Sergio Mattarella he speaks in the main hall at Sapienza University while music comes from outside blasting at full volume from the tents of students camped with Palestinian flags and against “the genocide” underway in Gaza. The President of the Republic decided to respond to the letter received from the demonstrators this morning, and it was not at all obvious: “I don’t want to lock myself up in the ivory tower of the rectorate, I want to say what I think about what is happening in Gaza, I don’t want to leave the unanswered question: the question of peace in the Middle East, and the right of Israel’s security and that of the Palestinians to have a state, is something that the international community feels with great concern.” Meanwhile, young people from the student collectives gathered in front of the entrance to the rectorate to demonstrate their support for Palestine. The police blocked the protesters at the gates with shields. And the tension rose even more when the police vans entered the rectorate but no truncheons were used.
Protest camping in universities, students write to Mattarella: “President, come to our tents”
by Viola Giannoli
May 15, 2024
The head of state further explains: “I said publicly and not in fortuitous or informal circumstances, as at the UN a few days ago, that everything that concerns the dignity of people, every person, the need to respect humanitarian law, is included in our Constitution. This criterion applies to civilian populations, such as Gaza and the Palestinian people, with a large number of orphans and homeless people, it applies to girls killed and raped while listening to music at a rave in Israel and to children slaughtered on October 7, it applies to those who were hanged in Iran for a song or for refusing to wear the veil”.
Mattarella recalls his request for a ceasefire to the Israeli government, underlines that “for our Republic all violations of human rights must be denounced, the demand for freedom and the condemnation of oppression do not change depending on international relations. This awareness it is felt in universities and in those who frequent them, universities are places of criticism and sometimes dissent of power, always in connection with universities in every part of the world”. For this reason “I reiterate the hope for dialogue, within the academic world and in mutual respect, with everything that pertains to the effectiveness of the right to education”.
Words welcomed with great applause from the audience, therefore words of peace and of listening to the student demands of recent months, not only in Italian universities but throughout the world. However, reiterating one concept: the university educates in freedom and comparison, also with the corresponding study centers in Israel.
