In continuity with the mobilization launched on September 22, Un Ponte Per confirms its participation in the national strike and mobilization day against the genocide of October 3 and in the subsequent actions.

September 22 was only the first stage: the general strike demonstrated that there is a collective will to resist, which does not accept the complicit silence of governments.

The following is the appeal published on the occasion of the first day of the strike.

With the occupation of Gaza City, the last dramatic chapter of the Israeli colonialist settlement project is being written.

In front of the deliberate extermination of a people, in front of hundreds of thousands of people on the run, exhausted by two years of total siege, in front of images that break our hearts, we cannot stand still.

Faced with the repression of dissent, a media narrative that continues to portray genocide as a 'war between armies', and the silence of governments, it is urgent that we overcome the sense of impotence that pervades us and take our bodies to the streets.

That is why on 22 September Un Ponte Per adheres to the general strike, proclaimed by the basic trade unions and the Palestinian movements. We strike to stop the genocide in Palestine, to reject the normalisation of horror, to boycott an economy that feeds this system of death, to support the difficult journey of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which seeks to break the siege.

We have decided to close our offices in Italy on this day, because we want to give a strong signal of dissent: when governments choose complicity, it is up to us - citizens and citizens, associations and movements - to make our voices heard and to strongly demand the interruption of all forms of collaboration with Israel. And to strengthen our solidarity action, we will donate the day of strike to the Water for Gaza campaign.

These days our activists are in the squares and at the garrisons that criss-cross the cities. On Monday we invite you to 'lower your shutters' and join the mobilisations of 22 September: in the squares, in the marches, to block an unjust system that fuels this massacre.

Let's choose to take a stand: let's strike, let's join the boycott, let's join this appointment, as well as those that await us in the coming weeks.

Let us choose together to be on the right side of history.

From 8 to 14 September in Rome, the first edition of Arene Decoloniali took place, a festival conceived by Un Ponte Per with the aim of opening an unprecedented and urgent space for reflection in the Italian cultural scene.

For seven days, cinema, literature and debates brought back to the centre what has been repressed for too long: the memory of Italian colonialism, anti-colonial resistance and the consequences of a Eurocentric outlook that still shapes politics, culture and society.

A MEMORY REMOVED

In Italy, colonialism has been removed from collective memory. Massacres, deportations, racist laws and concentration camps have been systematically concealed, leaving room for the self-absolving myth of Italians as good people. A process that not only concerns the past, but also profoundly affects the present, influencing narratives on migration, the Mediterranean and international relations.

With the Decolonial Arenas, we have chosen to break this silence, offering critical tools to address the colonial legacies that still run through us.

CINEMA AS A SPACE OF RESISTANCE

At the heart of the festival was cinema, understood as a political and cultural practice capable of deconstructing the colonial gaze.

From the screening of Adwa - An African Victory by Haile Gerima - which has been awarded the 2025 Decolonial Arenas Prize - which restores the memory of the Ethiopian victory against Italy, to Soleil Ô by Med Hondo, which recounts the migratory experience and post-colonial identity, to Abandon de poste by Mohamed Bouhari, with its ironic and disenchanted look at colonial stereotypes and the "new slaves" of western society.

The festival closed with Andrea Segre's L'ordine delle cose (The Order of Things), which takes the viewer inside the Italian policies of refoulement in Libya.

Each film was a piece of a narrative that overturned perspectives and gave back a voice to colonised and migrated subjectivities. The cinema thus proved to be not only a means of denunciation, but also a laboratory for imagining new forms of storytelling and new practices of solidarity.

As Soumaila Diawara, guest speaker at the festival, recounted:

"Arene Decoloniali is not simply a review that seeks to inform people, but is also a form of resistance, which overturns a distorted narrative especially about colonialism. It is an initiative that can not only inform about historical responsibilities, but also unite people who are often far apart, on a common path'.

To also maintain the direct thread with Palestine and the genocide resistance actions, we hosted the Global Sumud Flotilla link.

BETWEEN MEMORY AND RESIGNIFICATION

The festival did not limit itself to recounting the past. It traversed symbolic and political issues that are still alive: from the stealing of works of art in the colonies to the re-signification of commemorative monuments, such as the one to the fallen of Dogali, which still defines the Italian soldiers who fell in Ethiopia as 'heroes'.

A tribute to Pier Paolo Pasolini, on the 50th anniversary of his death, also offered an opportunity to reflect on his critical but ambivalent view of Africa and the East.

And it was during these evenings that one of the most moving moments took place: the unexpected meeting with Gimè Ahmed, one of the African students interviewed by Pasolini in the documentary Appunti per un'Orestiade africana. Having arrived in Italy from Eritrea over fifty years ago, incredibly, he had never seen Pasolini's film, despite having searched for it for a long time. We welcomed him on stage and his emotion, his story became for us the very symbol of this first edition of Arene Decoloniali: a place of memory, encounter and deconstruction.

BEYOND ANTI-COLONIALISM: TOWARDS DECOLONIALISM

Decolonial Arenas proposed an approach that goes beyond the condemnation of colonialism as a historical fact. To decolonise means to recognise how the Eurocentric vision has structured cultural, political and even aesthetic categories.

It also means questioning concepts such as 'development', 'aid' or 'solidarity', which have often reproduced logics of domination.

We also brought into the festival our experience of international cooperation: not as an act of generosity, but as a practice of reparation, and as building alliances between civil societies, capable of changing the living conditions of oppressed people together.

Galleria Immagini

Scopri le foto e i video dei nostri progetti

Galleria Immagini

Scopri le foto e i video dei nostri progetti

AN APPOINTMENT THAT WANTS TO TAKE ROOT

This first edition marked the beginning of a journey: a cultural and political process that does not want to limit itself to the event, but intends to continue to grow and contaminate other spaces.

Special thanks go to the many people who participated each evening and to those who enriched the debates: Papia Aktar of ARCI Rome, Takoua Ben Mohamed, Maria Coletti, Marco Dalla Gassa, Leonardo De Franceschi, Soumaila Diawara, Silvano Falocco of the Yekatit 12-19 February Network, Daniela Ionita of the Italians Without Citizenship Movement, Angela Mona, Marina Pierlorenzi of ANPI Rome, Daniela Ricci and Micaela Veronesi of the National Film Archive of the Resistance, Lorenzo Teodonio, Alessandro Triulzi, Vito Varricchio.

