The national demonstration for April 25th in Milan ended with over 100 thousand participants, which saw the participation of the writer Antonio Scurati and the secretary of the Democratic Party Elly Schlein but also strong moments of tension due to the protests of the pro-Palestinian demonstrators. Ten people ended up in the police station for the attack on the Jewish Brigade and the City Angels volunteers who escorted it, as well as for the disturbances caused by the breaking of the barriers in front of the stage of the event. Two members of the Brigade were seriously injured, attacked with wooden poles by a group of young North Africans, while a pro-Palestine boy who was trying to calm his companions was blocked by the police and then immediately released. Some insults to the Brigade also during the procession, including “You are like the Nazis”.
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However, the protests of the approximately 300 pro-Palestinians gathered in Piazza Duomo were incessant even before the start of the procession under the large banner “Genocides out of history. With the Palestinian resistance”. After having also wrapped the monument to Vittorio Emanuele II with the Palestinian flag, the pro-Pal welcomed the arrival of the procession in the square with the cry “Zionists out” and “Israeli murderer”. Boos during the performance of the national anthem and during all subsequent speeches, including that of the mayor of Milan Beppe Sala who during the parade had said: “For me the protests do not pollute the procession, because we must give weight to a minority of the minority ?”. Applause, however, only on the words of the national president of the ANPI, Gianfranco Pagliarulo, on “Netanyahu responsible for the extermination of the Palestinians”. In an attempt to speak on the stage, the activists attempted several times to break through the barriers, but were blocked first by the ANPI security service, and then by the riot police.
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Once the interventions were concluded, the pro-Palestinian activists improvised a procession up to Largo Cairoli, which however ended without incidents. “The tension was inevitable, but the balance with over 100 thousand people present can only be largely positive. Piazza Duomo hasn’t been so full for years, and this square cannot be soiled by the protest that has taken place”, he commented the president of Anpi Milano, Primo Minelli, at the end of the event. “What happened is the result of months of sick words that lead to sick behavior. In Gaza there is a horrible war in itself, there is no need to find words that stimulate hatred even more” he said instead to LaPresse the director of the Museum of the Jewish Brigade, Davide Romano, referring to the word ‘genocide’.
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Clashes between pro-Palestine demonstrators and the Jewish Brigade also occurred in the morning in the capital, at Porta San Paolo, where the two groups faced each other with stones and firecrackers thrown at them. “Brutal and unworthy violence, because it was done against the symbols of the Jewish Brigade” according to the leader of Action, Carlo Calenda who marched in Milan together with the Brigade. On stage in Rome, Roberto Salis read a message from his daughter Ilaria, imprisoned in Hungary. While in Milan Scurati received Schlein’s embrace and encouragement. At the end of the day, the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, made a point of thanking the police forces who “on such a demanding and important day ensured the smooth running of the Liberation Day celebrations throughout Italy” despite the “multiple situations difficult in the demonstrations that took place in various cities”.
