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A March of Two Cities
Call it a case of concurrent compassion or simultaneous sympathy.
The
fact is that without any parallel planning, as if transported by
telepathy, on
Monday at midday (4/15/02) while tens of thousands of Americans
united on
Capital Hill for a Pro-Israel demonstration, thousands of Italians
met on
Rome's Campidoglio for a peaceful sunset march through the Jewish
ghetto.
They bore small stones as symbols in memory of the dead, which
they
deposited in front the Synagogue.
If the demonstration in Washington was organized and promoted by
Jewish
organizations and overwhelmingly attended by Jewish Americans, not
so for
the march in Rome. The idea for a Pro-Israel day in Rome was
advanced by
Massimo Teodori, editorialist for Il Giornale and professor of
American
History at the University of Perugia. He threw the ball at
newspaper
editor, Giuliano Ferrara, and Giuliano caught the ball and ran
with it
using his newspaper, Il Foglio, as a forum for supporters of a
public
demonstration of solidarity toward Israel.
Il Foglio is probably an excellent exception to the rule that you
can't
judge a book by the cover. Il Foglio, which means The Page,
is all
cover. It is literally one folded four-sided sheet, with an
occasional
insert. However, what it lacks in copious quantity, it
provides in
quality
content. Like the Parisian salons of the past, it is often a
breeding
ground for the most stimulating political debates among the
Italian
intelligentsia.
This isn't the first time Ferrara has used his newspaper as a
public
rallying ground. It was his idea to organize the pro-USA day
in November
when public support for the US battle against terrorism had begun
to wane.
As more and more letters began pouring in every day from adherents
to the
idea of holding a pro-Israel Day, dissenters complained that the
demonstration was unilateral since it didn't pronounce a
pro-Palestinian
agenda.
Although the organizers recognize the need for establishing a
Palestinian
state, they were adamant in their insistence that the rally was to
have
one agenda only: support for Israel, it's right to exist, and it's right
to
provide for its own security. They refuted all political or
polemical
repercussions. No party flags. No public debates. A
rally FOR
Israel. NOT AGAINST anything or anyone.
The rally was indeed peaceful. There were no slogans.
No
negatives. However, the inspiration for the march was indeed
AGAINST a
number of things. It was a reaction to a troubling wave of
events full
of trepidation in a world where sound reasoning and values seem to
have gone
haywire.
It was a counterstatement to the disquieting growth of
anti-Semitism,
particularly disturbing to Europeans when it occurs on European
soil: 450
incidents in France alone. The burning of synagogues.
The terrorization
of Jews. The profanation of cemeteries. An unthinkable
awakening of
ghosts of the past.
It was meant to counteract the cockeyed reasoning of the Catholic
Church
that confounds its criticisms: The Franciscan brothers held
captive in
the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem that condemn the Israeli tanks
while
condoning the two hundred armed terrorists, not recognizing that
the
latter are the cause and the former the effect.
It was meant to condemn the escapades of so-called Italian
pacifists, who
confuse the victims with the victimizers. It was abhorrence
for the
abomination of their presence in "peace" demonstrations
in the piazzas of
Italy donning kaffiyehs, masquerading as kamikazes, and chanting
"Death to
Israel."
It was a refutation of several irreverent decisions taken recently
by some
of our most respected institutions: The grotesque decision
made by the
Nobel Prize committee to consider withdrawing the Peace Prize from
Shimon
Perez. The revolting resolution made by the European
Parliament in
Strasbourg to apply an embargo against the State of Israel.
The
proclamation pregnant with partiality made by the United Nations
Human
Rights Committee that condemned Israeli occupation of Palestinian
territory, but made no mention of suicide terrorist attacks on
Israeli
soil.
It was a refusal of the faulty logic that condones suicide bombers
as the
poor man's army and only alternative. It was the
recognition of the fact
that the greatest enemies of the right of the Palestinians to a
homeland
are the Palestinians themselves and their Arab brothers: For
refusing the
UN proposition in 1947, which was accepted by Isreal. And
for turning
down the Clinton accord in 2000, which offered Arafat a Palestinian
State on a
silver platter and a portion of Jerusalem to boot.
It was in defense of our common ideals: democracy and the
rule of law,
the only country in the area where these values reign. And in
recognition of
our shared heritage that begins with the Ten Commandments.
The Decalogue
contained not only religious rules, but rules that govern social
relationships. The inclusion of elements regarding social
behavior acted
as a precursor to humanism and secularism, the separation of
church and
state, the very fundamentals that form the foundation of Western
Civilization.
Sandra Giovanna Giacomazzi teaches Law and Economics at the Liceo
Europeo
Umberto I, Turin, Italy.
Sandra Giovanna Giacomazzi
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