Many thanks to directors Haile Gerima, Dagmawi Yimer and Francesco Di Gioia, and allə artistsə who made the closing night unforgettable: Khalifa Abo Khraisse and Valbona Kunxhiu, Mario Eleno and Manuela Mosè, Luca Chiavinato.

Decolonial Arenas has opened a removed wound and, at the same time, a space of possibility: an arena where memory meets resistance, and the future can finally break free from the shackles of the colonial past.

And this is just the beginning, the journey continues: in anticipation of the second edition in 2026, we will continue to offer new initiatives and insights.

Follow the @arene_decolonials page on Facebook and Instagram to stay updatedə.

"We have no source of sustenance other than the sea. We are like fish: if we go out of the water we die". This is how Ali Awad Al-Amoudi, a Palestinian fisherman who shares his trade with his father, sons and brothers, tells what the sea means to the people in Gaza.

His fishing nets are burnt, his boats sunk, under the bombs of the Israeli armed forces. "And this," he adds, "is not only my situation, but that of all the fishermen in Gaza. When we work at sea, we eat. If we don't work, we don't eat, because we don't know any other trade'.

In Gaza, the sea has always represented breath, hope, sustenance. Despite almost 20 years of Israeli siege, fishing families have never stopped looking to the sea as a primary source of life, hope for freedom.

Since the beginning of the genocide on October 7th, the situation in the Gaza Strip is beyond humanitarian catastrophe. Among the civilian infrastructures indiscriminately hit by Israeli shelling are also those that have always ensured the livelihood of families and communities, such as agriculture and fishing.

Fishing activities in particular, which historically have been a primary source of livelihood for thousands of people in Gaza, are now almost completely interrupted due to the military offensive and the destruction of boats, materials needed for activities, and storage facilities.

After more than 600 days of genocide, thanks to the "Gaza, waves of resilience" project, 50 families were able to receive new nets to return to the sea.

This is a new intervention of support and solidarity that we imagined together with our friends and colleagues of the Union of Agricultural Work Commitees (UAWC), with whom we work on the 'Water for Gaza' campaign, and made possible by FLAI-CGIL. The trade union organisation had already generously supported us in the past, allocating to Gaza and to our campaign the funds collected from workers' contributions in the strikes of the last two years.

Today, thanks to the extraordinary work of our friends at UAWC, who have been supporting Palestinian farmers and fishermen for decades, we have been able to distribute nets to families in Gaza.

Different nets for each fishery: the maltash, light and dense, for smaller fish; the zieda, deep and strong, for larger ones; the precious shanshoula, long and delicate, for more targeted fishing.

In those nets and in the looks of those who received them there is much more than work: there is dignity and love for their people, a refusal to surrender to death. Every thread woven, every exit into the sea, is an act of resistance.

We are with them. We do not stop supporting the Palestinian people.

DECOLONIAL ARENAS

Rome, Tor Marancia Tower Park | 8-14 September 2025

DECOLONIAL ARENAS (Arene Decoloniali) is the festival that brings the theme of decoloniality to the center of public debate — a core principle of Un Ponte Per's approach to international cooperation and solidarity.

For one week, the Parco della Torre di Tor Marancia (Viale di Tor Marancia 31, Rome) becomes a space for discussion and political imagination to explore through images, words and memories the colonial past and its legacy in the present. A programme interweaving art cinema, literature, photography and public meetings, in an open dialogue between arts and activism, history and identity.

The festival is realised under the patronage of the Municipality VIII of the Municipality of Rome.

WHAT TO EXPECT

The first edition 2025 will host the screening of 10 films, documentaries and short films from different geographical contexts, six book presentations, two photo exhibitions and a bilingual Arabic-Italian reading with musical accompaniment, to give voice to the removed memories and resistances of colonised peoples.

The films are subtitled in Italian and introduced in sign language. The arena is accessible to persons with mobility disabilities.

There is also a book stand by the Liberia Griot and afood area.

HOMAGE TO PIER PAOLO PASOLINI

On the 50th anniversary of his death, the festival opens with a retrospective dedicated to Pier Paolo Pasolini. Two days dedicated to his cinematographic works exploring his gaze on otherness, with particular attention to his relationship with Africa and the East.

EXHIBITIONS

During the festival and afterwards, two photographic exhibitions to broaden the scope of reflection:

DECOLONIAL ARENAS AWARD

To recognise and valorise the contribution of cinema to the decolonial movement, we have established the Premio Arene Decoloniali, awarded each year to one of the films in the festival according to the opinion of experts and the audience. The prize will consist of a specially created work of art each year. (Regulations of the Decolonial Arenas Award).

HOW TO GET TO THE FESTIVAL

The entrance to the Tor Marancia Tower Park - in Viale di Tor Marancia 31 - is easily accessible by public transport, a few metres from the Colombo - Rufino stop of bus lines 714, 716, 30 or the Tor Marancia - Rufino stop of bus line 160.

The programme follows.

PROGRAM

DECOLONIAL ARENAS

1st Edition

8-14 September 2025
Tor Marancia Tower Park
Viale di Tor Marancia 31, Rome

MONDAY 8 SEPTEMBER

Pasolini & the Orient: The Author and the Otherness

This evening is dedicated to a critical look at some of Pier paolo Pasolini's cinematographic works, in particular exploring the author's oriental imagery, not as mere exoticism, but as a complex authorial construction. Through his 'journey to the Orient', Pasolini interrogates otherness and reflects on his own role as a European author.

Presentation of the book Orient (to) Express. Film di viaggio, etno-grafie, teoria d'autore with the author, Professor Marco Dalla Gassa, expert in Orientalism, Arab literature and postcolonial studies (Ca' Foscari University of Venice). Dalla Gassa will present Pasolini's works projected afterwards in dialogue with the audience.

Short film: The Walls of Sana'a (Yemen, 1971 | 14')*

Pasolini launches an appeal to save the ancient city of Sana'a, threatened by modernisation. A poetic and political short film on the link between culture and urban landscape.

Screening of the film Il fiore delle Mille e una notte (Italy, 1974 | 129')

Inspired by oriental tales, the film weaves stories of love, adventure and desire in a fairy-tale and sensual world, where the search for the other is also self-discovery.

