Reportage
A pro-Palestine media spectacle ended in arrests and injuries in Rome
Everyone’s 15 minutes of fame seem to last too long nowadays. The same applies to the various fringe groups, aware that the only way to get a mention in the news is to say outrageous things.
The clashes came all of a sudden, only at the end. As soon as the demonstration called by UDAP, the Young Palestinians and the Association of Palestinians in Italy, was disbanded by the organizers last weekend, a few dozen people tried to force a police blockade between Piramide and Viale Ostiense. The initial charge lasted only a few minutes, then another group of protesters (again no more than a few dozen) advanced from the rear and started throwing small stones and firecrackers.
That’s when the response by the police kicked into high gear: tear gas, water cannons fired not horizontally but from above, and finally a forceful police charge that reached all the way to the middle of the square. The final toll was three injured and four arrested, in addition to the 19 who had been stopped in the morning while trying to get to Rome, with 38 removal orders decreed on the fly. In total, according to the police, 1,600 people were stopped and identified. There were 24 reported injuries among law enforcement personnel.
The demonstration reached an attendance of at least 10,000, despite the rain and the public transport strike. The morning had started with Radio Onda Rossa breaking the news even before Radio RAI that a “static demonstration” had finally been approved, while phone numbers of lawyers to call if needed were circulating on WhatsApp.
There were students in large numbers, families with children, veterans of the movement and a lot of ordinary people who had flocked to the square not only to show their solidarity with the Palestinians, who continue to die by the hundreds every day, but also because of the climate that had been created in the days leading up to the protest, with bans and warnings from the authorities and the issue of the hardline new security decree that will soon become law lurking in the background.
We talked to a 70-year-old man with the ANPI scarf around his neck and the air of someone who would never miss a protest, a mother who came to keep her 16-year-old son safe, and a young woman who said she didn’t care about the published platform and the controversies around it and was keen to stress that she didn’t want to “have to comment on what others wrote.”
Among notable figures, we saw none other than Roberto Nistri, now keen to whitewash his reputation, formerly of the [neo-fascist] Third Position and one of the founders of the NAR [“Armed Revolutionary Nuclei,” neo-fascist terrorist groups active in the late 1970s and early ‘80s], with a backpack and a camera around his neck. No one noticed him, perhaps because no one knew who he was (and where he came from).
Overall, the organized groups stood out only because of their flags; they were not the protagonists of the demonstration. On the contrary: in the general back-and-forth for much of the afternoon – would there be a march? Yes, no, maybe? – it wasn’t clear who would be effectively in charge and would give people instructions over the megaphone.
Every entrance to Piazzale Ostiense had been closed off (with police mostly staying behind the vehicles for almost the entire time), so when the masses finally moved, all they could do was march around the flowerbed, in a curious procession that moved in a circle. That seemed to be the end of it; but suddenly – after everything had had the feel of a peaceful demonstration, almost unremarkable given the previous hoopla – things turned to skirmishes (and the usual commentators are already blaming “infiltrators”).
Not everyone noticed what was happening: those furthest from the entrance to Viale Ostiense took notice only when the police charge reached almost to the center of the square, where a few dozen students were dancing to the Arabtronica music blasting from the speakers of the organizers' van.
Before all that commotion, there were the speeches. Under leaden skies and heavy rain that took a good couple of hours to give way to sunshine, the long line of speakers did not disappoint the expectations of those who had come only to revel in the scandalous.
It must be said that the oratorical spectacle seemed to be put together for the exclusive use of journalists (attacked by the same speeches for not telling the truth about what is happening in the Middle East). The space in front of the stage was reserved for reporters only, with the security personnel going around and asking “regular” protesters to stand behind the cordons. Thus, a clearing meant exclusively for cameras, microphones and notebooks was set up in the middle of the crowd, while all around the vast majority of those present were chanting the now-customary chants and slogans: “Free Palestine,” “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!,” “Netanyahu murderer,” “Intifada, intifada!”
About the speeches themselves: at first there were the voices of the Palestinians, all focused on talking about the carnage in Gaza. But then, when the time came for the – shall we say – local acronyms, we got to the – entirely avoidable – praising of October 7, 2023 as the start date of a revolution, or, according to others, an exceptional moment of resistance. There was also a guy with a Hezbollah headscarf, delighted to show off such a trophy to the photographers and cameramen.
Times being what they are, the 15 minutes of fame that Andy Warhol said everyone would get at some point seem to last for far too long nowadays. All it takes is some grand gesture, or even much less than that. The same applies to the various acronyms of fringe groups, aware that the only possible way they would get a mention in the news was if they said outrageous things.
The impression at the end is much better than one would have expected at the start: young and very young people have put their bodies on the line for the cause of justice, not (or hardly) frightened by the police bans and the not-so-subtle threats from the past few days, showing remarkable lucidity and spirit – things that those on the fringes seem to have lost altogether. How much does it count in the grand scheme of things? A little? A lot? It’s hard to say at this point. But for the moment, it’s enough.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/manganelli-e-divieti-non-arrestano-la-piazza-palestinese on 2024-10-06