The Italian Defense minister slammed the students describing them as ‘criminals’ and ‘dangerous subversives’.
A group of students occupied the headquarters of the weapons company Leonardo in Turin, north of Italy, to condemn the company’s complicity in Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, Reuters news agency reported.
The group of nearly 100 students took over the roof of the headquarters and unfolded a Palestinian flag declaring that their protest comes in objection to the company’s role in providing Israel’s air force with “remote technical assistance and spare parts.”
Images of the protest showed students holding huge banners in Italian that read: “Free Lebanon Free Palestine, Intifada Everywhere” and “Leonardo Complicit in Genocide Let’s Boycott the War Industry”, as well as photos of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on which they wrote “Child Killer War Criminal”.
The group of students also held Palestinian flags and spray cans and climbed a plane on display at the company’s headquarters.
While Leonardo declined to comment on the students’ protest, Italian Defense Minister, Guido Crosetto harshly criticized the protesters in a post on X.
He wrote that the group of students were “destroying and defacing” the company’s headquarters during an “important meeting with the staff of the defense ministry.”
“These people must be treated for what they are, dangerous subversives. Criminals have no political color, they are just criminals,” the Italian Defense Minister said.
In questo momento dei sedicenti manifestanti pro Palestina, sono entrati negli uffici di Leonardo Aeronautica in corso Marche a Torino e stanno distruggendo ed imbrattando.
Negli uffici era in corso un’importante riunione anche con personale della Difesa.
Queste persone vanno…— Guido Crosetto (@GuidoCrosetto) November 13, 2024
Italy’s Shady Role
According to data gathered in February from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the US supplied 70.2% of Israel’s conventional arms procurement from 2011 to 2020. Germany followed with 23.9%, and Italy with 5.9%, Anadolu news agency reported.
Following increased criticism, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani announced on January 20 that Italy decided to stop sending arms to Israel as of October 7 and emphasized that it had not sent any type of weapon, Anadolu reported.
However, the Italian Defense Minister said in March that Rome had continued to transfer arms to Israel.
Crosetto insisted that only “previously signed orders were being honored after checks had been made to ensure the weaponry would not be used against Gazan civilians”, Reuters had quoted him as saying.
Italian-made weapons previously supplied to Israel are already being tested by Israel in Gaza.
Forse il suo eccesso di allarme (diciamo così) è provocato da questo?https://t.co/72EsDUejsX
— Pietro Orsatti (@orsatti63) November 13, 2024
The 76mm naval gun produced by the Italian defense company Leonardo’s subsidiary Oto Melara was used for the first time by Israel in Gaza, the report stated.
Elly Schlein, leader of the opposition Democratic Party (PD), had reportedly demanded that the government halt arms sales to Israel saying that it cannot risk the use of Italian-supplied ammunition in a manner that could be considered a war crime.
Italian law prohibits arms export to countries waging a war or those believed to violate international human rights.
Death Toll on the Rise
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 43,712 Palestinians have been killed, and 103,258 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7, 2023.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
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Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
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