About 5,000 people attended a banned pro-Palestinian march in Rome on Saturday. With heightened security, 1,600 people were checked, and 19 were taken to police stations for possible orders to leave the capital.
The pro-Palestinian march proceeded despite the public order ban, amid concerns of extremist infiltration. It came two days before the anniversary of Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7th October, 2023, which left 1,200 dead and around 250 hostages taken. Around 100 hostages are believed to remain alive in Gazan tunnels. According to Hamas’s health ministry, nearly 42,000 civilians, including women and children, have been killed in Israeli retaliatory strikes.
Pro-Palestinian activists used the Internet to protest police efforts to stop them from attending the demonstration. “Be careful if you are taking the train,” warned one message alongside a photo of officers at Tiburtina Railway Station. Similar warnings were posted for other stations and transport hubs in central Rome. Another message claimed, “The Rome police headquarters is preventing the buses from reaching the demonstration.”
Chants of “Free Palestine,” “Criminal Israel,” and “Now Intifada” echoed in Piazzale Ostiense, where the protesters gathered. The area was heavily guarded, with a helicopter flying overhead, and law enforcement officers, armoured vehicles, and water cannons at all entrances. Marchers were required to show their documents before entering.
Commemoration of Palestinian dead, not celebration of Hamas
Participants claimed the ban was imposed to support war, not peace, and insisted they were not celebrating Hamas but commemorating the thousands of civilians killed in Gaza. Some accused the Italian state of fascism for allegedly preventing people from attending. The marchers also denounced Israeli actions against Hezbollah in Lebanon. They fear a major reprisal from Israel after an Iranian missile launch in response to the assassinations of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders.
“Despite the ban, we took to the streets because we have a historical responsibility,” declared a representative of the Palestinian Arab Democratic Union at Piazza Ostiense. “We ask for an end to the bombings. Italy must take a clear line. There was a mystification of this march. They told us that it was a celebration of Hamas, but we are here to commemorate our dead, the Palestinian dead. The only ones who celebrate here in Italy are the friends of Israel and the Italian war industry. The ban came not to guarantee peace but to guarantee war.”
Another Palestinian activist added, “We could have been many more if this was not a police state, a fascist state.”
Chants of “shame” were directed at law enforcement.
Alongside Palestinians, members of small leftwing groups and parties, including Osa (Dare), Potere al Popolo (Power to the People), and the USB trade union, were present. Flags from the ‘knowledge network’ and the Italian Communists were also visible.
Peaceful march turned to violence later
Riot police launched tear gas and used water cannons to disperse protesters, many of them hooded. The officers, who were blocking a road to the march, had firecrackers, stones, and road signs thrown at them.
The march stampeded after “a full-blown guerrilla war broke out”, police said.
Earlier this year, police resorted to the use of batons at a pro-Palestinian rally.
