Fate really seems to be making a mockery of us, but us who? Those who were in Teulada the other day and all those who cannot bear the presence of the military in Sardinia, especially when they are Israeli.
A few weeks after the bombardments of Gaza which the entire world was talking about, against which so many words were said by institutions, the media, parties, citizens, etc., here we are facing the inconsistency of the relationship between our ideas and practices and the falsity of those of many faces.
We have been reading and hearing positions of anger and solidarity in recent weeks against the umpteenth Israeli aggression, against the deaths in Gaza, exactly on the 73rd anniversary of Nakba, inciting Palestinian resistance, invoking internationalism and solidarity between peoples.
Some of these interventions have embarrassed us a little, not because we don’t agree with them but because shouting anger and indignation about a massacre into a microphone, then not being prepared to do anything so that this never happens again, seems a little sterile.
To be clear, the reference is to the gathering in Piazza Garibaldi on 14th May, when we were unable to block the traffic even for ten minutes in spite of a very good participation.
If we can understand with some effort how there might be doubts about blocking the traffic in Cagliari, thousands of kilometres away from Gaza, we have had a more complicated question to answer in recent days: how is the Israeli army able to exercise undisturbed in Sardinia?
Our island places us in a particular situation; in part it gives us the chance to shout our disgust in the faces of our hated enemies, it gives us the opportunity to oppose war concretely, give our contribution to the Palestinian resistance, blow off the dust that has settled on internationalism and solidarity between peoples.
At the same time, if this opportunity is missed it makes us partly responsible for the silent complicity in favour of Israel, that which is being denounced in gatherings all over the world and is even more bitter to deal with when accompanied by exaggerated claims with no efforts to be coherent.
Many won’t like these harsh words, but unfortunately they represent the unpleasant condition we are reduced to and partially confined in, but not for this do they want to be a funeral, on the contrary.
As we wrote in [a text on] the considerations of the day of 2nd June, the path of liberation we predetermine is long and tortuous, but not for this do we have to surrender, on the contrary we have to look incessantly for the way to make our practices effective.
The criticism and self-criticism contained in this short text are intended to stimulate the spread of initiatives and proposals that are as effective as possible given the possibilities – a responsibility we have a few kilometres from our homes, and given, as we know well, that the Palestinian people are dying and suffering at the hands of the same individuals who are exercising at the PISQ [Poligono Sperimentale e di Addestramento Interforze di Salto di Quirra, Inter-forces Experimental and Training Range of Salto di Quirra] over these days.
A necessary technical clarification: from yesterday (6th June) the military exercise “Falcon Strike” has begun, which will last until mid-June. For the first time the squad “Adir”, part of Israel Defence Forces, of the Israeli army, will participate alongside Italy’s, the USA’s and the UK’s aviation. The announcement was also made on twitter by IDF.
The exercise has its base at the airport of Amendola, Foggia, and will be carried out in the Gulf of Taranto in the east and the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Channel of Sardinia in the west. According to what The Times of Israel reports quoting IDF, the exercise will involve six Israeli F-35s “to simulate raids against targets beyond enemy lines and missions of support to ground forces”. An officer anonymously declared that this would be done in an anti-Iran function.
