Rome’s Jewish community has expressed dismay after two unions called for a general strike in protest against Italy’s “support for the genocidal Israeli government”, among other grievances.
Friday’s strike, which took place at the call of USB and the Cobas union, particularly affected public transport. It was supposed to last 24 hours.
“Our strike is a strike against the war economy and therefore also against the support given by our government to the Israeli state,” a spokesperson for the USB union commented to Reuters.
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In addition to calling for higher wages and a shorter work week, a lengthy manifesto released by the two unions explicitly named Israel as the groups took care to explain their opposition “to growing involvement in theaters of war.” » from Italy.
Victor Fadlun, the president of Rome’s Jewish community, accused unions of helping to spread anti-Semitism.
“Conternation and astonishment. There are no other words to describe what we can feel,” Fadlun wrote in a statement.
“We must confront the emergence of hatred against Israel, a hatred which disregards all reasonable context and which can have no other explanation than that of the urgency to express – even if it is misplaced – anti-Semitism that has been simmering beneath the surface forever,” he added.
Israel rejects accusations of “genocide”, stressing that the army is at war against the Hamas terrorist group and not against the population of Gaza.
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