«Do not aim the spotlight and microphones on me, but look at the reason why I was going to Palestine. We pay attention to what is happening there ». This were the words of Don Nandino Capovilla, Parish priest of Marghera and member of Pax Christi, after being forced to return to Italy by a decree of Espulsone issued by the Israeli authorities once he arrived at Tel Aviv airport, Monday 11 August. To report the words of Capovilla, in a press conference organized by Pax Christi, was Betta Tusset, also a member of the Italian Movement for Peace, Which has made numerous trips to the Holy Land and with Don Nandino is the promoter of the “Ponti non Muri” campaign. Together, Tusset and Capovilla wrote several volumes dedicated to Palestine, the last one is Under the sky of Gazareleased a few months ago.
Don Capovilla was retained for seven hours while traveling with a group of 18 people from the pax Christi “Ponti non wall” campaign – arrived in the West Bank – in one of the pilgrimages of justice promoted by the movement. An Israeli agent – said the priest at the press conference – He made him known through a document that he is “a danger to the state of Israel”. He was asked to sign the document but he refused to do it. He explained that he had not suffered harassment, while “millions of people in Palestine are instead deprived of the freedom to go to the hospital, move, live”. He then recalled that in November 2024 the International Criminal Court issued a setback against President Netanyahu and other Israeli authorities: “Who is it to be arrested?” And he has moved a strong criticism of the governments of the countries that still support the government of Israel.
They parftecita at the press conference too Don Renato Sacconational councilor of Pax Christi, e Monsignor Giovanni Ricchiuti, President of the Movement, which, in connection with the West Bank, recalled The drama of Taibeh, the only Palestinian village entirely Christianwhere there is no Hamas, in which the inhabitants undergo violence from the Israeli settlers.
“The international campaign” Ponti does not wall “, explained Betta Tusset,” was born in October 2004 and we represent the Italian, national section. In these 21 years the goal has always been Going to the occupied Palestinian territory, which means cisgiordan, Jerusalem and Gaza, going to Israel to meet the groups and associations that work together with the Palestinians, People oppressed by an occupant state, also go to listen to the Israelis who fight for justice in that land, because the rights are guaranteed and all. And to go to Palestine to meet Christian and Muslim communities, in the refugee camps, in the realities in which the population has been suffering for decades, in the West Bank and, with the situation that was created after 7 October 2023, in Gaza through what we do not hesitate to call genocide “.
Tusset added: «We at Pax Christi for twenty years have accompanied groups of people in Palestine and We will continue to do it with the strength of humanity that we meet in that land, and with the strength of the law, because if we say – and we say it with conviction – that we are biased, it means that we are on the side of international law and international humanitarian law. And by appealing to this right we recognize that there is a population that is absolutely oppressed in everyday life. This is why our pilgrimages are a going, get to know, embrace, share and then come back. The other activities we carry out are connected to raising awareness in our country, turning Italy, meeting groups, communities, associations such as scouts, anyone who wants to listen to us and join us in an attempt to give voice to those who do not have it. We lend to them the voice, respecting their history, their pain, their culture, their desire to live in that land in peace, together with the other people who live it, all with the same rights and the desire to live free “.
(In the photo, Don Nandino Capovilla)
