– Musician: Checkpoint 303 (activist sound art project), unplugged Oud. https://www.facebook.com/checkpoint303 / https://www.instagram.com/checkpoint303
– Song: an improvised interpretation of the song “Bella Ciao” an Italian protest folk song from the late 19th century, originally sung by the mondina workers and adapted by the partisans during the war.
– Video by Marco G. Ferrari (filmmaker usa and italy)—poppies (used as a symbol of resistance by the italian partisans) and eyes (Marisela Tapia, dancer).
“During WWII my grandfather on my mom’s side, Giovanni Boccaccini, fought as an Italian resistance fighter in Udine. My grandfather on my father’s side, Guglielmo Ferrari, escaped from a worker camp in nazi Germany and safely made it back to Verona before the end of the war. Throughout the war my grandparents lost homes, siblings were separated, the families were in constant fear of being bombed.
When we’d go back to Italy during the summers many years later and visit extended family, as a child I remember listening to after dinner stories of the war and the Resistance against desperation and fascist ideology. This is where I would first hear the word fascist and then try to understand what a fascist was and what can make a person, a group, a nation turn to hate and violence against another. This is where I’d also learn how unity can get you through to the next day together. Many years later the term fascist is still slippery and the reasoning is not so clear. What is certain is that it’s shadow still looms and is guiding two governments and their approaches to life and humanity closer to darkness. What is certain is that no matter how dark things get there is still the possibility for something new and beautiful to form through solidarity.
What the US backed neofascist government in Israel is doing in Gaza is a crime against humanity. Since October 7th, Over 20,000 people of been killed, 2 million people have been displaced. This is not a war waged in self-defense and will never achieve peace for anyone. The tragic and horrific situation is described in detail in the article and video below.”
Marco G. Ferrari
– “This Is a Colonial War”: Historian Rashid Khalidi on Israel, Gaza & the Future of Palestine, Democracy Now, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSug7Vgz48U&list=PL1kgLWH7MGkXkAWEzCtqsWY14U9C8SVVl&index=1&t=1348s
– Death and Destruction in Gaza, John J. Mearsheimer, https://mearsheimer.substack.com/p/death-and-destruction-in-gaza?r=6o004&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web