Trigger points: frequent nudity, explicit scenes of a sexual nature, references to slavery and violence (not graphic).

TUESDAY 9 SEPTEMBER

Africa as a mirror of revolutionary utopia

This day will explore the limits and insights of Pasolini's view of the 'Third World'. Pasolini speaks of Africa and for Africa, but from an external, albeit empathetic and politically committed point of view.

Human Library with the Association Movimento Italiani Senza Cittadinanza and the Shanghai People's School.

Introductory viewing meeting with Professor Vito Varricchio, (history of Africa), in dialogue with Lorenzo Teodonio, historian by passion, author of Razza Partigiana, scholar of decolonial criticism.

Screening of the film Appunti per un Orestiade africana (Italy, 1970 | 65'). Film-essay in the form of visual notes, in which Pier Paolo Pasolini imagines a possible transposition of Aeschylus' Oresteia in post-colonial Africa, interweaving visual notes, music and political reflections on the continent as a mythical and revolutionary space.

Trigger points: references to violence and slavery (not explicitly depicted).

WEDNESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER

Artistic heritage and re-significations

Presentation of the "Echoes from Dogali" initiative with Giulia Grechi and the Tezeta Association; followed by a presentation by Rosa Anna Di Lella on the collections of the former Colonial Museum and the activities of the Museum of Civilisations (MUCIV). With the collaboration of the Yekatit12-19February Network.

Screening of Abandon de poste by Mohamed Bouhari (Morocco / Belgium, 2010 | ca. 15) Silent confrontation between a security guard and a life-size African statue: the former on duty in front of a building, the latter chained like ancient slaves at the entrance to an art gallery. An ironic and disenchanted look at the stereotypes of colonialism and slavery through the figures of the 'new slaves' of western society.

Online connection with the director* and screening of the film Dahomey by Mati Diop (France/Senegal, 2024 | ca. 67').

A Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, it narrates the return to Benin of stolen objects from the Kingdom of Dahomey during colonisation and kept at the Musée du quai Branly in Paris.

THURSDAY 11 SEPTEMBER

Visions of the colonial removed

Presentation of the book Visions of the Remover, with authors Daniela Ricci and Micaela Veronesi (National Film Archive of the Resistance) in dialogue with Leonardo De Franceschi and the Yekatit12-19February Network.

Screening of the film ADWA - AN AFRICAN VICTORY, by director Haile Gerima, (Ethiopia/USA, 1999 | ca. 90'); Through testimonies, archive materials and historical narration, the film reconstructs the Battle of Adwa (1896), in which Ethiopian forces defeated the Italian colonial army. A militant work that celebrates African resistance and collective memory against colonialism.

Trigger points: Descriptions and images of war and colonial violence.

Liaison with director Haile Gerima , in dialogue with Micaela Veronesi and Daniela Ricci(National Film Archive of the Resistance), commentary on the film and debate

FRIDAY 12 SEPTEMBER

Decolonial Resistances

Presentation and readings of extracts from the book Il Re Ombra (The Shadow King) by Maaza Mengiste, with the author in connection, together with Sandro Triulzi (Archivio Memorie Migranti) and the writer Djarah Kan*; in collaboration with the Yekatit12-19febbraio Network. Moderator: Soumaila Diawara.

Screening of the film SEARCHING FOR AMANI (Kenya/USA, 2023 | Director: Debra Aroko | ca. 87' | Produced by Generation Africa - COE) When his father is murdered, Amani, a 13-year-old boy, starts filming to give voice to his grief and search for answers. The documentary follows his journey between grief, memory and justice, offering an intimate and courageous look at rural violence in Kenya and youth resilience.

SATURDAY 13 SEPTEMBER

Decolonising the school

Presentation of the book 'Tra i Bianchi di scuola' by Espérance Hakuzwimana together with Daniela Ionita from the Italian Movement without Citizenship, writer Christian Raimo, in connection, artist Takoua Ben Mohamed, and Angela Mona from the education working group Un Ponte Per.

Screening of the film A.O.C by Samy Sidali (2022, France | ca. 18′) in which Latefa and his two sons, Walid and Ptissam, advised by the administration, Frenchify their names when they acquire French citizenship. The film is inspired by a true story.

Followed by the film Soleil Ô (Mauritania/France, 1970 | 98') by M. Hondo. An African immigrant manages to arrive in Paris, he comes up against indifference, rejection, humiliation and racism; presentation of the film by Micaela Veronesi and Daniela Ricci (National Film Archive of the Resistance).

Screening of the short film MUNA (UK, 2023 | 19′)

Muna, a 13-year-old British-Somali boy, wants to go on a school trip. Before departure, she receives the news of her grandfather's death in Somalia. During the funeral, she discovers through traditional music (the oud) a new part of her own identity and roots.

SUNDAY 14 SEPTEMBER

Between poetry and memory: testimonies of Italian colonisation in Libya

Introduction by UPP and presentation of the poems translated from Libyan to Italian by the poet Fadil al Shalmani, deported to Favignana, the poems will be interpreted by the director, journalist and screenwriter Khalifa Abo Khraisse and the actress Valbona Kunxhiu, accompanied by the projection of the short film La terra dei padri by Francesco Di Gioia. This will be followed by the presentation of the book Il mio solo tormento - Canto di el Agheila, by Rajab Abuhweish, written in the Italian concentration camp in Libya of El Agheila, with readings by Mario Eleno and Manuela Mosè (editors of the Italian edition of the poem). During the readings there will be a musical contribution by Luca Chiavinato, a musician who contributed to the soundtrack of the film "The Order of Things".

Yesterday's Colonialism and Today's Migrations

Introduction to the film "L'ordine delle cose" with Giulia Torrini, president of Un Ponte Per; Marina Pierlorenzi, president of ANPI Rome; Papia Aktar, head of migration ARCI Roma and Silvano Falocco, Yekatit12-19Febbraio Network, Ass. Tezeta.

Presentation of the 'Decolonial Arenas' Award

Award ceremony for the film in the exhibition that has most contributed to bridging the repressed colonial memory

Screening of the film L'ordine delle cose by Andrea Segre, 2017, 115'

An official is tasked with stemming illegal immigration from Libya but his journey has an unexpected outcome.

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More than 100 humanitarian organisations are sounding the alarm to allow life-saving aid in.

