«We are all here united by a single idea and a single heart. We march today in history to remind all the leaders of the world that Peace is possible. Palestine is waiting for you.” These are the words of the mayor of Bethlehem, Maher Nicola Canawati, to open the Perugia Assisi March for peace and brotherhood. And a banner with the word Fraternity was placed at the beginning of the procession which walked for about 19 kilometers under the slogan “Imagine all the people”. There were many Palestinian flags, but also those of Ukraine and other countries suffering the damage of war in one of the most attended editions of recent years. There was a numerous presence of associations, movements and individual citizens but also of institutions. At the forefront are the president of the Umbria Region, Stefania Proietti, of the President of the Province of Perugia, Massimiliano Presciutti and the mayor Vittoria Ferdinandi. «This is the day in which many women and men take on the responsibility of doing something for peace», said the president of the PerugiAssisi Foundation, Flavio Lotti. «Walking», he added, «maybe it’s a small thing but it’s very important. It will help us rediscover the beauty of brotherhood. Rediscovering ourselves together on the path to peace will help us transform this new energy into the commitment that is urgently needed every day. We need to rebuild a conscience, a culture and a policy of peace. They shout it in Gaza, in Ukraine and in Sudan. Today we are here for them.”
«This sea that defends humanity is a stupendous image. Thank you Perugia, you have never been so beautiful”, underlined the mayor Vittoria Ferdinandi. «I want to thank all the people who woke up at dawn today to join us from all over Italy, the students who prepared the banners and flyers, the schools and universities for this which is a great act of resistance to the logic of war and inhumanity. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to you young people, those whom we had condemned to the trenches of solitude, of virtuality, of individualism” And, he again thanked “for having taken to the streets in recent weeks to remind us that under the bombs of Gaza our collective conscience was also dying, wounded by inaction and resignation. So I tell you, from the march founded by Aldo Capitini, that peace is too important to leave only the powerful to deal with it. Peace must be made by the people again. The people know that peace is the children who go to school, not the 200 schools destroyed in Gaza; peace is giving bread to the hungry, not using hunger as a weapon for death. Peace is knowing that, when international law is reduced to an optional extra, it is not just a people who are hurt, but our democracies.”
