. Israel is among the world leaders of this industry, which is among the major assets for its war economy: "The revenues from this trade directly finance the genocide taking place in Gaza and the brutal violence that the Palestinian population is suffering in the West Bank."
The link between supporting Palestinian resistance and fighting against global war characterized the entire event: "We have been saying for some time that the central issue is global war, this is a constitutive element in the current capitalist restructuring. The conflict that has plagued Palestine for 75 years is emblematic of contemporary war, particularly in the total asymmetry that connotes the forces on the ground. But what has been happening in recent months is the opening of unprecedented scenarios, in which war is permeating every sphere of our existence, in the political narrative and in the public space."
Vicenza experiences this condition in its daily life, given the presence of US military bases there. Nonetheless, the city has also managed to develop social antibodies over the years, which have turned anti-militarism into a long-lasting element in the political battle. "In this city, a few years ago, thousands of people resisted against the 'new' Dal Molin military base, which made us realize that war is not so far from us, but starts right here, at home. Thanks to this struggle, we developed new perspectives to imagine a world where peace can only be intertwined with environmental and social justice, with liberation from all military servitudes, with the need to build new forms of democracy."
The demonstration is meant to open political spaces for mobilization: "As we fully understand that the war machine also operates in our territories, we have to figure out ways to outmaneuver its mechanisms, in every possible place. We must discuss, organize, oppose the arenas of war production, those who support it economically, those who are complicit." This is possible through the combination of radical practices and clear slogans, pointing a way forward: it is within our reach to build struggles aspiring to have a real impact on this political phase.
Translation: Alyssa M. Chihi.