As the siege imposed by the Israeli government starves the people of Gaza, aid workers now find themselves in the same lines for food, risking injury in their attempts to feed their families. With supplies now completely exhausted, humanitarian organisations are watching their3 colleagues and local partners die before their eyes.

Exactly two months after the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an initiative controlled by the Israeli government, began its activities, 115 organisations are sounding the alarm, urging governments to act: open all land crossings; restore the full flow of food, drinking water, medical supplies, repair items and fuel through a UN-led system; end the siege; and agree an immediate ceasefire.

"Every morning, the same question echoes in Gaza: will I eat today?" reports an agency representative.

Massacres at food distribution points in Gaza occur almost daily. As of 13 July, the UN confirmed that 875 Palestinians had been killed while searching for food, 201 along aid routes and the remainder at distribution points. Thousands of others were injured. Meanwhile, Israeli forces forcibly displaced nearly two million exhausted Palestinians, with the latest mass displacement order issued on 20 July, confining Palestinians to less than 12% of Gaza.
The WFP warns that current conditions make operations impossible. Starving civilians is a war crime.

Just outside Gaza, in warehouses - and even inside Gaza itself - tons of food, drinking water, medical supplies, shelter items and fuel remain untouched, with humanitarian organisations blocked from access or distribution. The restrictions, delays and fragmentation imposed by the Israeli government as part of its total siege have created chaos, hunger and death. One aid worker providing psychosocial support spoke of the devastating impact on children: "Boys and girls tell their parents that they want to go to heaven, because at least in heaven there is food."

Doctors report record rates of acute malnutrition, especially among children and the elderly. Diseases such as acute watery diarrhoea are spreading, markets are empty, rubbish is piling up and adults are collapsing in the streets from hunger and dehydration. Distribution in Gaza averages only 28 trucks per day, far from the number needed for over two million people, many of whom have not received assistance for weeks.

The UN-led humanitarian system did not fail: it was prevented from functioning.

Humanitarian agencies have the capacity and supplies to respond on a large scale. But with access denied, we are stuck3 and cannot reach those in need, including our own exhausted and hungry teams. On 10 July, the EU and Israel announced measures to increase aid. But these promises ring hollow when there is no real change on the ground. Every day without a sustained flow means more people dying from treatable diseases. Girls and children starve to death while they wait for promises that never come.

Palestinian people are trapped in a cycle of hope and despair, waiting for assistance and a cease-fire, only to wake up in worse and worse conditions. This is not only physical torment, but also psychological. Survival is shown as a mirage. The humanitarian system cannot function on empty promises.

Governments must stop waiting for permission to act. We cannot continue to hope that the current agreements will work. Now is the time to act decisively: call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire; remove all bureaucratic and administrative restrictions; open all land crossings; ensure access to all throughout Gaza; reject military-controlled distribution patterns; restore a UN-led humanitarian response; and continue funding impartial humanitarian organisations. States must take concrete steps to end the siege, such as halting the transfer of arms and ammunition.

Piecemeal agreements and symbolic gestures, such as airdrops of aid or symbolic agreements, act as a smokescreen for inaction. They cannot replace the legal and moral obligations of states to protect Palestinian civilians and ensure meaningful access to large-scale aid. States can - and must - save lives, before there is no one left to save.

Appeal signed by Un Ponte Per and 114 other organisations . SUPPORT OUR INTERVENTION IN GAZA.

"The most exciting thing for us is knowing that the donations you are collecting come directly from people for people. When we do aid distributions we explain this to the families: this is made possible by fundraising on the streets in Italy, where each person donates what they can. And people understand this very well".

When we manage to talk to our colleague Saad on the phone, after days of continuous network interruptions that have made it difficult to get updates, he himself is standing in line for a can of water. In the Gaza Strip today, there is not a single person who is not in need of immediate help and is not on the brink of starvation. Yet, despite the inaction of governments, despite the impunity granted to Israel by Western complicity, help from below reminds the people of Gaza that they have not been completely abandoned.

This is what we are told by the colleagues of UAWC - the Union of Agricultural Work Committees -, the Palestinian organisation with which, since the beginning of this genocide, we at Un Ponte Per have built an alliance in order to bring a minimum of relief to the affected population.

A choice, ours, that was not accidental: UAWC is a grassroots organisation founded in the years of the first Intifada, which has been working from below not only during humanitarian emergencies, but also - and above all - to guarantee food sovereignty for the Palestinian population, forced to depend on external aid due to Israeli settlement colonialism.

THE VIOLENCE OF THE SIEGE

Since Israel's breaking of the ceasefire agreement last March, almost nothing has entered Gaza. The resumption of shelling, with unprecedented intensity, has destroyed what remained of the civilian infrastructure, leaving all hospitals unable to provide treatment.

According to UAWC estimates, two-thirds of the Gaza Strip has been identified as 'no-go zones' by the Israeli armed forces: areas where the population is prevented from entering, confined in increasingly densely populated spaces, without access to humanitarian aid, and with the summer heat making the shortage of clean, potable water even more severe.

"While 95 per cent of the population is at risk due to lack of care, food and water, it is estimated that 100 per cent is on the brink of starvation," lə colleagues from Gaza explain. Moreover, the continuous displacement and the speed with which people are forced to move in order to survive and find shelter also makes it difficult to distribute the aid that we are able to provide through the 'Aqua for Gaza' campaign.

The latest distributions, carried out between spring and summer, were often done at night and under the fire of Israeli snipers. The establishment of theGaza Humanitarian Fund(GHI) has further aggravated the situation.

"It is a very violent operation that aims to break even what is left of social ties and solidarity among the population, because people literally kill each other for a sack of flour," they explain from Gaza.

The US- and Israeli-led initiative completely distorts the principle of humanitarian support, setting a very dangerous precedent in crisis management. "Food and aid have been weaponised and militarised," we are told. As the inhuman images that have circulated in recent weeks have shown, with thousands of people locked in cages and bombed while standing in line for a can of water or a sack of flour. The immobility of the international community in the face of all this shows that impunity in the face of genocide 'is the new normal we must get used to', they reflect.

THERE IS THE WORLD... AND THEN THERE IS GAZA

Yet, the Palestinian population of Gaza is not giving up. "I believe that optimism and hope today are revolutionary gestures," reflects Sharif, our colleague from Beit Hanoun, who now works with us in Italy on the 'Water for Gaza' campaign.

