Italy-wide protests have shed light on how deeply felt is the public sentiment against Israel’s war in Gaza. Meloni’s position changed on the issue, and she stated that Italy would recognise the state once Israeli hostages are freed and Hamas is out of the government.
Since a few other European Union members have declared their willingness this week, Italy’s right-wing government would consider the recognition of the Palestinian state on conditional terms.
On Tuesday night, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said her government would propose a motion for the recognition of Palestine in the Italian Parliament, with two conditions: the release of hostages taken by Hamas during its horrendous 7 October 2023 attacks and the exclusion of Hamas from any role in a future government of Palestine.
“I am not against recognising Palestine, but we need to focus on the right priorities,” she said. The decision, coming from Belgium and France as well with its provisions, has been almost a complete volte-face of Meloni’s position, which was in contrast to Italian public sentiment and had set off a wave of protests in Italian cities.
This came into existence in favour of more pressure being put on Israel to cease the war and to prohibit the export of all kinds of weaponry and military components from Italy to Israel.
According to YouTrend’s founding partner Lorenzo Pregliasco, the start of 2025 marked a shift in Italian public opinion. Even voters from parties closer to Israel, like the right-wing Fratelli d’Italia and centre-right Forza Italia, began to criticize the Israeli government’s actions.
“I think the extensive media coverage of the Gaza war, highlighting the humanitarian issues in the strip, has truly affected people who did not have a strong opinion on the issue,” Pregliasco told Euronews in an interview.
In his view, this also led to a gradual change in Giorgia Meloni’s government’s position. “Of course, they do not want to take a radical approach like the leftist parties do. However, I have noticed a clear evolution, especially with recent strong criticism of the war, the ground invasion of Gaza, and the humanitarian effects of Israeli bombing,” he said.
Criticism of Israel and support for Palestinians have traditionally defined Italian left-wing parties. However, today Pregliasco sees less distance between the government’s and the opposition’s views on the issue.
Meloni still refuses to call Israeli military action in Gaza “genocide,” which leftist parties typically do. However, she has agreed to recognize Palestine after several months in which she refused to do so.
A recent survey showed that 40.6% of Italians prefer the recognition of a fully sovereign Palestinian state, whereas 21.9% of the respondents preferred the establishment of a temporary international administration. Another, more recent survey from the Italian project YouTrend paints a worrying image of the perception of the Israelis in Italy after the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023.
Among respondents, 60% considered that Israel “should withdraw from all the occupied territories in the West Bank”; 63% considered “it is committing a genocide in the Gaza Strip”; 64% believed that “it oppresses and systematically discriminates against the Palestinian people”, and 65% considered Israel’s reactions to the Hamas attacks “disproportionate” and “mainly targeting innocent civilians”.
Leave a Reply