FOREHEADS & BACKHANDS
5.57pm Monday 13 May 2024
The keffiyeh-clad AVS and PD councilors vote against the measure that names streets, roads and public buildings after personalities from the Jewish state. Mayor Lo Russo, present in the chamber, does not participate in the vote. The center-right is in favor
On the day when Pro Palestine students occupy Palazzo Nuovothe seat of the humanities faculties of the University of Turin, in another building, the civic one, a motion is voted which commits the municipal council of the Piedmontese capital to “identify roads, streets, buildings or other toponyms that can be named after personalities of the State of Israel who have worked to build paths of peace ”. A very clear political signal from a centre-left majority in which more souls also coexist, from the councilors in Keffiyeh of the Green and Left Alliance – Alice Ravinale And Sara Diena – to the ultra-radical exponent of NATO and Israel Silvio Viale.
And in fact the two Avs representatives voted against, as did the vice-president of the Council Ludovica Cioria (Pd) e Tiziana Ciampolini of the Torino Domani civic list, both connected from home, to embrace the Turin intifada in smart working. Not only personalities, but also symbols of the Jewish state will be remembered, such as the Yad Vashem museum or geographical places such as the Be’eri kibbutzim, attacked in the Hamas terrorist attack last 7 October. And while the entire center-right (or at least the few councilors present) also votes in favor of the measure, there are also those like the mayor Stefano Lo Russo he doesn’t feel like taking a stand and decides not to participate in the vote. “A taboo has been broken, because every time Israel is at stake a political minority vetoes – Viale rejoices –. This motion on toponyms for Israel is the response to those who plant tents at the University and claim to eliminate Israel from the River to the Sea”.
