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While clashes and arrests of pro-Gaza demonstrators flare up in the universities of various American states and the protest also sets European universities on fire from Paris to Berlin via Valencia, in Italy the students of the collectives and young Palestinians demonstrate solidarity with their American colleagues evicted by the police and they are preparing for May 15th, Nakba day.
Initiatives in the capital
Meanwhile in the capital, fake tourist signs have appeared with the words “Genocide Embassy” written in the streets around the Israeli embassy in Rome, in the Parioli district. And in the late afternoon, at the Roma 3 university, an ‘anti-Zionist torchlight procession’ took place in front of the Rectorate to remember the death of the rector of the Islamic University of Gaza Sufian Tayeh. Tomorrow at 12 the teacher will be remembered, together with all the victims of Gaza, at La Sapienza University. The students are once again calling for a boycott of Israeli research institutes as well as “the resignation of the rectors of Leonardo Spa’s Med-Or foundation”.
The protest extends to the Polytechnics
Today at the Polytechnic of Turin the students of Cambiare route and Progetto Palestina announced a demonstration on the occasion of the Academic Senate on May 7th. On that occasion they will present a point document in which they ask to clarify the relationships between the university and Israeli institutions; they also ask to be present at the discussion, with a delegation. The Polytechnic of Milan is also taking action, with a student assembly scheduled for Friday 3 May at 6.30 pm. A public conference on Zoom with the theme ‘Student Intifada’ with testimonies from the universities in struggle from the United States to Palestine, will be organized on May 5th at 6 pm by young Palestinians in Rome.
Ready to pitch your tents
During the meeting the students want to establish the organizational methods in Italy in view of May 15th, the day on which the Nakba is remembered. On that day, the Palestinian collectives and young people promise to pitch tents in the universities «because we do not want places of knowledge complicit in this genocide and the colonial occupation of Palestine by Zionism. For weeks, despite the harsh repression which has intensified in the last few hours, at Columbia University – they write on social media – not only has the mobilization continued, but the protest has spread throughout the country. Following the example of American universities, Egyptian, French, German, Australian, Canadian, Jordanian, Iranian and many other countries students also mobilized to demonstrate that despite the ferocious repression the student movement will not stop until it gets what it asks for : the end of the complicity of places of knowledge with Zionism and the end of the colonial system that persists in the world.”
