Back and forth in the Chamber between the 5 Star Movement and Antonio Tajani during question time. “From 7 October to today, over 35 thousand Palestinians have died under Israeli bombing, 15 thousand of them are defenseless children. Despite this, the Italian government has abstained twice since sign And hold up there resolution UN That predicted The to cease The fire and the recognition of Palestine as a full member of the UN”, attacked the Five Star MP Stefania Ascari. Since Tajani “talks about two peoples and two states” we ask “what does he think of doing to achieve this objective” and above all “what does the Italian government think of doing to stop this massacre”, he added.
Immediate reply of the Foreign Minister who spoke about the position of Italy as of a position “of great balance“, underlining that within the G7 group “the majority opted for an abstention vote, in the knowledge that the resolution would be approved by a wide margin”. “Italy has the fate of the Palestinian people at heart. Now the priority is to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe”, added Tajani, recalling the “Food for Gaza” initiative with which “we are sending food, medicines and medical materials, fodder for animals, trucks for the distribution of aid”. “I will talk about it again today on the phone with Israeli Foreign Minister Katz, who also participated in a meeting of the table and to whom I will renew the request for maximum assistance for the delivery of aid,” he continued, underlining that he will also reiterate “the our firm opposition to a military operation in Rafah.” “Dealing with the emergency does not mean forgetting the longer-term perspective – he added – Humanitarian intervention and the achievement of a ceasefire are the precondition for the resumption of political dialogue. The government supports the principle of two peoples, two states. Our abstention – he continued – does not contradict this political objective which remains for us the only possible solution for the Palestinian question”. According to Tajani “theabstention of Italy it’s not a distancing from the need to create a Palestinian state – he added – rather a signal ofurgent need of a real and credible political horizon for negotiations”.
The response lasts Riccardo Ricciardivice president of 5 Star Movement and group leader in the Foreign Affairs Commission: “Imagine 80 children occupying two sections of this room looking around, amazed by the beauty of this building and at the end of the day exterminate them. Tomorrow recall another eighty and in the evening exterminate them too. This has been happening since October 7th. Eighty children a day. Look at them and tell me if don’t be ashamed as a government to say ‘we knew they would vote in favor of the UN and we decided to do something’, the cowards, the slothful in the face of a terrifying crime that happens every day”. “I am proud of that part of the West that reaches out every day, that rehabilitates mine, our part of the world in the eyes of history, that has the courage to take a position – added Ricciardi – Instead Western governments only know how to give thanks and follow what Netanyahu is doing with the backing of the United States. This is not the West: it is the West of the demonstrations of American and Italian universities protesting for those eighty children who die today and who will die again tomorrow.”
