Anti-Israel activists broke into the world-famous Leaning Tower of Pisa on Friday to drape the Palestinian flag from the 14th-century structure amid student-led protests throughout Italy on Friday.
The Tower of Pisa, a Unesco World Heritage site in Central Italy, was used by anti-Israel agitators to push their political agenda against the Jewish state.
According to the ANSA news agency, approximately 15 activists broke off from a larger procession in the city, throwing bottles and other objects at police as they left the approved route of the protest.
The group then broke into the tower, bursting past staff at the historic structure. After climbing halfway up the tower, they set off smoke bombs and draped a large Palestinian flag from the monument.
The student organisation behind the protest demanded a “ceasefire and freedom for Palestine”. They went on to denounce “the genocide that Israel is carrying out after 75 years of colonisation,” as well as the Italian government for “sending and selling weapons to the Zionist army”.
Local police said they are going through footage from the protest to identify those who broke into the tower, however, they said that the activists can only be charged if the Opera della Primaziale Pisana which is in control of the Piazza dei Miracoli square upon which the tower sits decides to press charges.
Meanwhile, another World Heritage Site in Italy was targeted on Friday, with pro-Palestine protesters surrounding Brunelleschi’s famed cathedral in Florence and preventing tourists from entering the building.
The activists hung banners which read: “Beauty cannot be admired while genocide is underway” and “Strike alongside the Palestinian people”.
In Milan, activists splattered storefronts of banks and clothing shops in the city centre with red paint and in Bologna, student activists burned portraits of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni for her support of Israel against the Hamas terrorists.
In total, the Union of University Students claimed that there were protests against Israel in at least 44 cities on Friday.
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