Gaza, Italy reported twice for ‘complicity in genocide’

Activists: "The government is accused of selling weapons to Israel and stopping aid." The first hearing will be on June 13

ROME – The bombs and ammunition that Israel has been using for seven months in the Gaza Strip are also Italian, as is the choice to cut the aid funds that the United Nations brings to the population, and for this reason our country will now have to deal with two complaints – one criminal, the other civil – for complicity with Israel in “genocide” in Gaza. The first is a complaint to the Rome Prosecutor’s Office presented by a network of lawyers supported by the Research and Processing Center for Democracy (Cred). A move which, explains Cred lawyer Fabio Marcelli, seeks to force Israel – and to follow, countries like Italy – to implement the precautionary measures issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which deemed the genocidal nature of the army’s actions “plausible and ordered Tel Aviv to put an end to it by any means. However, the crime of genocide does not only concern killings committed by military means, but also “actions that starve the population or expose them to other risks, such as interruptions to water supplies , electricity, communications”, says Marcelli. From here “we based the complaint on some evidence, including the sending of weapons. We are the third largest exporter after the United States and Germany. Minister Tajani states that this traffic ceased after 7 October but this – warns the lawyer – is contradicted by the data released by some bodies such as Istat”. The second complaint concerns the “suspension of donations by the Italy to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA)”. A choice made after Israel accused some members of UNRWA of collaboration in the assaults carried out by Hamas in southern Israel on 7 October.

A recent independent report, however, denies the accusations and so countries such as Germany have reactivated donations to what is considered the “backbone” of humanitarian aid to the 2.3 million inhabitants of the Strip. “We don’t know that Italy has done so yet” says Marcelli. If the Prosecutor’s Office confirms complicity in genocide, government representatives could be called to answer, such as the Foreign and Defense Ministers, Antonio Tajani and Guido Crosetto. “In the case – explains Marcelli to the Dire agency – the Tribunal of Ministers is activated“. Actions carried out in courtrooms thousands of kilometers away from Gaza, and which have no direct effects on the choices of the Israeli war cabinet, but “in the meantime, let’s try to take away oxygen from those operations”, says Gianluca Vitale, illustrating the civil case brought against Italy on the initiative of a Palestinian lawyer, who lost seven members of his family in the war and suffered six displacements. Vitali says: “Israel is committing damage and contributing to that damage must be stopped by the civil judge”.

Thus, we ask the Court “to stop the sale of Italian weapons to Israel, and not only: I am thinking of Leonardo which, for example, supplies the trolleys for the caterpillars which today are used to destroy, or Israel’s use of Italian military bases”. And then there is a request to lift the block on funding for UNRWA.
The first hearing will be June 13. And it could then pave the way for future appeals by Palestinian citizens to request that Italy compensate them for the material and immaterial damage suffered. Salahaldin Abdalaty, who started the civil case, clarified the connection between the situation in Gaza and the lawsuit against Italy. “Since October 7, Israel has committed 3,150 massacres, including the one that caused the death of my family members,” he denounces. “He killed over 35 thousand people, destroyed 70% of homes, and this is thanks to countries like Italy that supply him with weapons.” Abdalaty calls for “justice. Israel systematically violates international and humanitarian law, as well as every UN resolution. But I have faith in the law: the Palestinian population must be defended” also through “sanctions on Israel, as done for other countries”. The conference in which the legal cases were illustrated was promoted this morning by Amnesty international and hosted at the Rome headquarters of the National Federation of the Italian Press (Fnsi).