"In recent years, we have suffered so much, between the prolonged siege and the constant Israeli military aggression, that in Gaza we have learnt to always find a way to resolve the situation, even when everything seems to be falling apart. I cannot explain how we do it, but we always find a way to cope with even the worst conditions. Now, for example, there is no more fuel in Gaza. People are burning plastic and they manage to run their cars that way. Next to every tent in every camp, women have carved out a piece of land to cultivate something. We refuse to die in silence. The people of Gaza are not giving up".

This is probably also how UAWC's colleagues manage to help the population with the generous donations that arrive from those who follow and support us in Italy. Despite the fact that it is very difficult to find food at the moment because, as they explain, 'the markets have been completely emptied, and because of the blockade of aid, finding food is increasingly difficult'.

COURAGE AND RESISTANCE

Despite this, UAWC still manages to refer to small producers and farmers who do not charge commission on the sale of the products they grow.

This is how, at the end of May, we managed to reach another 2,000 people with food baskets consisting mainly of fruit and vegetables - cucumbers, tomatoes, melons - bought on the local market at the most reasonable prices.

This work is, as always, made possible by the extraordinary network of local committees and volunteers that UAWC has built up over the years in Gaza. And which is punctually reported and documented with videos and photos, despite the inhuman conditions in which our partners operate.

For the distribution of aid, one now relies on hearing. "We adjust according to the intensity of the Israeli shelling. If they are particularly violent for a few days, we stop. When they slow down, we try to figure out how long it will last and determine where we can get to with the distributions,' Saad explains. Always, however, risking his own life to help his people.

Thanks to this courage, we were able to reach another 500 families with water distributions this spring. Since the 'Water for Gaza' campaign was launched, donations from those who support us have enabled us to reach over 50,000 people.

We were able to distribute food and water, repair some cisterns damaged by the bombings, install toilets in the camps for displaced people, and repair tents during the winter. In each of these cases, we relied on UAWC's assessments, sending what we collected from donations to Italy, and letting them decide what was most urgent.

A practice in line with our vision of the alliance in the territories where we operate: not over-determining, but listening to needs and responding as possible. What has been done in recent months remains a drop in the ocean of needs facing the Gaza Strip today, but it is nonetheless a sign that people - unlike governments - know where they stand.

'There is mankind. And then there are the Gazawi people,' smiles Sharif. "Even in the face of unimaginable conditions, even in the midst of genocide, we refuse to give up. We do not give up. The reality we are going through is unprecedented in the world we know. Yet, we continue to hope'.

Every donation, no matter how small, can make a difference. The genocide is not over. Donate now and help us bring aid to the Palestinian population >>

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They will arrive in Italy for the first time accompanied by their coaches, thanks to a cultural and sporting exchange that we organised together with the Florence-based sports cooperative Centro Storico Lebowski: they are 11 Palestinian children aged between 8 and 13, members of the 'Palestine Youth Club' football team active in the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut (Lebanon).

From 25 June to 10 July, the delegation will move to various cities in Italy: in addition to the sports camps organised by CS Lebowski in their Florence headquarters, the Palestinian team will also move to Bologna and Rome thanks to the contribution of some popular sports realities such as Atletico San Lorenzo, Acrobax, All Reds Basket (Rome); Palestra Popolare TPO, PCB - Pallacanestro Cooperativa Bologna, Polisportiva Hic Sunt Leones and Hayat APS (Bologna). The support of institutional bodies is important, as well as the valuable support of the Italian Football Coaches Association (AIAC). The project 'Dritti contro il cielo, da Shatila all'Italia' (Straight against the sky, from Shatila to Italy) has in fact received the patronage of the Municipalities of Florence and Bologna, the VIII Municipality of Rome, the Region of Tuscany, and the support of the AIAC. For this reason, institutional meetings are planned in the three Italian cities in addition to the sports events.

Among the many activities planned is a visit to the Football Museum in Coverciano on 5 July, organised by AIAC president Renzo Ulivieri, which will be attended by the Councillor for Sport of the Municipality of Florence, Letizia Perini.

The Palestine Youth Club's trip to Italy is part of a very long journey of solidarity and sports collaboration that we have built in the Shatila camp, where we have been working for over 20 years in support of the Palestinian refugee population, and where we actively support the sports centre where the team trains.

In 2023, we also accompanied a delegation of coaches from the Lebowski History Centre there. During that week, the team had held football training sessions with the Palestine Youth Club, involving lə kids in a sporting and sharing experience.

Accompanying the delegation then was director Niccolò Falsetti, who in those days shot the necessary footage for the documentary 'Dritti contro il cielo' (Straight against the sky). The documentary has since been screened throughout Italy, in a series of self-financing initiatives that made the exchange possible.

Our goal is, as always, to keep the focus high on the denial of access to rights for the Palestinian refugee population in Lebanon, and to consolidate the bridges we have built over the years, also and above all through sport. The initiatives planned in Italy will also allow us to raise funds from below and make the second part of the documentary.

The delegation arriving from Shatila will be:

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On 28 May, the end-of-project conference of 'Tatweer 2', which has seen us support over 500 Iraqi civil society associations and organisations in recent years, was held in Baghdad.

On a hot and windy summer's day, representatives from all Iraqi provinces, delegations from the government and various ministries, as well as a European delegation in Iraq, gathered to take stock and reflect on the scope and achievements of the 'Tatweer' project, which has reached the end of its second phase.

A conference that has welcomed a multitude of voices that have come together in recent years to demand rights for women and minorities, environmental justice, freedom of expression and coexistence between communities. Created to give a space for expression and confrontation to those who in recent years have fought for a freer and more inclusive Iraq, Tatweer in this not only represents a project, but a collective action that has united, from Basra to Kurdistan, a society committed to change and to building a future of peace and coexistence.

Summarising the overall results of Tatweer, Bahman Hassan, project manager of Tatweer, highlighted the overall impact of the project: in addition to the support provided to more than 500 local associations and organisations, more than 376 services were delivered, in workshops covering training on fundraising, project writing, public policy, project management, among others.

In Iraq, a country that has been scarred by wars and conflicts for decades, with repercussions that have lasted for years and wounds that are still open, civil society is committed to supporting a profound, radical change, driven by hope and stories of resistance that have given proof and concreteness that a different future is possible, and in part is already here.

