Locarno became the latest film festival to see protests at the continuing situation in Gaza and Palestine‘s Occupied Territories.
While music from the Campari Lounge boomed into the evening, approximately 100 demonstrators unwound a shroud bearing the names of 60,000 people who have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war two and a half years ago.
One of the organizers, Dr. Michele Ghielmini from Swiss Healthcare Workers Against Genocide, told Variety that the protestors were not aligned to any political party and were not attempting to disrupt the festival. The location and time of the protest had been agreed with the festival organizers and the police.
The banner containing the 60,000 names had previously been displayed in Amsterdam and in front of the Swiss Parliament in Bern.
Ghielmini said: “The festival is an opportunity because a lot of people are here, a lot of people from all over the world, but also importantly, a lot of people from Switzerland. Not all people of Switzerland have been sensitive in the same way to these actions of the Swiss government, and in particular, the German part of Switzerland was less sensitive. The Italian and French-speaking parts were more sensitive to it, and because of the film festival, there are more people from the German part of Switzerland here. Also, more press from the German part of Switzerland, and because of that, we thought it would be a good moment again to call attention to what has happened and to what is still happening in Gaza.”
