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/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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