Yesterday's post closed wondering if boycotting certain fashion brands and conglomerates may be used as a strategy to persuade their affluent owners to contribute more in taxes. Today we saw instead boycotting in action through two protests in Vicenza.
The Italian city located in the Veneto region, is currently hosting its annual gold and diamond fair - VicenzaOro (running through 23rd January), the largest show in Europe for the gold and diamond industry.
The tradeshow is dedicated to design, but also to new technologies and innovative developments in the jewelry industry. More than 1,300 exhibitors from almost 40 countries are showing at the fair, according to organizers.
In the last few days, the Veneto-based Palestinian community announced a demo in the city centre against the presence of Israeli exhibitors at the fair, while activists from local social centres announced an alternative event in the area of the fair to try and stop the exhibitors.
The demos were announced in response to the current conflict in Gaza. Last October, Hamas militants initiated an unprecedented attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages. Since then the Israeli military conducted air strikes on Gaza and launched a ground offensive. The United Nations recently announced that so far the total population of Gaza (1.9 million civilians) were forcibly displaced amid Israel's military operations. Besides, since October, 23,000 people were killed in Gaza and more than 58,000 injured.
Violence is spreading to multiple regions, while the US and UK are conducting airstrikes on Houthi sites in Yemen in response to ongoing Houthi drone and missile attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea believed to be linked to Israel or its allies.
While the demo in Vicenza's city centre this afternoon was peaceful, police and activists from social centres clashed this morning in the trade fair area. During the demonstration, protesters chanted slogans such as "Stop Bombing Gaza", "Stop Global War," and "Free Palestine". The march, consisting of approximately 500 participants, began in the late morning and deviated from the predetermined route, attempting to approach the fair grounds. This led to a confrontation with riot police in full gear, who pushed back the crowd with a charge. Smoke bombs and fireworks were reportedly thrown by the protesters, prompting the police to respond with water cannons and baton charges. The police made several arrests among the protesters from social centers, and there were reported injuries among both activists and law enforcement officers. The clashes took place several kilometers away and had no impact on the event.
Commenting upon the events many right-wing politicians such as the president of the Senate, Ignazio La Russa, accused the protesters from social centres of anti-Semitism and violence and showed solidarity to the police (surprising how the same politicians didn’t condemn the hundreds of men who made the fascist salute two weeks ago during an event in Rome outside the former headquarters of the Italian Social Movement, a neofascist party founded after the second world war, during an annual gathering on Via Acca Larentia, commemorating the 46th anniversary of the killing of three militants from the now defunct party's youth wing). At the time of writing this post, the morning demo dynamics remain unclear as the possibility of external influences seeking to disrupt or manipulate the protest with infiltrators and agitators should also be considered.
VicenzaOro is already considered as controversial for the presence of diamond sellers; Israel holds a significant position in the global diamond trade, being recognized as one of the foremost countries in importing rough diamonds and a prominent exporter of polished diamonds. Activists highlighted how there is a direct link between the trade fair event and the interests of the Israeli government, since, in a war economy, the proceeds from diamonds sale fuel military expenses.
The pro-Palestine demos in Vicenza are the latest ones organized on a global level that are calling for boycotts: since the beginning of the Israel-Gaza conflict in October, the boycott movement against a number of multinational companies for their support of and ties to Israel has expanded significantly.
As the world appears to be on an unsettling trajectory toward a potential global conflict and as geopolitical tensions intensify, the risk of succumbing to the dehumanizing effects of conflicts and prioritizing economic interests over human values becomes more pronounced. Italy had a champion for Palestine in the former Italian president and partisan Sandro Pertini and maybe current politicians should go back and listen to some of his speeches. On December 31, 1983, during his New Year's Eve televised address, Pertini indeed stated: "Once it was the Jews who experienced the 'diaspora,' dispersed and expelled from the Middle East to various parts of the world. Now, it is the Palestinians who are undergoing a similar fate. I affirm once again that the Palestinians have a sacred right to a homeland and a land, just as the Israelis did."
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