This is testified by the numerous experiences gathered by 'Tatweer', which succeeded in uniting different contexts and fields in a path made up of different themes and contents: among them , climate change and the environment, combating gender-based violence, prevention of violent extremism, human rights (with special attention to women and minorities), environmental and climate justice, peacebuilding, and more.

During the event, Hasan emphasised that the importance of 'Tatweer' is to be found in its concrete and positive aspects to the development and empowerment of Iraqi civil society, 'through the provision of essential resources and equipment for the workers, as well as numerous training and counselling services provided in our five provincial centres'. But it is necessary for the international community to continue supporting Iraq and civil society, as 'changes achieved so far have been instrumental in transforming the country's public policy landscape, encouraging the active participation of young people, women and civic actors in the life of civil society and thus helping to alleviate the challenges faced by citizens and the community as a whole'.

"This project led to the opening of five centres in Mosul, Erbil, Baghdad, Ramadi and Basra. We asked ourselves what the local realities we wanted to support really needed, and from there our approach was born,' says Raid Mikhael Shabah, Country Director of UPP in Iraq.

"These centres could help support Iraqi civil society, but it was necessary to organise the complete management of a non-governmental organisation for these centres to function and to be able to implement projects and programmes. We also provided small funding so that these NGOs could implement projects and programmes. For civil society, and especially for smaller organisations, the lack of funds was an obvious problem'.

That is why 'Tatweer', explains Mikhael, has taught local organisations not only how to realise their projects, but also how to write a project, how to prepare a financial plan, how to manage it 'from scratch to the end'. But that's not all. It has enabled the creation of a network in Iraqi civil society. Through the various associations, in fact, it was possible to reach even those more isolated realities, which were often not even intercepted by donors, because they were too far away or in areas difficult to reach. "There are governorates in Iraq where nobody really comes. But with these centres it has been possible to get there".

Ajyal Charitable Society for the Development of Intelligence and Creativity is an association that has set up a project called 'Balsam', an orientation and support centre for women and girls who are victims of physical harassment in the community of Diyala province. Mohammed Mundas Ali, project manager of the organisation, says that the Balsam centre has supported over 140 women, providing them with information to share with other women to encourage them to go to the centre.

The organisation works with more than 10 institutions and government offices in the Diyala area, distributing brochures with numbers, contacts and information on the services offered. Anyone visiting these institutions can be directed to the centre if needed.

"An emblematic story is that of a girl with disabilities, whose family initially prevented her from participating in the centre. After dialogue with the operators, the father agreed, and the girl was able to access a psychosocial support programme and a project for economic autonomy," says Mundas Ali.

But other projects are being implemented and developed for the future. Thanks to a small amount of funding, a beekeeping activity was started, involving men and women in honey production with the aim of fostering collaboration between the sexes to reduce incidents of gender-based violence, extremism and conflict, especially in the villages.

The organisation has also written a proposal to promote women's involvement with members of parliament and is working on a proposal to involve them in dialogue sessions with candidates in the Iraqi parliamentary elections next November. 'So that women's issues are brought to Parliament and new laws in their favour are promoted, should they be elected'.

Lavinia Nocelli - Communication Intern, UPP Iraq

Cartoonist, feminist, author, ironic activist, Pat Carra is many things, and all intertwined. Born in Parma, she has lived in Milan since 1977, a city that she feels has been disrupted by the so-called 'urban regeneration' of recent years. This year Pat donated to us at Un Ponte Per la Tessera 2025. We met her for the occasion and she told us about her life journey, through the weapons she masters best: cartoons. Let's start from the beginning.

Although she started working at a very young age, she never attended an art academy - "my drawing was born self-taught, far from the academic canon" - and perhaps it is precisely this freedom that "allowed me to build a more direct, personal, edgy language and graphic style".

Even as a child, Pat says she felt the need to use drawing to react and process anger in the face of bullying.

Then, the encounter with feminism. "In the 1970s, I started publishing with feminist collectives: posters, books, catalogues. Always using irony and a satirical key'. This is how the cartoon became political expression and a tool for critical thinking, an alternative to established ideologies. "Humour is the only form that has allowed me to never really embrace a preconceived slogan. It is my guarantee of authenticity." In 2019, after the closure - due to a Bayer-Monsanto legal attack - of the historic Aspirin magazine, Pat co-founded Weeds. Weed-resistant forms of life, a self-deprecating, eco-humorous publishing project. "There we understood many things: about pesticides, about agro-industry, about the power of humour as an antidote. We don't call ourselves eco-feminists so much as eco-humourists'.

Many of her works intertwine feminist reflection, war and systemic violence. Like the cartoon strip How to Leave a Man Without Leaving Your Skin, published in 1987, unfortunately still very topical. "It is a strip on gender violence, when the term feminicide was not yet used. A comic strip that for me remains central, because it goes beyond the pain, it tries to find a way to save itself. The return to the club symbolises just that'.


Pat was among the first to depict the connection between war and patriarchal violence with cartoons. "I started with the war in the Balkans, then Afghanistan and post-9/11 Iraq. One of the cartoons showed two women wearing burqas while it rained bombs: one said They come to free us from the burqa, the other asked Can we keep the body?".

War, which for the cartoonist personifies the ultimate patriarchal embodiment: 'Vandana Shiva says that extinction is the only way patriarchy deals with things that are alive and free. It is what people like Trump or Netanyahu do with bombs, along with many other powerful people, men and women'. Despite the moment in history when wars and genocides go on live social, Pat has not lost faith in the future. "I trust young people. I see in them a new, real sensibility that turns less to the other side".

Disillusionment with Western institutions, particularly European ones, is strong - 'the abstract idea of rights has chiselled itself into nothingness' - instead, trust remains in real connections with people. "For me, Un Ponte Per is a living interweaving with a piece of the world. The tile I drew, with those bodies stretching out like a bridge, comes from there. It is the body that connects, it is the relationship of human solidarity that builds'. Like the one for Gaza and its people, subjected to unspeakable suffering. "I have been in continuous contact for months with Safaa Odah, a Palestinian cartoonist from Gaza.

A tent in Palestine, his weekly column in Weeds, is for me and the editorial team the strongest bridge at the moment. Safaa cannot leave the Khan Yunis refugee camp, yet we manage to continue writing to each other. I live in anxiety when a reply from her is late in coming. Words, like comics, build bridges when they seem impossible. I sincerely hope to embrace her one day live'.

