| Three cloth mannequins draped with an Israeli, a US and an Italian flag were publicly set on fire in front of Rome's central monument to the Unknown Soldier on Saturday, while a chorus of "10, 100, 1000 Nassariyahs" were chanted. |
The rally, attended by about 20,000 and organized by the small Communist party (PDCI) together with the Forum for Palestine and the extreme Left's social youth movement, took place in Rome simultaneously with a much larger and more mainstream demonstration in Milan for "Two Peoples, Two States." All coalition parties, represented by their political leaders (including Fausto Bertinotti, leader of the "Re-established Communist Party" and Speaker of the Senate), major Italian NGOs and unions participated in the Milan event whose turnout was estimated at 50,000.
Prime Minister Romano Prodi has called to task the Communist leader Oliviero Diliberto for having attended the Rome rally while fully aware of the extremist elements attached to his parade. Diliberto, a long-time sympathizer and friend of Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, marched up to Piazza Venezia but left in protest when masked and keffiyeh-wearing Palestinian Forum participants began the bonfire. The Israeli mannequin's helmet was marked "Nazi-Zionism."
| "One simply must not participate in certain rallies," Prodi admonished. |
"One simply must not participate in certain rallies," Prodi admonished.
The parliamentary opposition has demanded an account of this incident and the Court of Rome has launched an investigation.