A piercing chorus of tooting horns and dockers shouting “we don’t want you” greeted an Israeli-owned container ship when it arrived in Livorno, a port city on the coast of Tuscany this week.
For two days, the striking dockworkers stood their ground, refusing to unload and reload the ship’s cargo in a display of defiant solidarity for Palestinians and the Global Sumud flotilla attempting to bring aid to Gaza. The protest was a triumph and the ship, bound for the US and Canada, left.
From Genoa, Trieste and Ravenna in the north, to Salerno and Taranto in the south, in recent weeks port workers across Italy have succeeded in obstructing ships believed to have been carrying weapons for Israel, as opposition to the country’s war in Gaza intensifies.
The dockers’ determination to block weapons and stifle trade has been a crucial component of the pro-Palestinian uprising in Italy as pressure mounts on Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government to take a stronger stance against Israel.
On Friday, thousands took to the streets after Cgil, Italy’s biggest trade union, called the second general strike in less than two weeks, closing schools, stalling traffic and causing disruption on public transport and in healthcare. There were also spontaneous protests on Wednesday night after Israeli forces intercepted the flotilla and arrested hundreds of activists, including the prominent campaigner Greta Thunberg.
The incident in Livorno was the first time an Israeli ship transporting general merchandise had been blocked.
“Israel is carrying out an extermination of people in Gaza – by killing them, by starving them,” said a dockworker, Luca Simoni. “We cannot remain indifferent. We have always been a port of welcome, not one of war. We will continue protesting until this war ends.”
Recent surveys show strong backing among Italians – including a significant share of supporters of Meloni’s ruling coalition – for the recognition of a Palestinian state and in support of the flotilla aid mission.
Meloni has criticised Israel’s killing of Palestinians in recent months, casting it as a “disproportionate” reaction to Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attacks, and has opened up to Italy recognising a Palestinian state, albeit with caveats. But she continues trying to maintain the delicate balance between being one of Israel’s staunchest allies in the EU and a friend of Arab nations, all the while following the line of the US president, Donald Trump.
Still, she is mindful of public opinion, especially with Italy in the throes of several regional elections, and has sought to exploit the protests and flotilla to attack her leftwing opponents.
Meloni has described the convoy as “dangerous and irresponsible” and, despite the humanitarian mission involving hundreds of activists from different countries, she said it was only targeted at “creating problems” for her government. Meloni took a swipe at Friday’s general strike, accusing Italians of undertaking “a long weekend disguised as a revolution” while claiming the event was politically orchestrated and offered no real benefit to Gaza.
“The Meloni government can only survive with scapegoats,” claimed Gianfranco Francese, who heads the Livorno unit of Cgil. “There is also a great contradiction between what Meloni says and what she does,” he added. “She talks about being a great patriot, a Christian and a mother, but she has not taken any political or diplomatic action to stop the massacre of women and children.”
But despite the strong public sentiment reflected by the wave of pro-Palestinian protests, Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party continues to lead in polls, at about 30%, and she has headed an uncharacteristically stable Italian government since coming to power in October 2022.
“On one hand, there is the majority of public opinion in solidarity with Gaza which wants an end to the war,” said Lorenzo Pregliasco, a co-founder of YouTrend, a political analysis firm. “But you don’t see the effects of this when it comes to vote.”
Pregliasco referred to last week’s elections in the Marche region where Meloni’s coalition won a second mandate. The same outcome is expected in votes in Veneto and Calabria.
Pregliasco said there was “a real risk of the [Gaza] movement having too much of a leftwing identity, which would alienate people who are horrified with the war but who are not pro-Palestinian militants”.
Nadia Urbinati, a political scientist at New York’s Columbia University and the University of Bologna, said the reason why the effects of the protests were not being reflected in elections was because barely half of Italian voters go to the polls.
“And those who do, vote for the right,” she said, adding that Meloni could easily use the protests to disarm opponents.
She said every spontaneous movement of citizens was vulnerable to being infiltrated by antagonists, and alleged that this had been happening in order to “criminalise and repress” the Gaza movement.
Susanna Romitelli, a cardiologist in Rome, has attended several pro-Palestine protests in the Italian capital and joined the march close to Piazza Vittorio on Friday.
“Last night, there was an initiative held in Italy’s hospitals during which we remembered the thousands of medics killed in Gaza while trying to help people,” she said. “It was a very touching moment and we will continue to mobilise. You might not see it in political polls yet, but I think this government is starting to be very afraid of us.”
