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PROTESTS

IN PICTURES: Anti-Israel protest at Italy jewellery fair turns violent

Protesters clashed with police in the Italian city of Vicenza on Saturday after a demonstration against the presence of Israeli exhibitors at an international jewellery fair.

Published: 20 January 2024 16:57 CET
Demonstrators clash with riot police during a protest against the presence of an Israeli pavillion at Vicenzaoro
Demonstrators clash with riot police during a protest against the presence of an Israeli pavilion at Vicenzaoro, the largest show in Europe for the gold and jewellery industry, at Fiera Vicenza in Vicenza, on January 20, 2024. (Photo by Piero CRUCIATTI / AFP)

Police used water cannon against demonstrators who fired smoke bombs and flares after violence erupted after a planned march by hundreds of people, some holding up banners saying “Free Palestine” and “Stop Bombing Gaza”.

More than 1,300 exhibitors from almost 40 countries are showing at the Vicenzaoro fair, which opened on Friday and runs until Tuesday, according to organisers.

Demonstrators hold placards reading ‘Free Palestine’ during a protest against the presence of an Israeli pavilion at Vicenzaoro. (Photo by Piero CRUCIATTI / AFP)

A spokesperson told AFP the clashes took place several kilometres away and had no impact on the event, while declining to give information on the Israeli presence at the fair.

Demonstrators clash with riot police at the protest. (Photo by Piero CRUCIATTI / AFP)

Vicenza mayor Giacomo Possamai said there was “no justification” for the violence.

“It also hurts the causes that it claims to support — it is a contradiction in terms to demonstrate for peace and a ceasefire through violence,” he said in a statement posted on social media.

Islamist group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, resulting in the death of about 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Riot police uses a water cannon on demonstrators. (Photo by Piero CRUCIATTI / AFP)

Militants also seized about 250 hostages, around 132 of whom Israel says remain in Gaza. At least 27 captives are believed to have been killed, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

A demonstrator shoots fireworks in the direction of police officers during the protest. (Photo by Piero CRUCIATTI / AFP)

Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel has been conducting a relentless air and ground offensive in Gaza that has killed at least 24,927 Palestinians, around 70 percent of them women, children and adolescents, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run territory.

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ROME

Rome square filled with coffins in protest over Italy’s workplace deaths

A thousand coffins filled one of Rome's most famous squares on Tuesday as a trade union made a powerful statement on Italy's high number of deaths in accidents at work.

Published: 19 March 2024 17:01 CET
Rome square filled with coffins in protest over Italy's workplace deaths

“Every year, one thousand people go to work and don’t come home,” read a large sign displayed next to the 1,041 cardboard coffins set up around the obelisk in the centre of the Piazza del Popolo.

“Zero is still too far away,” read another sign in the square as curious tourists took snapshots.

Last year, 1,041 people died in workplace accidents in Italy.

“We brought these coffins here to raise awareness, to remind everyone of the need to act, to not forget those who have lost their lives,” Pierpaolo Bombardini, general secretary of the UIL union behind the protest told AFPTV.

The protest was also intended “to ask the government and politicians to do something concrete to prevent these homicides” he added.

“Because these are homicides. When safety rules are violated, they are not accidents, but homicides.”

Cardboard coffins fill Rome’s Piazza del Popolo on March 19th in a protest by the Italian Labor Union (UIL) intended to draw public attention to the number of deaths at work in Italy. (Photo by Tiziana FABI / AFP)

Fatal accidents in the workplace regularly make headlines in the Italian press, each time sparking a debate on risk prevention. Most recently a concrete structure collapsed on the construction site of a supermarket in Florence last month, killing five people working at the site.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni denounced it as “another story… of people who go out to work, who simply go out to do their job, and do not come home”.

Bombardini called for an increase in the number of inspections and inspectors.

“Companies that violate safety standards must be closed down,” he added. According to Eurostat’s most recent statistics, from 2021, on EU-wide workplace fatalities, Italy had 3.17 deaths per 100,000 workers.

That was above the European average of 2.23 per 100,000 works but behind France at 4.47 and Austria at 3.44.

The European Union’s three worst-faring countries are Lithuania, Malta and Latvia, while work-related fatalities are lowest in the Netherlands, Finland and Germany.

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