On the eve of Remembrance Day, the police stations have stopped the pro-Palestine marches called for tomorrow in various Italian cities.
And the clash flares up.
"The repression will not stop us" assure the young Palestinians who confirm the appointments in Milan, Rome, Naples and Cagliari.
"We take to the streets against the bans because we have memories" they underline.
The instructions from the police headquarters were notified in the morning and accepted the invitation contained in yesterday's circular from the Department of Public Security to provide for a postponement of the processions called on the day of commemoration of the Shoah.
"It is an issue that worries us quite a bit at the moment beyond the merit of the demonstrations because in Italy, as you know, we respect the right to demonstrate", Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said this morning.
For the Rome procession, the indication given to the promoters is to move it to another date, starting from Sunday.
"It is extremely serious that the Jewish community affects a decision already taken by the competent authority that authorized our march" is the immediate comment by Maya Issa, president of the Palestinian Students Movement.
"It is a decision that increases anger - he adds - We will reserve the right to decide whether to demonstrate on the 28th but we cannot guarantee that there will not be people who will take to the streets tomorrow anyway".
And also in Naples the Network for Palestine launches a sit-in at 11am in Piazza San Domenico: "We challenge Piantedosi's prohibitions" to "scream never again about the genocide of a people" and "ask for a ceasefire".
While the association of Palestinians in Italy, in compliance with the ordinance, has decided to move the Milan demonstration to Sunday, calling a press conference for tomorrow in the early afternoon.
The attention of the police forces therefore remains high in the areas where the various protests were announced.
Meanwhile, today in Rome there were moments of tension during a sit-in at the Farnesina when some demonstrators attempted to paint the Israeli flag depicted on some signs in red: the officers prevented this. A demonstration which Gabriele Rubini was also expected to attend , aka chef Rubio, who has always been active for the Palestinian cause.
The well-known television personality, however, during the journey to the ministry was stopped for a check by the police who found a canister in the car containing five liters of a substance compatible with animal blood.
Taken to the police station for the necessary checks, Chef Rubio reported that it was blood of bovine and porcine origin intended for culinary uses.
The scientific police took a sample of the substance to carry out the analysis and, based on the outcome, action will be taken in accordance with the law.
In the meantime, the person concerned, in a statement read by the demonstrators, assured: "Every Saturday we marched and every Saturday we will march until Palestine is free again."
And the choice to postpone tomorrow's sit-ins was welcomed by the institutions.
For the president of Friuli Venezia Giulia, Massimiliano Fedriga, it is "the minimum sense of civilization that can be expected, out of respect for the drama that the Jewish people have suffered and for the persecutions".
According to Fedriga, those marches would represent "emblematically an act of pure anti-Semitism".
The mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, is more cautious, considering it "senseless to discuss or comment on such a decision".
While for the mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, "Remembrance Day has a particular value that must be kept out of the legitimate discussion on the war. This correct political discussion - he adds - is unfortunate that it occurs on the day in which we remember the Shoah, which its uniqueness and is not comparable to any other crime. I feel this uniqueness deeply, and it is not nice that on that very day this debate could lead to expressions of anti-Semitism, of attack."
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