06 October 2024
The excitement of the approximately 6,000 pro-Palestine demonstrators lasted for more than three and a half hours. After an entire tour of Piazzale Ostiense, the place where they had arranged to meet at 2pm, he exploded against the police. Paper bombs, glass bottles, firecrackers, road signs and poles thrown by the black bloc towards some police vans and some of the officers in riot gear who were guarding Via Ostiense. A rain of objects to which the police responded first with the use of water cannons and then by charging with truncheons. The chaos in the center of the capital, which was witnessed as an impassive “witness” by the Pyramid of Caius Cestius and which resulted in the wounding of a girl and around thirty men from the police force, lasted for at least half an hour. But let’s go in order.
At the time of the meeting, the demonstrators were scattered in different points of the place chosen for the event. It’s raining and some seek shelter at the entrance to the Piramide metro station, others a few steps away stop under the roof of the Roma Lido, those who arrived a quarter of an hour late are gathered under a thick tree. The core of the extremists, however, are in the center of the square under the water. They sing: «Free Palestine», «From the river to the sea Palestine will be free». The banners also stand out here. In the first we read in Arabic, English and Italian: «Let’s stop the genocide, free Palestine!», in the second it says: «Palestine and Lebanon united: let’s stop the genocide with resistance».
Even those who arrive later unroll and show off their banner exclusively within these ten square meters. The color most worn by activists is black. Those who have opted for “total black” cannot go unnoticed, a considerable number of people wear it with a keffiyeh. Many, taking advantage of the rain, cover themselves entirely thanks to balaclavas, hats, masks, sunglasses, helmets and Palestinian flags. There are hundreds of banners and among these there is that of Hezbollah: the yellow that forms the background to a series of green figures and where in the center stands an arm holding the Ak-47 assault rifle, better known as the Kalasnikov.
People slowly fill the square, among them there are even those who seem to have arrived by mistake: a couple of tourists widen their eyes and speed up their pace. Piazzale Ostiense is armored by a massive deployment of police forces: at every intersection (via Marmorata, via della Piramide Cestia, viale Giotto, viale Marco Polo, via Ostiense and viale del Capo Boario) there are a series of vans, agents in riot gear and iron barriers.
«Today for us is not a day of celebration, but of struggle» begins the first activist to take the megaphone. They repeatedly define the conflict in the Middle East as «yet another NATO war that serves to protect Western values. What principles? Extermination and genocide. The Palestinian cause is the cause of all the exploited in the world.”
Tones and contents that partly bring the hands of history back to the seventies, but it is not surprising given the large presence of red flags with hammer and sickle. Young Communists, Palestinian Arab Democratic Union, Si Cobas and the Italian Marxist-Lenist Party are just some of the acronyms that took part in the event. Some more or less well-known faces of Italian politics also parade, such as Marta Collot and Giorgio Cremaschi. Over the megaphone someone lashes out at the centre-left: “Those who call themselves opposition to the Meloni government should call themselves collaborators.” Those who want to express their thoughts are not given much space, the crowd with its chants drowns out almost all the speeches. «Procession, procession» is the most pronounced.
That the day was nervous can also be seen from the fact that many present did not want to be photographed. Negotiations begin between promoters and Digos men. The departure from Piazzale Ostiense is pure fantasy, the agreement is found: a three hundred and sixty degree turn. At the head of the thousands of those present are the black blocs. Tension rises more and more, traders lower the shutters of their shops and those watching from their windows close them. The extremists gain the upper hand and unleash the “battle” two days before the first anniversary of October 7th.
#Rome #ProPal #guerrilla #war #Anarchists #left #trade #unions #streets #Tempo
