Join Us in Italy to Support the Nationwide Strike Against Israel

I will be in Italy, along with Francesca Albanese, Yanis Varoufakis and Greta Thunberg, to support the nationwide strike called by Italian unions to halt all arms shipments to Israel

Editor’s note: A post with this same headline was sent out a few minutes ago. That post had the wrong video linked to it — for The Chris Hedges Report email list, we are sending out another post with the correct link attached below.

Western nations will do nothing to halt Israel’s ongoing slaughter of Palestinians. They will do nothing to alleviate the hunger and disease that is decimating Palestinians in Gaza. Our nations have been, and remain, full partners in the genocide. They will remain partners until the genocide reaches its grim conclusion.

Unless we stop them.

At least 242 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israel since the “ceasefire” was announced. The first major ceasefire breach led to Israeli airstrikes that killed more than 100 Palestinians, including 46 children, and wounded 150 others. Palestinians in Gaza continue to endure daily bombings that obliterate homes. Israel has destroyed more than 1,500 buildings since the ceasefire began, often decimating entire neighborhoods with demolition charges. Shelling and gunfire continue to kill and wound civilians, while drones continue to hover overhead, broadcasting ominous threats or firing on civilians. Essential food items, humanitarian aid and medical supplies remain scarce because of the ongoing siege. And the Israeli army controls more than half of the Gaza Strip, shooting anyone, including families, who come too close to its invisible border, known as the yellow line. Their offense? Returning to the ruins of their homes.

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Israel has systematically made Gaza uninhabitable, transforming it into the vast graveyard of all concentration camps.

Few in Israel object. 82 percent of Israeli Jews support the idea of expelling the entire population of Gaza and nearly a half support killing them. 80 percent of Israelis say they are “not so troubled” or “not troubled at all” by reports of famine and suffering among the population in Gaza.

Make no mistake. Israel is a genocidal state and a genocidal society.

This is why on November 28 and 29, I will be in Genoa and Rome, along with Francesca Albanese, Yanis Varoufakis and Greta Thunberg, to support the nationwide strike called by Italian unions — to halt all arms shipments to Israel and protest the calls by the government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to increase defense spending.

We must not let our political leaders normalize genocide and war. We must not abandon the rule of law. We must not, by our silence or passivity, be complicit. We must stop the shipments of bombs and weapons to Israel. We must boycott companies that do business in Israel along with every sporting event with Israeli teams, every concert held by Israeli musicians and every exchange with Israel academics and students. We must force our universities and institutions to divest from Israel. We must sever diplomatic ties. We must show up when Israeli leaders hold press conferences or state visits. We must be present at every port when Israeli tour ships dock. We must end the genocide.

It is up to us, those who take to the streets, those who organize strikes. There is no other mechanism to save us. None.

We cannot fail. If we do, Gaza is only the start. The world is breaking down under the onslaught of the climate crisis, which is triggering mass migrations, failed states and catastrophic wildfires, hurricanes, storms, flooding and droughts. As global stability unravels, the terrifying machine of indiscriminate industrial violence and mass murder, so familiar to Palestinians, will become ubiquitous.

The militarized drones, helicopter gunships, walls and barriers, checkpoints, coils of concertina wire, watch towers, detention centers, deportations, brutality and torture, denial of entry visas, apartheid existence that comes with being undocumented, loss of individual rights and electronic surveillance, are as familiar to the desperate migrants along the Mexican border or attempting to enter Europe as they are to the Palestinians. Soon, unchecked, these tools of state repression will be used against us.

Israel embodies the ethnonationalist state the far-right in the U.S. and Europe dreams of creating for themselves, one that rejects political and cultural pluralism, as well as legal, diplomatic and ethical norms. Israel is admired by these proto-fascists precisely because it is racist and lawless, because it uses indiscriminate lethal force to “cleanse” its society of those branded as human contaminants.

By refusing to cooperate, by shutting the machinery of commerce and the state down, by resisting evil, we assert our dignity and our freedom. We chip away at the edifice of despotic power. We sustain the flames of hope and justice. We keep alive the capacity to be human.

So, join millions of us on the streets of Italy and on your own streets. The fight for Palestine is the fight for all of us.

Photos

Food distribution in Gaza amid Israeli blockade

JABALIA, GAZA - MARCH 27: Crowd of starving Palestinians, including children, wait to receive food distributed by charity organizations amid Israel’s blockade as the situation dramatically deteriorates in Jabalia refugee camp, Gaza on March 27, 2024. (Photo by Mahmoud Issa/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Israel killed 5 Palestinians despite ceasefire in Gaza

DEIR AL BALAH, GAZA - OCTOBER 19: Palestinians mourn for their relatives those who lost their lives in Israeli airstrike despite ceasefire in Gaza Strip on October 19, 2025. 5 Palestinians lost their lives in Israeli attacks. (Photo by Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Piles of garbage accumulate in Gaza City

GAZA CITY, GAZA - NOVEMBER 11: Palestinian children spend hours searching through piles of garbage to find food and basic supplies in Gaza City, Gaza on November 11, 2025. Palestinians in Gaza, deprived of basic necessities such as shelter, food, and clean water, are struggling to survive under harsh living conditions. These children, who spend hours among the trash to help meet their families’ needs, also face the risk of contracting infectious diseases due to the lack of waste collection and the inability to maintain personal hygiene. (Photo by Saeed M. M. T. Jaras/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Israeli attacks on Dahieh area continue in Lebanon

