Sawt Falasteen - Italian Pro-Palestinian activists clash with police, demand Israel boycott before World Cup qualifier

The Gaza ceasefire deal signed on Monday and a hostage and prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas did nothing to dampen the resolve of around 10,000 protestors who descended on the small city in Italy's far north-east, a small section of whom were involved in disorder at the end of the march.

Over 1,000 police officers and army personnel were deployed while helicopters and drones flew overhead to keep a watch on a demonstration which was kept several kilometres away from the Bluenergy Stadium hosting the Group I fixture.

There was little chance of protestors reaching the stadium as checkpoints were put up in a ring around it, with spectators having to pass concrete barriers and metal detectors in order to watch a match which is key to Italy's bid to ensure they qualify for a World Cup for the first time since 2014.

The security operation was designed to stop rioting and ensure no-one gets near the ground or the Israel team, but although the march started peacefully in warm autumn sunshine it ended with police using a water cannon and tear gas on some of the marchers who threw rocks at officers.

There was little sign of violent disorder when the march started at around 1800 local time (1600GMT), with the loudest noise the drumming and sound systems accompanying dancing from people of ages, who waved Palestinian flags and banners which read "show Israel the red card".

"There's no more bombs and that makes us happy, but the problem with this peace plan is that there is no talk of a Palestinian state," says Amer Hasan, a 61-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank who has been in Italy since moving to study 42 years ago.

"There's no talk of self-determination, no talk about the West Bank nor of the fate of Gaza... it seems like Gaza will be governed by Tony Blair and Donald Trump, without any involvement from the Palestinians.

"We shouldn't be playing this match because a team that represents a nation that has committed a genocide is playing."

Hasan is a representative of Palestinian communities in the regions of Veneto and Fruili-Venezia Giulia, who with four other associations organised Tuesday's march and welcomed more than 340 activist groups from all over Italy.

- Match overshadowed -

They all ask that football's world governing body FIFA exclude Israel from international competition, as happened with Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and were among the hordes of people chanting slogans like "Free Palestine" and "Genocidal Israel".

More than 67,869 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since Israel launched a military offensive in response to a brutal cross-border assault carried out by Hamas on October 7, 2023.

Almost all of the more than two million civilians who lived there before the war have been driven from their homes at least once.

There is anger in Italy over the country's football federation (FIGC) refusing to entertain a boycott of matches with Israel, unlike Football Association of Norway (NFF) whose head Lise Klaveness, recently said Israel should be sanctioned.

"The Norwegian FA has begun taking a position against the presence of Israeli teams, there's a totally different type of behaviour across the board compared to what you see here (in Italy)," said Carlina, an activist from Udine Committee For Palestine who helped organise the march.

And some of that frustration was on show just before kick-off, when a large section of Italian fans loudly booed the Israeli national anthem.

That booing was quickly drowned out by applause from the rest of those present in the ground, including the small pocket of Israeli fans.

Officially the attendance for the match was 10,000 but it looked and sounded much less in the stands, with huge swathes of empty seats across all four stands of the 25,000-capacity stadium.

O.Salim--SF-PST