Today Italy has shown the worst side of the square. In Milan and Bologna — and then, in many other cities — the mobilization in support of Gaza overflowed into clashes, blockades, sieges of stations and urban hubs. Indecent scenes that cancel, in an instant, the nobility of the declared intent: to defend civilians and demand peace.
The paradox is evident: a just cause — the protection of life, the ceasefire, humanitarian corridors — defended with wrong methods. Civil confrontation becomes a test of logistical strength; the city, instead of being a place of shared rights, turns into a permanent field of pressure. The political message unravels: upon the Middle Eastern tragedy is superimposed a catalogue of domestic resentments that add nothing to the Palestinian cause and much to the loss of credibility of those who take to the streets.
Thus, the original message of peace and solidarity dissolves, offering arguments to those who call for a harder line and delegitimizing the act of protest itself.
The comparison with the “Hot Autumn” comes naturally, but it holds only up to a point. Back then — whether liked or not — the perimeter was clear: workers’ rights, wages, contracts, safety. Today too many squares swing between interchangeable slogans and variable objectives. And while Gaza is invoked, concrete Italy disappears from the background.
And here lies the point: from Gaza to bandages. While one speaks, even legitimately, of geopolitics, hospitals must deal with strained budgets, lack of staff and — in many places — waiting times that exceed the acceptable; the cost of housing crushes families and students; schools stagger under precarious buildings, insufficient staff, and drop-out rates; workers see rights compressed and protections minimal, with the cost of living still heavy, eroding wages and savings.
It is a list little suited for television, but it is what decides daily life.
One might say: the Hot Autumn produced the Workers’ Statute. True. But that statute remains, to a large extent, a product of the ’70s: a fundamental victory, certainly, but never really rethought for today’s fragmented work — false self-employment, platforms, broken shifts, fixed-term contracts chasing one another — even after reforms such as the Jobs Act.
If we really want to talk about rights, it is there that we must re-weave: modern protections, decent wages, true safety, reconciliation of life and work times.
Let it be clear that the spirit that animates those who take to the streets for Gaza is noble. But a mature democracy does not measure the strength of ideas by the noise they produce, but by their ability to convince without trampling on the rights of others. Cities are not hostages to be taken: they are communities to be respected.
If one truly wants to put the Gaza question at the center of the agenda, the path is not the siege of essential services, nor symbolic guerrilla warfare against commuters: it is seriousness, data, proposals, responsibility.
