Earlier this week, hundreds of anti-Israel demonstrators attacked police in the northern city of Vicenza, demonstrating against the participation of an Israeli booth at the world’s largest Vincenza Oro jewelry trade fair. . Jewish chronicles It was reported on Tuesday.
During the clashes, the crowd attacked police officers by firing smoke bombs and smoke bombs.
Police responded by spraying water on the rioters and forcing some demonstrators away from the scene.
Ten police officers were injured as a result of the clashes. J.C. Added.
According to information published in was. La Repubblica Early this week.
Demonstrators apparently ignored police orders to stop the march and broke through a cordon police had set up around the fair.
Additional protests were organized by the city’s Palestinian community later that day, but no major incidents were reported, the Italian newspaper continued.
The violent scuffle can be clearly seen in the video shared by. Jewish chronicles X editor Jake Wallis Simmons.
This is an absolute situation! Riots have broken out in Italy over the presence of *one Jewish stallholder* at a jewelry fair in Vicenza. Police fired water cannon after hundreds of demonstrators threw smoke bombs in clashes described by local officials as an “urban guerilla war” and “a serious war.” pic.twitter.com/XEMjSiESOY
— Jake Wallis Simmons (@JakeWSimons) January 23, 2024
Mayor of Vicenza responds
Vicenza Mayor Giacomo Possamai addressed the incident on social media.
“There is no justification for the guerrilla scene we saw this morning in Vicenza,” he said.
Referring to Italy’s fascist past, he said: “The right to demonstrate is sacrosanct and protected by the constitution, but those who take to the streets with batons and cover their faces are the founders of the country that wrote that article after its darkest days. It would go against the legacy of our fathers.” For many years in the history of our country. ”
He added that such actions are “harmful to the cause they claim to support and contradict the call for peace and ceasefire through violent demonstrations.”
“Among other things, this has the effect of further distracting from the merits of what is happening in Israel and Palestine,” he concluded.