A-Infos (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #29-25 - Red card against Zionist propaganda. Udine - 10, 000 in the square (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Major sporting events have always been highly symbolic moments of 
simulated competition between nations. Much more is at stake than the 
outcome of a match: beyond the multi-million dollar business surrounding 
it, there is a sort of "soft" diplomacy on which governments are placing 
great emphasis. ---- The match between the Italian and Israeli national 
football teams on Tuesday, October 14, in Udine was no exception. 
Indeed, it attracted a large opposition movement ready to challenge the 
legitimacy of Israel's policies afforded by this event, in the same 
spirit that boycotted several stages of the last edition of the Spanish 
Vuelta a España, and the Italy-Israel match held last year in Udine, 
which was already the subject of a protest similar to this week's, 
albeit with significantly smaller numbers.

The Match

In recent weeks, FIFA and UEFA, the major self-governing bodies of 
global and European professional football as well as billion-dollar 
business committees, had been the target of a pressure campaign aimed at 
excluding the Israeli national team from the matches they manage, as 
they did in February 2022 for Russia. However, not a single meeting was 
actually held on the issue, preferring a "non-decision" to avoid an 
embarrassment that would clearly have been detrimental to business. 
Moreover, it cannot be said that these organizations have extremely 
reliable ethical compasses, given that both have been involved in 
massive scandals over the years (over the awarding of television rights 
and betting), which, however, have in no way undermined their business 
monopoly. Furthermore, for the Italian national team, deciding not to 
play the match would have meant a forfeit defeat and the risk of not 
qualifying for the World Cup.

And so the match went ahead anyway, despite being "evicted" from Bari, 
where it was originally scheduled to be held. The city administration 
denied the match use of the municipal stadium, so it was played at the 
privately owned Udine stadium. In an attempt to sugarcoat the situation, 
the FIGC will make a donation to Médecins du Monde, an NGO working in 
Gaza and the West Bank. The mere 5,000 tickets sold (for a capacity of 
25,000) shouldn't represent a significant financial loss for the 
organizers, given that much of the revenue comes from live television 
and sponsorships. However, it's likely that both the boycott campaign 
and the increasingly elitist nature of the sport played a role in this 
poor box office result.

Institutions

In the run-up to the match, various political figures have made 
statements ranging from threatening to catastrophic, warnings of unrest, 
the presence of pro-terrorism organizations, and worse, in an attempt to 
douse the flames of a protest that, amidst blockades and demonstrations 
across Italy, has been raging for weeks. This is an overt attempt to 
create an enemy and delegitimize the protests, which is evidently 
causing some headaches in the upper echelons. Moreover, the Israeli 
ambassador to Italy, Peled, after attending the match, was hosted in the 
days immediately following and held official meetings with local 
politicians. Finally, Friuli Venezia Giulia, and in particular the 
universities and weapons factories present in the region, have close 
collaborative ties with Israel, and thus the "soft" diplomacy of 
sporting events is invaluable in safeguarding them.

The Demonstration

The demonstration was organized by the Udine Committee for Palestine, 
together with the Palestinian communities of Friuli and Veneto, BDS, and 
Calcio e Rivoluzione, as part of the "Show Israel the Red Card" campaign 
to boycott Israeli sports teams from international competitions. The 
committee organized the day through open preparatory assemblies in other 
cities, seeking a broad base beyond differences in positions and methods 
of struggle. The demonstration attracted a large number of participants, 
with more than 300 national and local organizations representing the 
ANPI (National Association of Italian Partisans) and amateur sports 
associations, trade unions, civic lists, and cultural associations, as 
well as the Regional Libertarian Coordination Committee, which included 
the Zapata club of Pordenone, the feminist collective Dumbles, the 
Social Ecology Group of San Giorgio, the libertarian club Caffé 
Esperanto of Monfalcone, and the Germinal Anarchist Group of Trieste.

The procession was led by Palestinian organizations and individuals, 
along with the organizer, followed by a segment of "Football and 
Revolution," and by members and non-members. The regional libertarian 
coordination group was present with its own well-attended section, 
composed of various regional organizations, marching behind the banner: 
"Against every state, against all nationalism - stop genocide." Slogans 
were chanted to express the internationalist and anti-militarist nature 
of the section, against states, borders, clergy, and capital. The 
section was animated by over a hundred people, some of whom joined along 
the way. The turnout expected to be massive given the scale of the 
demonstrations in recent weeks exceeded expectations, exceeding 10,000. 
It was truly difficult to capture the full extent of this procession as 
it wound through the narrow streets of Udine, a city certainly 
unaccustomed to such large-scale demonstrations. The atmosphere was 
generally lively and positive, with many different groups contributing 
their own unique twists and turns to liven up the long march: noteworthy 
were the presence of representatives from the former GKN, and the 
twinning of the Murga of Udine and Trieste, who, as always, enlivened 
those present with their frenetic pace. The march took in several 
central streets of the city, and even passed by the local Casa Pound 
hideout, where some activists were boldly lined up, arms outstretched, 
behind a secure cordon of riot police. We left them to try to reconcile 
their innate anti-Semitism with their even more innate desire to side 
with the strongest.

The deployment of repressive forces, as expected, was truly massive, 
with approximately three thousand officers deployed, armored vehicles, 
water cannons, and even a helicopter flying over the city, illuminating 
the streets from above with a searchlight. Upon the march's arrival in 
the square designated for the closing remarks, clashes broke out, first 
with security and then with the police, as part of the march attempted 
to continue toward the Friuli Stadium, which was actually quite far from 
the square. This provided the pretext for numerous police charges, with 
generous use of tear gas and batons, which continued all the way to the 
train station. This was followed by two arrests, 13 detentions, and 
several expulsion orders.

Developments

The usual narrative of "good protesters" versus "bad protesters" cannot 
conceal the significance of a demonstration that was, all things 
considered, successful despite the challenging schedule and the fatigue 
of many after a long series of demonstrations. The ideological makeup of 
this and the demonstrations of recent weeks is highly diverse. It 
includes both political parties and unions seeking to maintain a street 
presence while actually adopting moderate actions so as not to 
jeopardize the positions of power they hold, groups with red-brown and 
openly anti-Semitic positions, and many collectives and individuals who 
decide to suspend any critical judgment in the name of a "broad field" 
in the face of the absolute priority of protesting the genocide. Most of 
those who took to the streets certainly do not hold libertarian or 
anarchist positions and do not necessarily question militarism or 
nationalism. But they are people who, despite probably not being 
actively involved in politics, have found within themselves the will to 
take to the streets and demonstrate, helping fuel a mobilization of 
proportions not seen in a long time, which would be impossible without 
participation that goes well beyond the "militants." The hope now is 
that the mobilizations will continue, to safeguard the fragile 
ceasefire, for a just and non-speculative reconstruction, and for the 
people of Gaza and the West Bank to be able to self-determine their own 
future, going beyond simple moral indignation, embracing the deep and 
ancient causes of this state of affairs in the Middle East, and without 
forgetting the many other ongoing conflicts, first and foremost the 
Syrian one, where the ceasefire has far from resolved the entrenched 
conflicts.

Julissa

https://umanitanova.org/cartellino-rosso-contro-la-propaganda-sionista-udine-10-000-in-piazza/
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