Only international pressure can stop Israel, as it stopped apartheid in South Africa.

And if governments are complicit, who will put pressure on them? You and I, we, the people, starting with young people like Ella and Iddo of Mesarvot, like Daniel of Tikkun—a decolonial Jewish diaspora, like our children who refuse to submit to the logic of security, the militarization of school and civil society, the falsification of history in textbooks, the censorship, the manipulation, the lies spread with pride by a political class that flaunts blood-stained handshakes.

In Israel as here, wherever here may be.

I met Ella, Iddo, and Daniel last night in the far north of Italy, in Valtellina, in a room packed with people of all ages. Antonio Scordia, Amnesty International’s North Africa and Middle East coordinator, introduced them at an event organized by AssopacePalestina, Amnesty International, and GIT Bancaetica.

Ella and Iddo are conscientious objectors, anti-colonialist activists, and communists. Iddo is the party secretary and Ella is a member of the council; they are 18 and 19 years old.

I don’t know how old Daniel is, probably in his early twenties, but he’s clear-eyed and has clear ideas. In his speech, he contrasts the Gasparri Bill (a recent bill proposed in the Italian Senate that equates anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism) with the Jerusalem Declaration on Anti-Semitism, which states in paragraph C, point 2: “It is not anti-Semitic to support agreements that grant full equality to all inhabitants ‘between the river and the sea.'” And in point 4: “Boycott, divestment, and sanctions are common, nonviolent forms of political protest against states. In the case of Israel, they are not, in and of themselves, anti-Semitic.”

Daniel recalls the value of remembering all genocides and the universal value of that Never Again, which we repeat every year.

“Israel is an army with a state rather than a state with an army,” Ella declares.

A statement that resonates because we are no longer accustomed to explicit honesty.

Since its founding, Israel has based the bulk of its import and export transactions on the trade in weapons and military intelligence equipment. And apparently, that’s exactly what the European Union is aiming for, because so far, death has been making more money than life.

Iddo describes Israeli schooling as a cognitive manipulation that triggers vulnerability and insecurity. It’s like watching a movie: Innocence. Dehumanizing others becomes a collective necessity, just as arming oneself and attacking, in the dystopian hallucination, becomes a defense strategy. Thus, the entire society is structured around a military career, presented as a stimulating opportunity, a gateway to realizing talents and aspirations in any field, starting with the IDF rock band that will make you a pop star, or the editorial that will transform you into a talk-show journalist.

How bizarre Israeli society is… As bizarre as ours, wherever we live. In Italy, for example, a random high school: September, meeting with the police; October, invitation to participate in an extracurricular training program mentored by Leonardo, the same woman reported to the International Criminal Court for complicity in genocide; November, meeting with the Carabinieri [Translator’s note: the Carabinieri are a police force in Italy, having both domestic law enforcement and military duties] to venture into criminology; December, the proposal for a military summer camp, the Audacia 2026 course.

Ella, Iddo, and Daniel say it openly: the escalation of violence and repression, the advance of the structure of manipulation, control, and militarization, will not stop, either in Palestine or elsewhere, as long as they enjoy international impunity and as long as we remain holed up, watching the disintegration of the rule of law unfold live.

So? Ella concludes: we demand the release of Marwan Barghouthi, the only Palestinian leader capable of supporting peace between Israel and Palestine and engaging in constructive dialogue with the international community. Let us boycott, denounce, demonstrate, and show our bodies and faces.

Yes. Let’s do as Ella, Iddo, and Daniel do, let’s do as our kids do, who, when they open up to the world and don’t recognize themselves in what they find, confront each other, seek each other out, inform themselves, and unite.

Ella and Iddo in Israel, us and our kids in our allied and accomplice states.