Strike for Gaza 🍉

Today in Italy, a nationwide strike for Palestine brought the country to a halt. Schools, offices, shops, everything stopped. The streets and squares filled with crowds carrying banners and flags, demanding justice and liberation for Palestine.

The nationwide strike in Italy was a powerful reminder that civil society remains a driving force in the struggle for justice. When schools, shops, and workplaces came to a halt, the message was clear: daily life cannot continue as normal while mass atrocities are taking place in Gaza.

But Italy is not alone. Across Europe, while some governments move toward recognizing the State of Palestine, grassroots movements are finding different ways to resist complicity and assert solidarity with Gaza. In Spain, dockworkers have repeatedly refused to load or unload ships carrying weapons bound for Israel. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, hundreds gathered in the town of Hadžije, near Sarajevo, to draw attention to the genocide. In France and Germany, despite heavy repression, thousands continue to fill the streets week after week, insisting on their right to protest and to name the reality in Gaza as genocide. In Belgium and the Netherlands, campaigns have taken aim at financial institutions and universities, demanding an end to investments in companies that sustain occupation and apartheid.

These are not isolated acts. They reflect a deeper pattern: when governments close in support of Israel, civil society opens spaces for dissent, mobilisation and alternative forms of accountability. From strike actions to boycotts, from flotillas to student occupations, European movements are experimenting with strategies that connect local struggles with global demands for justice.

The Italian strike is thus not only a national story, but part of a wider European wake up call. It shows that civil society, even when fragmented and repressed, has the power to disrupt business as usual and to remind governments that their silence and complicity do not speak for the people.

In moments of systemic violence, solidarity becomes a practice of resistance. From Palermo to Paris, Barcelona to Berlin, European civil societies are showing that practice in action.

Read here our collection of articles highlighting global solidarity with Palestine! 🍉