About twenty pro-PAL students, affiliated with left-wing university groups, interrupted a lecture yesterday at the University of Pisa's political science department . And within moments, what was supposed to be little more than a demonstration for Gaza escalated into a physical attack on a professor who had attempted to stop the protesters.
"They accuse me of being a Zionist," says Rino Casella , associate professor of comparative constitutional law, "just because I've always said I'm not pro-PAL." University Minister Anna Maria Bernini announced that "if it were to happen again, the ministry will consider filing a civil suit against the attacks, because the university is about inclusiveness, openness, democracy, and never violence."
The teacher who filed the complaint added: " None of the more than 200 students attending my lecture showed solidarity with these people, and when one student tried to snatch the Palestinian flag from their hands, the fighting broke out . I stood there as a shield, but both the boy and I were kicked and punched. The emergency room issued a seven-day medical report."
Rector Riccardo Zucchi immediately expressed solidarity with the professor, also acknowledging "the wisdom of the decisions made by the University in recent months, in deciding to reject any scientific research that might have military purposes and in expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people, victims of something that closely resembles ethnic cleansing. That said, any form of violence is unacceptable, and even interrupting a class is violence, especially when it escalates to physical assault."
Political reactions were immediate, with bipartisan condemnation, from Deputy Prime Minister and Northern League minister Matteo Salvini to the leader of the Brothers of Italy (FdI) group in the Chamber of Deputies, Galeazzo Bignami, and the vice president of the Democratic Party (PD) deputies, Simona Bonafè. Universities Minister Anna Maria Bernini also telephoned the rector, Casella himself, and the prefect of Pisa, Maria Luisa D'Alessandro.
(Unioneonline)
