On September 22, 2025, a general protest and strike against Israel’s war in Gaza was organized by a group of smaller and far-left unions. It caught many in Italy by surprise: In Rome, police forces expected a few thousand to join the rally, but by the end of the day, authorities estimated that some 50,000 had taken to the streets. The organizers boasted that 300,000 participants had marched in the capital, in addition to hundreds of thousands more in some 80 cities across the country.

The same day, dockworkers in Genoa blocked access to the city’s major port, demanding that Italy not allow shipments to Israel, and several Italian celebrities either joined the protest or expressed solidarity with it. On live TV, celebrity host Antonella Clerici asked viewers not to remain indifferent to “the massacre” in Gaza during a beloved morning cooking show on Rai1, the most-watched Italian channel.

The following week, Italy’s largest union, the (self-reported) 5-million-strong Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (CGIL), which had not supported the September 22 initiative, announced its own general strike and protest for Gaza. This took place on October 3, with support from Italy’s two main opposition parties, the center-left Partito Democratico (PD) and the populist Five Star Movement, as well as a smaller coalition of far-left parties, AVS-Verdi.

The organizers claimed that over 2 million people attended its rallies across the country, making it the most successful protest in years.

“Today’s rally is a huge demonstration for Gaza that shows how Italy is better than those who govern it,” said PD general secretary Elly Schlein.

At the same time, according to a survey published in September by prominent pollster SWG, around 15% of Italians consider physical attacks on Jewish people “entirely or fairly justifiable.”

As in many other countries in the world, the war touched off by the bloody October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion of Israel and the widespread devastation documented in the Gaza Strip have spurred outrage among vast sectors of the Italian public. In the past several months, Italian opposition forces have also begun to use Gaza as a rallying cry against the government, sensing the mood in the street while taking heed of surveys suggesting that the issue’s appeal goes beyond the center and left voters.

With the Middle East rapidly becoming a dominant topic across Italian talk shows, social media, and news outlets, many public figures — including political leaders, journalists, and intellectuals — have taken to describing Israel’s actions as genocide. Israel has always maintained that it takes significant measures to minimize civilian casualties, but the Italian citizenry is increasingly unconvinced.

A poll released on September 26 by the Ixè research institute asked 1,000 respondents (with a 3.1 percent margin of error) whether they agreed with “those who accuse Israel........

© The Times of Israel