From the Liveblog of
Friday, December 13, 2024
Rome’s Jewish community angered by union strike over Italy’s support for Israel
Rome’s Jewish community has expressed dismay after two unions called a nationwide strike to protest against Italy’s “support for the genocidal Israeli government” among other complaints.
Friday’s strike by the USB and Cobas unions has primarily hit public transport and is due to last 24 hours.
“Ours is a strike against the war economy and thus also against our government’s support for the Israeli state,” a spokesperson for the USB union tells Reuters.
Along with a demand for higher wages and a shorter working week, a lengthy strike manifesto published online singled out Israel in the unions’ opposition to Italy’s “growing involvement in war theaters.”
Victor Fadlun, president of the Jewish Community of Rome, accuses the unions of stirring antisemitism.
“Dismay and bewilderment. There are no other words to describe what we feel,” Fadlun says in a statement.
“We are faced with the emergence of hatred towards Israel that disregards any reasonable context, and that can have no other explanation than the urgency of expressing, even if it is misplaced, an antisemitism that has been simmering all along,” he adds.
Israel has rejected accusations of genocide, stressing that it is at war with the Hamas terror group, not the people of Gaza.
