by Michele San Pietro
I live in Reggio Emilia, a town of 150,000 inhabitants located in Northern Italy between Parma and Modena, just about 40 miles west of Bologna.
Reggio Emilia is famous for Parmesan cheese. It’s also known as a town with a very efficient early childhood education, to the point that its kindergartens are said to be the best in the world, visited every year by delegations from all over the planet.
At the same time, it’s a town where most people are politically on the left. Ever since the end of World War Two, which gave democracy back to Italian childhood education, the mayor has always been from that political area.
Recently, a local foundation named Reggio Children invited a delegation of American kindergarten teachers of Jewish faith to a meeting whose only subject was to have been early childhood education — nothing else. However, the local far left protested strongly, stating that those teachers should not have set foot in town without signing a declaration condemning the alleged genocide going on in Gaza. Reggio Children sided with them and drew up a document the American teachers would have had to sign to be allowed to take part in the meeting. Of course, they refused, and the meeting did not take place.
This unheard-of event received considerable coverage in the Italian and American media. All the American teachers discriminated against were deeply disappointed, because they were treated so badly by authorities of a country they have always regarded as a friend of the United States.
As a citizen of Reggio Emilia, I’m ashamed of the disgraceful behavior of my town’s authorities. I think the mayor and the city councilor for education should resign; of course, they haven’t, since in this country, nobody hands in his resignation unless compelled to do so, not even politicians convicted at first instance by a court of law.
I hope I will never again see something so shameful in my country. Personally, I’m not under the impression that a genocide is going on in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army is there to defeat a terrorist organization, not to exterminate the Palestinian people. I would rather call genocide what Hamas did in the south of Israel on October 7, 2023, when they butchered thousands of innocent and defenseless Israelis, including many women and children.
Of course, in a democracy, you are quite free to hold the opinions you wish. But under no circumstances may you impose your opinions on anyone else or politicize everything. We are in the West, not in Iran, Afghanistan, China, or North Korea.