BEIRUT, LEBANON - NOVEMBER 17: Israeli army unmanned aerial vehicle flies over the skies of Beirut after an Israeli airstrike on the Dahieh area in the south of Beirut, Lebanon on November 17, 2024. (Photo by Houssam Shbaro/Anadolu via Getty Images)

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A general view of a concrete block marking the “Yellow Line” drawn by the Israeli military in Bureij, central Gaza Strip, on November 4, 2025. Israel has withdrawn its forces from Gaza’s main cities, but still controls around half of the territory from positions on the Yellow Line, and has resisted calls to allow aid through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. (Photo by Bashar Taleb / AFP) (Photo by BASHAR TALEB/AFP via Getty Images)

Global Sumud Flotilla Activists Arrive In Greece After Deportation From Israel

ATHENS, GREECE - OCTOBER 6: Swedish activist Greta Thunberg speaks as she arrives at Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport on October 6, 2025 in Athens, Greece. Around 450 international activists from the Global Sumud Flotilla were detained last week, as Israeli forces seized several ships bound for Gaza. The flotilla had attempted to breach Israel’s blockade of the Palestinian territory to deliver a symbolic shipment of humanitarian aid. A growing number of the deported flotilla campaigners have alleged mistreatment by Israeli authorities during their detention. (Photo by Milos Bicanski/Getty Images)

‘Don’t Extradite Assange’ Protest Held In London Ahead Of Court Proceedings

LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 22: Economist and supporter of Julian Assange, Yanis Varoufakis, attends a demonstration outside Australia House on February 22, 2020 in London, England. Protestors against the UK government’s intention to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States, march from Australia House to Parliament Square. (Photo by Hollie Adams/Getty Images)

Israeli Settlers Establish Illegal Outposts

MAALE ADUMIM, WEST BANK - DECEMBER 09: Israeli settlers dance and sing as they arrive to the hills at the new E1 settlement area on December 9, 2007 near the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim in the West Bank. Right-wing Jewish settlers began attempts to set up 8 new illegal outposts in the West Bank, including in the E1 area which Israel says will link Maale Adumim to Jerusalem. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

President Trump Meets With Visiting Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni At The White House

WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 17: U.S. President Donald Trump greets Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni outside the West Wing of the White House on April 17, 2025 in Washington, DC. Leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, Meloni is in Washington to discuss a range of bilateral issues, negotiate the 20 percent “reciprocal” tariff Trump imposed on European imports to the U.S. and to discuss pharmaceutical imports. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

TOPSHOT-US-ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN-CONFLICT-PROTEST

TOPSHOT - Supporters of Palestine gather at Harvard University to show their support for Palestinians in Gaza at a rally in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on October 14, 2023. Thousands of Palestinians sought refuge on October 14 after Israel warned them to evacuate the northern Gaza Strip before an expected ground offensive against Hamas, one week on from the deadliest attack in Israeli history. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso / AFP) (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)

TOPSHOT-AFGHANISTAN-UN-CLIMATE-COP26-MIGRATION

TOPSHOT - This picture taken on October 17, 2021 shows a family relocating from an area due drought in Moqur district of Badghis province. - Drought stalks the parched fields around the remote Afghan district of Bala Murghab, where climate change is proving a deadlier foe than the country’s recent conflicts. (Photo by HOSHANG HASHIMI/AFP via Getty Images)

Powerful Winds Fuel Multiple Fires Across Los Angeles Area

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 8: A firefighter stands on top of a fire truck to battle the Palisades Fire while it burns homes on the Pacific Coast Highway amid a powerful windstorm on January 8, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. The fast-moving wildfire has grown to more than 2900-acres and is threatening homes in the coastal neighborhood amid intense Santa Ana Winds and dry conditions in Southern California. (Photo by Apu Gomes/Getty Images)

Southwest Faces Severe Drought Conditions

YUMA, ARIZONA - SEPTEMBER 27: Border patrol agents take people into custody next to the U.S.-Mexico border fence where the last of the Colorado River flows into Mexico on September 27, 2022 near Yuma, Arizona. The federal government has proposed an unprecedented plan to cut back on water supplies for Arizona, Nevada and California, where millions of people rely on its water and power, as climate change-driven drought continues to lower water levels at the biggest reservoirs in the nation, lakes Mead and Powell, to historic low capacities. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-IMMIGRATION

TOPSHOT - A person is detained as residents of Chicago’s Brighton Park neighborhood confront US Border Patrol and other law enforcement agents at a gas station after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents allegedly detained an unidentified man riding in his car, in Chicago, Illinois, on October 4, 2025. US President Donald Trump, who campaigned on a pledge to deport large numbers of migrants, has encouraged authorities to be more aggressive as he seeks to hit his widely reported target of one million deportations annually. (Photo by OCTAVIO JONES / AFP) (Photo by OCTAVIO JONES/AFP via Getty Images)

President Trump Meets With Visiting Israeli PM Netanyahu At The White House

WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 07: U.S. President Donald Trump (L) bids farewell to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he leaves the White House after a meeting on April 07, 2025 in Washington, DC. President Trump was meeting with Netanyahu to discuss ongoing efforts to release Israeli hostages from Gaza and newly imposed U.S. tariffs. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

TOPSHOT-ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN-CONFLICT

TOPSHOT - This picture taken from southern Israel shows a explosion lighting up the sky during an Israeli strike on the Gaza Strip early on November 19, 2023, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (Photo by Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD / AFP) (Photo by KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP via Getty Images)