We are Biellesi per la Palestina libera (Citizens of Biella for a Free Palestine), and we write these words to remind you: something can be done.
As Gramsci said—we will return to him later—we must take sides. We must be partisans.

We began gathering out of a moral necessity—to say, clearly and loudly, that what is happening is not a war. And for those who believe a truce is in place, let us be clear: there has been no truce.
Since 1948, the Palestinian people have never known a truce. The Zionist occupation has continued, uninterrupted, culminating in what is now referred to as the “response to October 7th.” The occupation persists, as you will see and feel in the documentary No Other Land.

This award-winning film, recognized at the Berlin Film Festival, exposes the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. The reality it portrays makes one thing painfully clear: the so-called “two-state solution” is a farce—revived by the hypocrisy of the international community, including our own government. A true two-state solution would require Israel to withdraw to pre-1967 borders. But we see neither the will nor the courage to challenge the Zionist government. Any other version of “two states” would leave Palestine as nothing more than the rubble of Gaza.Countless sources, including Israeli historians like Ilan Pappé, have demonstrated why the two-state solution is not only unjust but an insult to those forced to live under occupation.

Last month, in Biella, we hosted a discussion on Combattenti per la pace (Fighters for Peace), a book about former Israeli soldiers and members of the Palestinian resistance force who began a reconciliation process—much like what followed in post-apartheid South Africa or in Ireland after the IRA ceasefire. True reconciliation demands a deep and honest admission of responsibility from the perpetrators, so that forgiveness might become possible. Israel is an apartheid regime, just as South Africa was.
At the Berlin Film Festival, No Other Land co-director Yuval Abraham, an Israeli journalist, said:
“Basel [Adra, co-director and protagonist of the film] and I are the same age. I am Israeli, he is Palestinian. In two days, we will return to a land where we are not equals. I live under civil law, Basel under military law. We are 30 minutes apart, yet I can vote while Basel cannot. I can move freely; Basel is locked inside the occupied West Bank, like millions of Palestinians. This apartheid, this inequality, must end.”
Nothing could be clearer.

If you have read this far, you are likely among the few willing to listen—just as you are about to witness images that many refuse to see. But awareness alone is not enough. We are all complicit unless we find the courage to take a stand.
A few weeks ago, we gathered in the rain on Via Italia in Biella to say: even if the bombs stop, the occupation does not.
Many members of the Islamic community were there—children holding doves, young people with flags and banners, veiled and unveiled women, elders standing with quiet dignity.

And what about us, Italians? We, who claim to stand for Freedom, Fraternity, and whatever remains of Equality? We were few. Yet, in that small crowd, we carried a portrait of Gramsci. We printed his words on our flyers and read them aloud in the streets:
“Even when everything is or seems lost, we must calmly begin again, starting from the beginning.”
We ask you to take sides. To be partisans.
The times we live in demand it—with strength, and with calm.