The President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella participated in the celebration of Graduates’ Day at La Sapienza University, while outside, some students were protesting “against the genocide in Gaza”. The protesters also shouted phrases and read the text of a letter into a megaphone, to which Mattarella then responded. In fact, from the stage of the main hall, the head of state responded off the cuff to those who asked him what he thought of what is happening in Gaza and declared: “the condition and question of peace in the Middle East, of the right to existence of Israel, is an issue that the international community feels with great concern and not just today.” Mattarella cited his speech at the UN: “I reiterated the request for an immediate ceasefire”.
Mattarella’s speech was not included in the programme, in which the head of state did not shy away from the call of the universities which had been agitating for weeks over the conflict in the Middle East. “A letter – he explains – urged me not to include myself in what was defined as the ‘ivory tower of the rectorate’. On my way I saw a sign asking me what I thought about what is happening in Gaza. I don’t want to leave it unanswered.” He recalls his repeated interventions “on significant occasions”, from the speech to the United Nations General Assembly to the letter sent to the President of the Israeli Republic, and reiterates his position. “For our Republic – he says – all violations of human rights must be combated, always and everywhere”.
It’s still: “Respect for humanitarian law – he clarifies – is in our Constitution and for the Italian Republic it is valid in every direction”. The president refers to the suffering of the “civilian populations” in Gaza, but adds: “it applies to the children raped and killed while listening to music at a rave last October 7, it applies to the children whose throats were slaughtered on that occasion”. The head of state also cites the case of Mahsa Amini, the Iranian rapper, “of the girls who cannot study in Afghanistan”. And he specifies: “human dignity, the demand for freedom, the condemnation of oppression, the rejection of brutal violence do not change value depending on the territories, depending on the borders between states, depending on the international relations between political parties or movements” . The clear intervention, however, did not calm the animosity of the students who continued amidst slogans and groans.
Finally, the president does not give up on intervening on the role of universities. “They are the seat – he says – of free debate and sometimes even of dissent from power”. He appeals to the value of dialogue and sinks: “the power, the worst one, wants the universities of their country to be isolated, without relationships or collaboration with the universities of other countries”.
