Once the ceremony for the 78th anniversary of the Italian Republic was over, Mayor Matteo Lepore headed towards Piazza Maggiore in the company of Daniele De Paz. After the ‘tearing’ of the Palestinian flag hanging outside Palazzo D’Accursio, a test of détente with the president of the Jewish Community of Bologna who, the day after the display of the flag, immediately clearly expressed his opposition. A gesture considered divisive by De Paz, capable only “of fueling tension” at a time when, instead, “everyone should take a step back”, as he reiterated yesterday. Regarding the private dialogue he had with the mayor, the president of the Jewish Community explained that he had “defined how to work on” the rift, returning to address the topic of the House of Interreligious Dialogue project. “A tool that we consider adequate to discuss together”, De Paz said again. Signed with a protocol in 2021, the project should have been completed in six months: today it is still in its embryonic stage, but the mayor has announced an acceleration in this regard. “We had a long, relaxing conversation with De Paz – explains Lepore in turn –, even if we never stopped talking to each other”. And, regarding the House of Dialogue, Lepore explained that he wanted to “resume the project together with Lafram and Zuppi, involving the city. Together with Rita Monticelli we will work on it in the next few days”.
During the ceremony in Piazza San Domenico, De Paz was next to Yassine Lafram, president of the Ucoii. “We exchanged some reflections with Lafram – added De Paz –. We have ground to work on, to try to avoid disagreements and tones that are useless and do not help to keep the minds of the communities under control. It is appropriate, at this moment, that everyone takes a step back, with a view to collaboration, security and maintaining public order”.
Lafram, on the sidelines of the ceremony, also recalled how “the dialogue carried out in recent years together with De Paz and Zuppi is an authentic dialogue, not the dialogue of ‘pats on the back’. It is a dialogue in which we also say to each other what we our positions are different, sometimes even opposing. Otherwise we risk distorting our dialogue, we risk creating bubbles which then burst in an instant Paz, to the whole community, truly represents the will to move forward in dialogue despite the pain and suffering.”
On the flag issue, Lafram reiterated that it is “a more than legitimate position” and that it would not be appropriate, instead, to place the Israeli flag alongside it: “Today the victims are Palestinian civilians, it is important to mark the boundary between executioner and victim”.
Nicoletta Tempera