After many years of career, today Pat also looks with concern at the digital world and the evolution of work, 'too often throttled by platforms'. In his latest book, The Digital Labourer and Other Stories, he reflects on the continuity between agricultural and technological exploitation. "I tried to parallel the agricultural struggles of the farm labourers with the allotment of the web and global technocracy. From there the idea of the digital labourer was born: one who fights against the big web oligarchs. Amazon, Google, the major social platforms, they are the new masters. And our bodies - even in front of the computer - continue to pay a high price for their wealth'.

Pat Carra continues to experience art in some ways as a physical gesture, an exercise in endurance, unafraid of the pitfalls of artificial intelligence."I tried to ask the AI just one question: can you make a cartoon about war? It replied that you can't do humour on such serious topics... and to think that I have done so many."

Make the 2025 Card

A solidarity caravan has reached the Rafah crossing point, while the Strip sinks amid bombs, hunger and isolation. In these lines, we report the account of those who were there: voices and stories from the border of the siege. Interview with Giulia Torrini, co-president of Un Ponte Per.

In Gaza, people are dying of hunger, thirst, bombs and silence.

In the days from 17 to 19 May, while the international community stammered and the Western chancelleries divided themselves between timid warnings and diplomatic complicity, an Italian delegation decided to break the deafening immobility. Sixty members of parliament, MEPs, reporters and activists reached the Rafah crossing point to denounce the Israeli siege and the systematic use of hunger as a weapon of war.

The Gaza Strip has sunk into an abyss of inhumanity. Since 2 March 2025, no humanitarian convoys have crossed the borders: water, food and medicines remain blocked at the borders under Israeli control. The United Nations is sounding the alarm: over 14,000 children risk death from hunger and dehydration in the next 48 hours. UNRWA denounces the impossibility of distributing the remaining aid due to the continuous restrictions imposed by Tel Aviv.

In the almost choral silence of the international community, the figures become an epitaph: more than 53,000 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the Israeli military operation in October 2023. Entire families wiped out, health infrastructures reduced to rubble, schools turned into targets.

Confirming the systematic brutality of this offensive, on 19 May, the day the Italian delegation was still at the Rafah crossing, Israel ordered the immediate evacuation of Khan Younis and launched an unprecedented air attack on the town. Within an hour, hospitals, homes and civilian infrastructure were hit: at least 135 were killed, hundreds injured. Thousands of people, many already displaced, were forced to flee once again, without destination or protection. The war against the civilian population continues unabated; meanwhile, humanitarian aid remains blocked at the borders.

In an interview, Giulia Torrini - president of the Un Ponte Per organisation and member of the Italian delegation present at Rafah - recounts the moments she experienced near the crossing: 'During our stay at the Rafah crossing, explosions followed one another at regular intervals, every eight or ten minutes. The roar was sharp, penetrating, impossible to ignore'.

While the Netanyahu government declares the objective of 'total control' over Gaza in the name of the fight against Hamas, another truth takes shape on the ground: that of a strategy that many voices, without hesitation, define as ethnic cleansing masquerading as a war against terrorism. The rhetoric of security is thus being bent to justify a war of annihilation, which mainly affects unarmed civilians.

Rafah, May 2025. Photo by Daniele Napolitano

CAIRO: THE VOICES OF THE SURVIVORS

The recent initiative of the Italian delegation, promoted by AOI, ARCI and Assopace Palestine, took on a significance that goes far beyond symbolic solidarity. It was an explicitly political initiative, conceived as an act of rupture against the silent complicity of European institutions and the West's hesitant diplomacy. The presence at the Rafah crossing was not only intended to urge the entry of humanitarian aid, but to openly denounce the international legitimisation of a regime that, with its siege of Gaza, is waging a systematic war against the civilian population.

Torrini recalls the meetings with the Palestinian community in exile that took place in the days leading up to the arrival at the crossing: 'In Cairo, we met what we could call the "survivors": journalists, aid workers, activists who were refugees in Egypt, mostly women. They did not just share their stories: they confronted us with our responsibility, laid us bare, without discounts.

The testimonies, particularly during the confrontations with the political component of the delegation, were direct and incisive. Some activists bitterly expressed their conviction that not enough is being done, pointing out that for months images of violence have been observed and shared without this leading to concrete change. One young woman also raised the question of the use of those images, believing that their dissemination could take away the dignity of the victims, turning them into a spectacle for a now insensitive world. According to her, if even the sight of those bodies cannot shake consciences, perhaps it would be better not to show them at all'.

A provocation, certainly, but also a deeply true statement. A denunciation of Western voyeurism, of our progressive moral anaesthesia.

During these meetings, journalists such as Abdel Nasser, aid workers and activists from the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) spoke about the destruction of 90 per cent of the agricultural land in the Gaza Strip: 'A direct attack on food self-sufficiency, part of a strategy that uses hunger as a weapon of war,' reports Torrini. "A worker from the association Vento di Terra told of being evacuated nine times before managing to find refuge in Egypt, exhausted by an existence always under threat. However, he recalled that even there, life for a Palestinian refugee remains extremely difficult. One is not free to work, study, move around. It is the systemic condition of the Palestinian diasporas, from Lebanon to Syria'.

Torrini also recounted another significant moment of the day: an in-depth meeting with an expert on international relations.

Several key elements emerged during the discussion: the declining support of Hamas among the Palestinian population, the growing detachment between the leadership and civil society, but also the maintenance of a certain influence of the movement abroad. The ambiguous role of the Gulf countries, the progressive marginalisation of the Palestinian cause in the Arab agenda, and the total absence of political will on the part of the Israeli leadership to embark on a diplomatic path were all mentioned. According to the shared analysis, Tel Aviv's strategy would not be limited to a containment of the conflict: rather, it would aim at the definitive elimination of the Gaza Strip. Not crisis management, but a systematic project of annihilation.

