Thousands of pro-Palestinian activists marched on the Venice international film festival on Saturday in a raucous but peaceful protest against the war in Gaza.
Gathering at the docks on the far side of the Lido, demonstrators waved Palestinian, Italian and rainbow flags alongside bright red union and socialist banners, their chants and slogans carried by the thump of politically charged hip hop and dance tracks blasting from a truck leading the march. The crowd — a mix of young and old, students, unionists, activists and cultural figures — came from across the region and across Europe, with several travelling from France, the U.K. and elsewhere to march here today.
“You are all an audience to genocide,” read one sign. Another: “Mothers of Gaza we are with you.” Chants of “Stop the genocide!” and “Free Palestine!” were shouted over loudspeakers in English, Italian, French and Arabic. The mood was celebratory, with the smoke of colored flares — green, yellow, red — surrounding the marchers.
Protest organizers, who had mobilized groups from across the Veneto region and beyond, demanded that Venice take a clear stand against Israeli military action on the Gaza strip and provide more space for Palestinian voices.
The crowd proceeded slowly across the island’s main thoroughfare toward the Palazzo del Cinema, subsuming small groups of festivalgoers with accreditation badges and lanyards in a sea of banners and watermelon pins, a symbol of Palestinian solidarity.
The march came to within around 1,000 feet of the festival’s red carpet, where Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, starring Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth and Oscar Isaac, was set to premiere. But Italian police, backed by two vans and around a dozen officers in riot gear, blocked the procession just outside the Quattro Fontane. The police made no move to disperse the crowd, which remained peaceful and celebratory.
Festival fans gathered for a glimpse of stars on the red carpet were too far away to hear the demonstrators’ chants. Unlike in past years, where activists managed to get closer to the carpet itself, authorities kept Saturday’s protest well back from the main festival area.
The demonstration disrupted bus services and film junkets at nearby hotels, but otherwise unfolded without incident.
The call comes days before the world premiere of The Voice of Hind Rajab, Kaouther Ben Hania’s competition title about the six-year-old Palestinian girl killed during Israeli military action in Gaza.
The Gaza war has cast a shadow over this year’s festival. Earlier this week, more than 600 artists and filmmakers signed an open letter under the Venice4Palestine banner, urging the Biennale to condemn what they called “genocide in Gaza” and to ensure Palestinian stories are represented on the Lido. A similar protest erupted during last year’s festival, when activists carrying Palestinian flags broke through police barriers and staged a sit-in on the red carpet just ahead of the premiere of Pablo Larraín’s Maria.
This year, demonstrators may not have reached the carpet, but their message — carried across the Lido by song, chant and banner — was impossible to ignore.
Penelope Roxborough contributed to this report.
