AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Hamas has agreed to part of President Trump's plan to end the war with Israel. More on that elsewhere in today's show. Also today, large demonstrations in countries around the world calling for an end to that conflict. Protests brought hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets in Italy. That's according to the labor union that helped organize them. NPR's Ruth Sherlock reports from the demonstration in Rome.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS #1: (Chanting) Stop stop genocide.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS #2: (Chanting) Stop stop genocide.
RUTH SHERLOCK, BYLINE: The mood here on the street in Rome and in a hundred other demonstrations across Italy today is people coming out to say, enough is enough. We want an end to the war and an end to the violence in Gaza.
ALISA BIZZARI: (Speaking Italian).
SHERLOCK: "This goes beyond politics. It's simply a moral duty to be here today," says Alisa Bizzari, a shop assistant in Rome taking part in the protest. We're walking in a crowd of thousands who fill a grand avenue as far as the eye can see.
CLAUDIA BARESSI: (Speaking Italian).
SHERLOCK: "There were so many of us here it made me cry this morning," said Claudia Baressi. She says she's felt demoralized by all the conflict in the world recently, and this has reignited a small light inside of her.
BARESSI: (Speaking Italian).
SHERLOCK: It's not just Israel they're angry at. Protesters are unhappy with their own government and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS #3: (Singing in non-English language).
SHERLOCK: Meloni criticized the activists on the recent flotilla of 46 boats that tried to bring aid to Gaza but was stopped by the Israeli Navy, saying their actions would do nothing to help the Palestinians and could even damage a peace deal proposed this week by Donald Trump.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Chanting) Free free Palestine.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS #4: (Chanting) Free free Palestine.
SHERLOCK: We're seeing these kind of protests all over Europe and other parts of the world too.
Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Switzerland and Ireland are just some of the countries where demonstrators have taken to the streets.
DANIELE MOROSI: (Speaking Italian).
SHERLOCK: Protester Daniele Morosi says Meloni and other world leaders have failed to hold Israel to account after almost two years of conflict.
MOROSI: (Speaking Italian).
SHERLOCK: This is about Gaza, but Morosi says he's also worried about what he calls rising right-wing authoritarianism around the world.
MOROSI: (Speaking Italian).
SHERLOCK: "This challenge to democracy," 22-year-old Morosi says, "is really frightening for us young people." So seeing so many people together, exercising their freedom of speech to call for peace in Gaza in these dark times, he says, it brings comfort.
Ruth Sherlock, NPR News, Rome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
