We receive and willingly publish a profound reflection signed by Bartolo Sasso, city secretary of the Democratic Party, Francesco Parisi, city secretary of the Italian Communist Party and Pasquale Pozzolungo, city secretary of the Italian Left on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which is inflaming the Middle East, but which undermines the certainties of Old Europe too. Here is the full text:
«The shocking images that arrive every day from the Gaza Strip are in everyone’s eyes and continue to disturb us deeply.
It’s a conflict with record numbers. The approximately 35,000 Palestinian victims, an abnormal number in such a short period of conflict, include a quantity of children killed – approximately 15,000 – which the UN (UNRWA) has defined as “unprecedented and disconcerting”. And the recent Global Report on Food Crises 2024 by the Food Security Information Network says that the most serious food crisis in history is underway in Gaza, which is destined to worsen with the takeover, a few days ago, of the Rafah crossing by the the Israeli army.
The bond that keeps us with that land is not only human, but also political. In 1999 Bisceglie was twinned with Khan Younis, after whom a street is also named, a city in the Gaza Strip among those that have sadly become a symbol of the ongoing war. Khan Younis, whose population has largely moved to Rafah in the meantime, was the scene of some of the most devastating and horrifying moments of the ongoing conflict, above all because it was among the most heavily bombed by Israel in these months of war. A few weeks ago, a mass grave with at least 283 Palestinian bodies was found near the al Nasser hospital, after a siege by the Israeli army which claimed there were Hamas operational bases inside, but which never provided evidence convincing. Furthermore, “The Gaza Pietà” was taken in Khan Yunis, the winning photograph of the World Press Photo 2024 which shows a woman holding the lifeless body of a 5-year-old girl in her arms, tragically killed together with her mother and sister when an Israeli missile hit their house.
These facts, which like many others also make us think of an attempt at genocide if not ethnic cleansing by Israel, and which the day before yesterday saw the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court request arrest warrants for the parties involved, do not they can keep us silent any longer.
We remember with horror the brutal massacre of October 7th in which over 1000 innocent Israelis were barbarically killed by the bloodthirsty Hamas terrorists. This crime, which for us is unjustifiable and condemnable, arises in a context of radicalization that occurred in Palestine also as a result of Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian lands. But what shocks us is the disproportionate and equally uncivilized reaction of the Israeli government and army, which are subjecting Palestinian civilians to torture and unspeakable suffering.
We ask Mayor Angarano to write to the authorities of Khan Younis (possibly via the Palestinian embassy in Italy) to express on behalf of the entire city the feelings of solidarity, closeness and emotion for what is happening and, in the impossibility of being able to send direct aid, to make adequate donations to entities involved in theaters of war – including the Gaza Strip – such as Oxfam, Emergency, UNHCR, UNICEF, UNRWA and Doctors Without Borders, in accordance with the purposes of the municipal statute”.
Wednesday 22 May 2024
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