More pro-Palestine protests at the University. This time at the expense of the director of La Repubblica Maurizio Molinari disputes that at Federico II in Naples he was supposed to hold a conference which was later canceled due to tensions between students and the police. “Zionists out of the University”, the students’ slogan even though the meeting was on the Mediterranean. Thus the conference is canceled but controversies flare up. And the alarm returns for a possible anti-Semitic sentiment and intolerance even in places dedicated to debate and discussion such as universities. The President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella says this clearly after calling Molinari. “What needs to be banned from universities is intolerance, because anyone who claims to impose their ideas and prevents those who think differently from expressing them is incompatible with the university”, says the head of state.
Minister Anna Maria Bernini also sends a message of solidarity to the director of La Repubblica and urges the president of the Italian rectors, Giovanna Iannantuoni “an extraordinary meeting to address what is defined as an intolerance emergency that is no longer acceptable and the best tools to deal with this situation.” Molinari also intervenes and pursues the path of dialogue because “the best response to any form of intolerance is respect for others”, he writes on the Repubblica website. And he says he is available to meet the students who have challenged him “to listen to their opinions on the war in the Middle East”. The invitation, he says, has been rejected for now. An invitation to discussion also comes from the rector of Federico II, Matteo Lorito because “there is the right to demonstrate but dialogue is necessary”. However, the rector’s condemnation of what happened was clear: “An unspeakable action of intolerance”.
The latest in a series of episodes that testify to a tense climate in universities, after last week the journalist David Parenzo was harshly criticized during a debate at Sapienza, takes place at the Faculty of Engineering, Polytechnic School and Basic Sciences of Federico II: a group of around forty students protested against “the relations with Israel of Italian universities” on the occasion of the conference with Molinari and the rector Lorito. Shouting, pushing and after some contact with some plainclothes officers, the demonstrators managed to enter, going towards the chamber to contest the debate. Enough tension to cancel the conference.
“We wanted to tell director Molinari – we read in a note from the students – that in Palestine there are 30,000 dead killed by Israel. How can the director of La Repubblica and the rector Lorito talk about the Mediterranean while a genocide is taking place in the heart of it “We ask for the termination of any relationship between our universities and Israel.” Solidarity with Molinari is transversal: it comes from members of the Democratic Party, with secretary Schlein calling him, passing through Iv (“Preventing the director of Repubblica Molinari from speaking at the university is technically speaking a fascist gesture”, said Matteo Renzi), up to the leader of Action Carlo Calenda (“Whoever prevented the director of Repubblica from speaking in a University has nothing to do with democracy”) and then M5s, Forza Italia, Avs with Angelo Bonelli. The president of the Senate Ignazio La Russa defines it as “unacceptable to impede freedom of expression”. The condemnation of the president of the Fontana Chamber arrives because it is “even more serious that it happened in a university, a place of discussion and exchange of ideas and opinions”. The Jewish communities comment: “If anti-Semitism prevails it is a defeat for everyone”. And David Parenzo, last week challenged at Sapienza with words like “fascist and racist”, comments on X: “Molinari was prevented from speaking at the University because he was Jewish and because he was accused of being a Zionist! a fault. Crazy.”
Video Student protest, a debate at the Federico II in Naples is skipped
“It is inconceivable and unacceptable that the “Federico II” University of Naples was forced to cancel a conference due to intimidation and violence of a group of troublemakers against the speaker, the director of “Repubblica” Maurizio Molinari, just because he is Jewish. Just because he still tries to act responsibly as a journalist. Universities are or should be the place of tolerance, inclusion, freedom of thought, respect for the person. Our total solidarity and closeness to Molinari. These episodes only strengthen our sense of community. If anti-Semitism prevails, it is a defeat for everyone”, they declare, in a joint note, the president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, Noemi Di Segni, the president of the Jewish Community of Rome, Victor Fadlun, and the president of the Jewish Community of Milan, Walker Meghnagi.
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