“Bring them home now!” This is the message launched by the organizers of “United we bring them home”, the international demonstration of solidarity for the Israeli hostages, which was held in Largo Argentina, in the heart of Rome and which saw the participation of over 200 people. Promoted by the Hostage Families Forum and Run for Their Lives, and also joined by the Italian Jewish Youth Union, the oratory marathon was held at the same time as other cities around the world, including London and New York . The well-known Mediaset journalist Antonino Monteleone introduced the various personalities who spoke.
Over 125 people – children, teenagers, women, men and elderly people – are still in the hands of Hamas terrorists. “We are here today to tell their families and the whole world that we have not forgotten about them. We have not forgotten what they have suffered and are still suffering,” said the Italian spokesperson of the Hostage Families Forum and promoter of the initiative, Benedetto Sacerdoti. “October 7 is an endless day, an open wound that awaits the return home of each of those 125 people in order to finally heal and heal” continued Sacerdoti, reiterating several times how it is necessary to “bring them home now”.
“We want to remind the world that there are hostages of 27 different nationalities, five different religions, and we demonstrate here for all the hostages” said Tiziana Levy, Italian coordinator of Run for Their Lives, a private and humanitarian non-political group that is active in more than 200 cities around the world. “We demonstrate to open the eyes of all those people who still don’t believe what happened, and finally we walk to maintain a light, the same light that the families of the hostages maintain” concluded Levy.
“We cannot remain silent in the face of the barbarity that Hamas terrorists have been carrying out for the past 240 days on the lives of our brothers and sisters. Our thoughts go to all of them, to their faces and their voices, who cannot scream for help. We are here to do it in their place,” said Luca Spizzichino, president of the Union of Young Jews of Italy. “It is our moral duty to raise our voices and demand with strength and determination that everything possible be done to bring them home,” he continued, recalling how young Italian Jews will never stop fighting for their freedom.
“All the deaths we have counted to date, both Jews and Palestinians, are to be blamed on Hamas,” said Stefano Parisi, president of the SetteOTTO association, who spoke at the demonstration. Several councilors from the Jewish Community of Rome also took to the streets, including Johanna Arbib, who spoke. “Today is October 7th for us, 240 days have passed, but it is still October 7th. – underlined Arbib – We have a very clear task, we must spread the truth and the truth is that on 7 October Israel was attacked and more than 1200 people were killed”.
The rally closed with a prayer for the return of the hostages read by Elio Tesciuba.