Rafah, May 2025. Photo by Daniele Napolitano

RAFAH: A POLITICAL GESTURE ACROSS THE BORDER

"The Egyptian soldiers guarded the pass motionless, engines switched off, weapons in their arms: a mute and absent presence. And there we were, in silence broken only by the explosions, punctual every eight minutes. A surreal silence, barely cut by the chirping of birds - you can hear it in the background in all our telephone audio as well. And in the midst of all this, shouting 'Free Palestine', 'Stop the Genocide', 'Stop Illegal Occupation', in English, to break that silence - even though we knew very well that no one was really listening to us - was an act of breaking, a political cry.

The gesture of leaving soft toys and toys on the Egyptian border, unable to cross the border like the girls and boys for whom they were intended, has become the emblem of a powerful protest. Fragile, childish, helpless objects: symbols of a torn childhood. A cry addressed to Europe to stop covering with the language of diplomacy what, in fact, is an ongoing violation of international law.

"To be there, with almost 20 parliamentarians and MEPs in the front line, displaying placards with the faces of European leaders - the same ones who continue to deny the reality of an ongoing genocide or remain inert in the face of the blocking of humanitarian aid - was very strong. And then those puppets, those little clothes scattered on the ground, accompanied by the chalk mark normally drawn around corpses at crime scenes... it was a visual denunciation. In that desolate, empty square, where trucks laden with aid once thronged, today nothing passes by any more'.

With this action, the delegation restored dignity to the word 'presence', transforming it into active witness and direct denunciation. No more generic appeals, but a precise question: where does European policy stand when borders become barriers to life?

GAZA: REPORTERS UNDER THE BOMBS

In a context where the truth is often reduced to the silence of rubble, even the word of reporters becomes a target. At the Rafah crossing, 14 female journalists launched an appeal with a clear and inescapable tone: 'Stop shooting at journalists'. A cry born of the urgency to denounce what is taking place in the shadows. Since 2023, more than 220 Palestinian reporters have been killed under Israeli shelling; dozens are detained and held in prisons, their families persecuted. In the absence of the international press, kept out of Gaza for over 19 months, it is they - exposed and isolated - who are the only eyes left to tell the story. Some, in order to stand out, wear improvised vests with the inscription 'PRESS', which protect them from nothing but invisibility. 'The press is not a witness to the conflict: it is a target', they write. And this is perhaps the most dramatic detail of a conflict that those who document fear. The appeal of the women journalists from the Rafah crossing is addressed to Europe and the world: they ask for the protection of Palestinian reporters and access to the Strip for the international press to be guaranteed.

"A Palestinian journalist," Torrini continues, "explained to us that local reporters now move around inside their homes without wearing the bulletproof vests marked 'PRESS'. Those same vests, which should provide some semblance of protection, are now no longer provided. Nothing comes any more: neither helmets, nor protectors, nor any kind of safety material. Therefore, many journalists make do with makeshift means: they stuff their vests with sponges, recreating a kind of symbolic uniform. It is no longer a means of protection, but a gesture of dignity, almost a form of resistance, a way of saying 'we are there', even though they know perfectly well that those handmade paddings will never save them from a bullet, let alone a bomb'.

Rafah, May 2025. Photo by Daniele Napolitano

EUROPE MOVES, BUT TOO SLOWLY

Under increasing pressure from public opinion and some member states, the European Union announced the revision of the association agreement with Israel, invoking the human rights clause. The UK also suspended trade negotiations with Tel Aviv, while France and Canada threatened sanctions. However, these measures appear belated and insufficient in the face of what many are calling an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe. Meanwhile, the Israeli army insists on civilian targets: emblematic is the attack against a diplomatic delegation visiting Jenin, in the West Bank, which triggered condemnatory reactions from several European governments.

'Arriving at the Rafah crossing had a strong echo in the Arab world,' Torrini comments. 'We ended up on Al Jazeera, on I Am Palestine, on various Middle Eastern media. It served to tell, to circulate another narrative. Perhaps it is no coincidence that, immediately after our return, some European leaders started to raise their voices. Three MEPs were with us in Rafah. A few days later, the President of the European Commission called for a review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. Italy and Germany opposed it, predictably, but something moved. The rest of Europe began to react.

As Italian activists, we know that we are in a delicate historical moment. Our government, like previous ones, continues to boast of its 'friendship with Israel'. But this rhetoric is beginning to show cracks, especially compared to other European countries that - albeit slowly and not out of sudden moral conscience - appear to be struggling in the face of growing public pressure'.

Today, international civil society has a margin for action, albeit limited, to denounce the inaction of its governments. In this context, the direct confrontation between the solidarity caravan and local realities has led to the drafting of an official document, addressed to the Prime Minister, with the request for a clear and unequivocal stance against the war.

The symbolic and political significance of this initiative will depend on the ability of the oppositions to remain cohesive and recognise the centrality of the Palestinian issue. The testimonies heard on the ground, the numbers of civilians killed are evidence that can no longer be ignored.

"The Palestinian issue today is much more than a local conflict: it is a reflection of a new global paradigm. On the one hand, a colonial power that uses apartheid as an instrument of conquest and territorial control; on the other hand, an international humanitarian system that, born after the Second World War to protect peoples affected by conflict, is today degenerating into a commercial, even profitable mechanism. Humanitarian aid has become a political lever and its operators are now declared targets. Some fear that we are moving towards a model in which assistance is entrusted to private foundations or pro-Western organisations, supported by Israel and the United States, emptying the very concept of international aid of meaning and legitimacy. In this context, the US decision to cut USAID funds and dismantle the cooperation agency is a clear signal'.

Palestine, in this framework, becomes a laboratory. An experiment. What happens there prefigures models destined to be replicated everywhere: in any context of occupation, siege or colonisation.

'This is why politics must act,' Torrini concludes. "If degradation consolidates in Palestine, it risks spreading everywhere. And this is where political as well as moral lucidity is needed. During the delegation's stay, with jurists and academics, we discussed at length not only the legitimacy of the term genocide, but also the solid international legal framework that already exists: from the rulings of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, to the legal instruments available to European governments to impose sanctions. The instruments, therefore, are there. What is lacking is the political will. This is demonstrated by the fact that the motion tabled by the opposition to suspend sending arms to Israel was rejected. On the other hand, the majority's motion to make further military purchases from Israel passed. Yet a responsible government should neither sell nor buy weapons from a state that is, in fact, massacring a civilian population as such. In theory, everything is clear, but in practice, the actions continue to fall short'.

Interview by Daniela Galiè published in Dinamopress on 23 May 2025. Photos by Daniele Napolitano.

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