‘No to Zionist tourism’: Italian ports see rising backlash against Israeli tourism amid Gaza war
Public anger across Italy continues to swell as communities mobilize against, what protesters describe as, the normalization of Israeli aggression through “Zionist tourism.”
On Saturday, two separate ports witnessed demonstrations against cruise ships arriving from the occupied port of Haifa, Italian outlets reported.
In Olbia, activists gathered in Piazza Elena di Gallura to oppose the arrival of the “Crown Iris,” a cruise liner owned by Israeli shipping company Mano Maritime.
Although the ship’s stop had been canceled months earlier, local organizers said the protest was necessary to ensure the island of Sardinia, where the city is located, did not become a “safe passage for violators of international law.”
Protesters condemned attempts to present Israeli tourism as apolitical, stressing that allowing such ships to dock while the Israeli regime’s war of genocide on the Gaza Strip continued would amount to welcoming “potential war criminals.”
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Hours away in the city of Brindisi, tensions were markedly sharper. Dozens of Italian activists, organized by the “Committee Against the Genocide of Palestinians,” assembled at dawn to denounce the docking of the same Israeli-operated cruise ship.
As the "Crown Iris" arrived around 8 a.m., Israeli passengers exiting the ship clashed verbally with protesters, with video footage showing some passengers responding with obscene hand gestures, mock choking motions, and shouted threats such as “Don’t mess with the Israeli people” and “I’ll kill you.”
Demonstrators held banners reading, “Zionists out” and “end cooperation with Israel,” saying the vessel was carrying “Israeli soldiers posing as tourists.”
A brief physical altercation, including shoving, spitting, and shouting, prompted Italian police to intervene to separate the groups.
Authorities reported no injuries or arrests, but the incidents highlighted the mounting friction between pro-Palestinian civil society groups and Israeli tourism amid the war.
The developments came as hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in the coastal sliver amid daily Israeli violations of a ceasefire deal concluded in early October amid hopes of cessation of the genocide.
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The war had already claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Gazans even before the deal was inked.
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‘No to Zionist tourism’: Italian ports see rising backlash against Israeli tourism amid Gaza war
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