Italians on strike over Israel’s arrest of Gaza flotilla activists • FRANCE 24 English

Well, moving on now, a day after intercepting the dozens of vessels making up the global summit flatillaa before they the global summood flatilla, excuse me, before they managed to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza, Israeli officials Friday continued deporting and arresting those who had participated. Now, four Italian activists were sent back to their country while reporters without borders said that over 20 foreign journalists were arrested on board the flotilla’s vessels. Now, Israel’s treatment of that flatillaa and more generally that ongoing war uh in Gaza sparked a new wave of worldwide protests Thursday and Friday, including in Italy where tens of thousands are rallying nationwide as a part of a full day general strike Friday called by unions. For more on this, we’ll cross to our correspondent Sema Gupta in Rome. Hi, Sema. So, how big is this strike? Is it having an impact thus far this Friday? Yes, there has been widespread disruption throughout the country particularly in the education and transport sectors. Uh schools have been closed uh trains uh cancelled or delayed as well as some flights and big marches. We’re seeing big protests uh throughout the country from the north to the south. Uh the unions are saying some 100,000 people have taken to the streets in the financial capital of Milan. Here in Rome 60,000 people in Turin some 50,000. We know that access to ports in Lioro as well as Naples have been blocked uh by these protesters and their protests uh in and around Tuskanyany. Uh the protesters have blocked the motorway access to Pisa. So really quite a strong reaction. Now, the unions called for this strike because they said the aggression against civilian ships uh carrying Italian citizens was really a very serious matter and they felt that this had to continue. We do understand that some 40 Italians have been detained. We know that those four have been released. Uh the four are two uh Italian parliamentarians and another two are Europlarians. We understand that they are now back in Italy. Uh but the Italy’s uh strike watchdog actually declared this strike illegal because insufficient notice was given. But the leader of the massive trade union uh behind this strike said that they feel that it is legitimate because it’s an expression and a reaction of solidarity uh to the Palestinians and they want peace. They believe that the government hasn’t put enough pressure on Israel to stop the war and to allow this aid into Gaza. Uh well the message then Sema from the streets in Italy seems to be clear. These I mean the scale of these protests seems to be quite unique uh in the European Union. Uh so where does that leave the Italian government? What has uh the Italian prime minister said? Is this putting pressure on her next moves? Well uh Prime Minister Georgia Maloney has been very clear. She has said the flotilla is dangerous and an irresponsible initiative particularly at this time when there’s this possible peace proposal that’s being uh pushed forward by the US President Donald Trump and in fact she attacked the unions for organizing this strike saying that it brings no benefit to the Palestinian people and instead bring lots of problems for Italian citizens as there’s so much disruption and she said in fact went as far as saying that uh this general strike happening on on a Friday. Well, a long weekend and revolution doesn’t actually go together. So, some pretty strong words. The deputy prime minister and transport minister Mateo Salvini also saying that uh if there’s to be any violence in these protests, uh these union leaders will have to answer for it. So, clearly a very strong reaction uh from the government to this strike action. But for the moment we are seeing these marches across uh cities throughout uh Italy, even on the islands of Sardinia and Sicily. Simma Gupta, our correspondent in Rome. Thank you very much.

Tens of thousands of Italians took to the streets across the country on Friday, as part of a day-long general strike called by unions in support of an aid flotilla carrying food to Gaza that was intercepted by Israel this week. Details by FRANCE 24 correspondent in Rome, Seema Gupta.
#Italy #Gaza #protest

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31 comments

  13. not much disruptions, trains in Italy are bad as everything else in the transport realm, thanks to an incompetent like Salvini.

    Glad that someone still has a pair of balls in Europe to do something

  22. The blood of Mussolini is the blood of the Italians. The right thing is not to side with one side . I think the right thing is to call for a state solution

  29. What a poor propaganda… They were so badly tortured that they all declare that they want to jump on the next boat to start again…

  30. If you're willing to shut down your own economy to support terrorists who are trying to destroy the only Jewish state in the world along with its indigenous people, your nation will succumb to the sharia. The islamists can see how stupid you are and they will conquer you. WAKE UP AND LEARN THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL BEFORE EVIL OVERCOMES YOU

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