I, Claudio Velardi, am not taking to the streets today: I contest the anti-Israel platform
“I read the platform that called for the demonstrations against violence against women: there are theses against Israel and I thought that I cannot be complicit in a distortion of reality about Hamas”. The post by Claudio Velardi, journalist, entrepreneur and communication consultant
Typically, before going to sleep, my wife and I communicate our agendas for the next day.
Last night Mikla told me that this morning, Saturday 25 November, she would participate in the demonstration against violence against women.
I, always reluctant to take to the streets, told her that I would be happy to be there too. The topic is too important to remain idle.
Even if I am not convinced by some aspects of the public debate that arose after Giulia's femicide.
I find, for example, the discussion on patriarchy surreal. That our society is a patriarchal society from the start is indisputable. Millennia of history, cultural anthropology, sociology, social psychology attest to this. Anyone who denies this data is ignorant or in bad faith.
In the same way, it is undeniable that the women's revolution has undermined the basic principles of the old patriarchal society: it is even superfluous to list the social and cultural achievements achieved by women in the last century (and thanks to their struggles, not courtesy of men).
Naturally, the path towards a total, complete overcoming of patriarchal society is far from complete.
To put it schematically, a very widespread equality of rights (I am talking about Western democracies) does not correspond to effective gender equality in positions of power, in the possibilities of access to careers.
Just as there is no equality in the daily life of families, where care work always remains the responsibility of women. And, above all, there is a lot of work to be done to achieve effective equality in behavior and widespread culture.
We are essentially living, from the point of view of gender balance (as in other areas), a real – gigantic – transition phase, which is leading us towards a society that we will no longer define as "patriarchal". And it will be very nice when we can say it. But today we still can't. Because there is a long way to go.
Well, for this very simple reason last night I told my wife that, overcoming my reluctance, I would participate in the day of mobilization.
Then this morning I read the platform that called the demonstrations, where it says that "the Italian state must stop being complicit in genocides throughout the world, because by openly supporting the colonial state of Israel, it is in fact supporting the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people." Forgetting October 7 , the Hamas rapes, the chilling videos, the bestial violence against women perpetrated by terrorists.
And then I thought that I cannot be an accomplice to this distortion of reality: I will not go to the demonstration.
And I damned factionalism, partisanship, prejudice, ideology. Terrible illnesses of the soul that prevent me from being part of a mobilization to which I would have joined with all my heart.
If, even on an issue that should unite, the horrible logic of division by political gangs had not prevailed.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/io-claudio-velardi-oggi-non-scendo-in-piazza-contesto-la-piattaforma-anti-israele/ on Sat, 25 Nov 2023 09:07:23 +0000.