WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE ITALY - news journal UPDATE - (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #32: Italy-Israel Match. Sports, Business and Genocide (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 On October 14, in Udine, while Gaza and Lebanon were under devastating

bombing, the Italy-Israel football match took place, yet another
operation of "sportwashing" by the Israeli state carried out with the
complicity of Italy (remember that, at the Paris Olympics, Israel and
Italy paraded on the Seine on the same boat). ---- The choice of such a
peripheral stadium, in a small provincial capital that is normally very
quiet, was clearly aimed at minimizing the protests announced by the
Palestinian community and various associations. The press had been
mobilized to glorify the phantom "peace" role of sport and the
importance of trade with Israel, a relentless campaign had tried to
preemptively terrorize the population by threatening the risk of street
clashes while many shopkeepers announced that they would lower their
shutters in advance to avoid damage.

The deployment of law enforcement was impressive (we quote from
"Messaggero veneto", the local newspaper): over a thousand officers (in
a city of just under a hundred thousand inhabitants!), drones and a
helicopter in flight, snipers stationed on the roofs near the stadium
and the athletes' hotels, dog units and anti-sabotage units in action,
dozens of Mossad agents and Italian secret services.

Despite the climate of terror, over three thousand people marched for
hours in a procession through the streets of the city, highlighting how
large sectors of the population condemn the genocide of the Palestinian
people and Italian collusion.

At the same time as the procession, business was being discussed at the
Chamber of Commerce. During the conference 'Start up innovations and
technologies from Israel', the possibilities for commercial exchange
were extolled, presenting the ongoing partnership with the municipality
of Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut, renowned as a "learning city" (i.e. based on
continuous learning).

It should be noted that the Maccabim neighborhood (one of the three
centers that make up the municipality) was built in 1985 at the
instigation of the "Maccabi World Union" in the occupied territories and
consequently is not recognized by the EU itself (in 2021 the mayors of
Bologna and Palermo had cancelled their participation in a conference in
which the mayor of this locality was present, a well-known Likud
extremist). These "unpleasant" details were obviously not taken into
consideration. Likewise, no mention was made of the ongoing massacres.

Regional councilor Bini instead highlighted with satisfaction how "in
2023 exports from Friuli Venezia Giulia to Israel grew by 21.5%,
exceeding 103 million euros in whole numbers, demonstrating the growing
ties between the two territories and the companies that operate there",
lamenting however that "the effects of the ongoing conflict" have
severely reduced tourist and commercial flows (from the regional
website). The focus of the initiative was the presentation of 8
particularly innovative Israeli start-ups "in the sectors of waste reuse
to create new materials for the wood industry, agricultural innovations,
medicine and the fight against nosocomial infections and the production
of clean energy". In short, the smell of money is much stronger than
that of corpses.

If local politicians appeared "covered and aligned" with Israeli
interests, without even protesting the attacks on UNIFIL, the about-face
of the mayor of Udine De Toni, head of a varied coalition (from Renzi to
Rifondazione Comunista), was particularly painful: he initially refused
to grant patronage to the match due to the "situation" in Gaza, only to
then take it back at the last minute in the face of pressure received.
The next day the local press breathed a sigh of relief. Everything went
well. It is true that the stadium was half empty (thousands of tickets
were given away to cover at least some holes), it is true that the
Israeli anthem was booed, it is true that a neo-Nazi fan waved the flag
of the Third Reich, but after all Spalletti's national team won! (what
more could you want?).

Above all, "the Udine model worked" and now we can hope to sell out the
Friuli location for future international events (even high-risk ones),
making tons of money from related activities. Who cares if money is made
on the skin of massacred civilians?

Faced with an international situation that sees, in every scenario, the
multiplication of imperialistic conflicts between States, we need to
intensify the mobilization against every war, against every attempt to
push peoples against each other, for the liberation of all oppressed people.

Mauro

https://umanitanova.org/partita-italia-israele-sport-affari-e-genocidio/
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