“We know everything. If we want to go and see what happened and continue to happen since 1948 to the Palestinian population, we have the tools to do it. We know about the suffering of both peoples; But we know there are winners and won. occupants and employed, narrators and narrated ». They write like this Don Nandino Capovilla And Betta Tussetboth members of the Pax Christi Italia movement, in the final chapter of their latest book, Under the sky of Gaza (Edizioni La Meridiana). “Time will come, hopefully soon, that the peoples that inhabitant this land will speak, in a dialogue respectful of the dignity of each: that day will only come when the Israeli occupation on the Palestinian land will have ended”.
Parish priest in Marghera (Venice), Don Nandino Capovilla was national coordinator of Pax Christi Italia from 2009 to 2013. In his city he promotes initiatives and projects of social inclusion. Betta Tusset I live in Lido di Venice, is a support teacher and in the past he has been a project manager of a social inclusion program for migrant people in vulnerability. Together, Capovilla and Tusset have written several publications on Palestine, a land that both have known for many years.
Under the sky of Gaza retraces and explains the situation of the Gaza Strip, before and after the other terrorist attack of Hamas of 7 October 2023, Based on the stories of people, men, women, Palestinian children, who have faces and names, To prevent people from remaining only numbers and statistics, “to counter the” fading of the faces “of the victims”, as Norberto Julini, coordinator of Pax Christi in Italy, recalls in the preface. The facts narrated – it must be underlined – are not polluted or disintegrates by prejudices, are devoid of partisanosities, because they are substantiated by the rules and principles set by international law and international humanitarian law, which act as a compass, polar star, central reference of what is narrated. In fact, the book develops starting from the conversations of the two authors with Andrea De Domenico, funny of the OCHA, the United Nations Office for the coordination of humanitarian interventions, black Palestinian territories. OCHA has been present in Palestine since 2001 to coordinate humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian population, support the protection of the civilian population, inform about the humanitarian situation of the occupied Palestinian territory. Ocha Monitor, verification, acts on the basis of the United Nations Charter, international law and international humanitarian law, inspired by the principles of humanity, independence, neutrality and impartiality. For some months De Domenico has been transferred to Kyiv, Ukraine, after Israel has no longer renewed his visa to operate in Palestine.
Capovilla and Tusset met him and known him at the OCHA headquarters in Jerusalem, during their “pilgrimages of justice”., Knowledge trips to Palestine crosses whom the participants, as well as aa to visit the Holy Places, have the opportunity to come into close contact with Palestinian men and women, Talk to them, share moments of exchange, dialogue, comparison, in their homes, in their families, in their environment. The pilgrimages of justice – which after a long break followed to October 7, 2023 recently resumed – were born with the Campaign promoted by Pax Christi Italia “Ponti e non Muri” starting from 2004, as a response to the appeal launched by Monsignor Michel SabbahPalestinian with Israeli citizenship, Latin patriarch of Jerusalem from 1988 to 2008 (first Arabic to have been chosen for this assignment) to stop the construction of the separation barrier between Israel and the West Bank which began in 2002 plural, because in this way the continuity of a state is underlined).
Also, and even more, today this is the clear belief that animates the authors of the book: the only solution to an immense tragedy that has been consumed for too long is the end of the Israeli employment and the recognition of the Palestinian people to self -determination. The book is accompanied by two maps of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. And the chapters are accompanied and marked by the prayers written by Michel Sabbah, the first Arabic to have been appointed Latin PasquisConsiderable easts, invocations, torn supplies that reflect anguish, the disorientation of a battered population. “If men say they build peace, father, put them in their hearts, so that they learn to become artisans of peace, to build it as they persist in demolishing and demolishing,” Sabbah writes in one of his prayers. «The situation has become unbearable, no place is safe. We feel abandoned by everyone, but in you we have confidence, Lord. Give us the strength to persevere in your love ».
(High photo by Pietro Bolzonetti: Don Nandino Capovilla shows and explains the Map of the Strip during the presentation of the book “Under the sky of Gaza” in Fabriano)
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