A-Infos (en) Italy, Sicilia Libertaria #460: Giro d'italia (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The 108th Giro d'Italia took place from May 9 to June 1, 2025, the pink 
race that features some of the best road cycling professionals. But I'm 
not interested in talking about the race itself here. What is worth 
talking about is the level of total and embarrassing censorship that Rai 
has reached on the Palestinian issue. But let's go in order. ---- Since 
the opening ceremony of the race - which took place in Albania, and 
there would be another parenthesis to open on this fact alone, but it is 
not the focus of the story - many pro-Gaza and peace activists, with 
banners, placards and Palestinian flags, have demonstrated their dissent 
towards a world-class sporting event in which the Israel Premier Tech 
team, owned by the Israeli entrepreneur Ron Baron and the 
Israeli-Canadian Sylvan Adams, is allowed to participate. The team, as 
admitted by the two, also receives money from the Israeli state and, 
despite being a cycling team in and of itself apolitical, it is shocking 
that it promotes the name of a state that is committing a crime against 
humanity.

The Russian team Gazprom Rusvelo, following the attack on Ukraine, was 
excluded from every event, why is it that Israel is treated differently? 
Isn't there perhaps a ferocious subjugation of a defenseless population, 
which daily suffers systematic destruction, perpetrated by the Israeli army?

During the live TV broadcast on Rai, in each stage, numerous Palestinian 
flags, peace posters and banners with heartfelt appeals to stop the 
genocide against the Palestinians were seen, especially in the finish 
area. On the part of the Rai journalists, however, there was total and 
deathly silence; completely ignored. Why, instead, during the 2022 and 
2023 races, were there so many flags and references to the suffering of 
the Ukrainian population during the live broadcasts on Rai?

In the stage arriving in Naples on May 15, a pro-Palestine activist with 
a keffiyeh in his hands threw himself among the passing cyclists, being 
narrowly avoided by the group. Beyond the stigmatization of the gesture, 
which certainly cannot be encouraged or incentivized because it is too 
dangerous, it must also be said that it caused people to say everything 
except focus attention on Gaza. In fact, precisely because of the 
riskiness of the action committed, the Rai team that follows the Giro 
spent very harsh words against the man, condemning the gesture, 
regardless of the reasons for the protest: «... he must be right, which 
we do not know»; words of the presenter Alessandro Fabretti. Even 
harsher was the former cyclist Bennati who loudly requested that «... 
whoever is responsible can take action against these people...». In 
short, we cannot talk about Palestine; and we even pretend not to see it.

And this cannot even be considered an isolated case, given the reaction 
of the European Broadcasting Union, which threatened severe punitive 
fines for those national broadcasters, such as the Spanish RTVE, who 
dared to mention Palestine during the live broadcast of the Eurovision 
song contest; coincidentally, a demonstration in which Israel (a 
notoriously European state, sic!) was able to participate serenely, with 
a tear-jerking report by TG1, always on the ball.

Fortunately, however, there are still those who rebel against this 
imposed censorship. A few days after the Naples case, the motorcycle 
journalist, Stefano Rizzato, taking the line, underlined the assiduous 
presence on the roadside of pro-Gaza protesters, protagonists of a civil 
and peaceful protest to support the Palestinian resistance and ask for 
"a stop to the genocide". Everyone in the commentary booth was taken 
aback, after moments of embarrassing silence, commentator Francesco 
Pancani spoke up, subtly calling Rizzato to order, arguing that the Giro 
was not the right place to talk about such a complex topic, that what 
matters most is that those who protest do so in a civil and peaceful 
manner, and that after all theirs is only a cycling broadcast. And while 
the silence of commentator and former cyclist Stefano Garzelli is not 
surprising, it is striking that writer Fabio Genovesi, a commentator 
more in the "historical-cultural" field, also washed his hands of the 
matter, and was unable to say a few words about the topic. It is curious 
that on numerous other occasions they have said the exact opposite, 
boasting of the Giro d'Italia as a propitious occasion also to raise 
awareness on important issues so as to "not look the other way".

But I ask myself this question: what is so "complex", what is so 
difficult, what is so inappropriate in taking the side of defenseless 
children, women and men who are slaughtered without scruples, every day? 
What is so divisive in loudly calling for peace, for an end to the 
destruction of an innocent people?

There is no point in beating around the bush: what is emerging is a very 
precise plan, on the part of the European Union and the Italian 
government in its wake, to censor every reference, to silence, to not 
talk about the problem... so the problem, simply, does not exist!

But the real problem is not that Israel is a strategic economic partner 
for the very democratic West?

Alessandro Usai

https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
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