“Esondare,” by Sandro Mezzadra, originally appeared in Italian on EuroNomade on October 6, 2025. It has been translated into English, and it is now appearing on Communis, with the author’s authorization. Read here the Spanish translation of the same text.
“We need to give the solidarity movement and the struggle against genocide, and for a free Palestine, a long-term perspective, and this is only achievable by combining solidarity with Gaza with a more general rooting of political initiative in everyday life.”
— Sandro Mezzadra
Flooding, bursting of the banks: these expressions, which in their literal meaning herald destruction, are well suited to capturing what we experienced in early October during four memorable days of permanent mobilization from the moment the Global Sumud Flotilla was blocked in international waters by the navy of a genocidal State. Joy and anger combined in varying proportions across Italy, while a new social composition took to the streets, blocking ports, stations, and highways. A threshold was crossed, as Italy returned to setting the pace of mobilization in Europe—from Berlin to Amsterdam, from Madrid to Lisbon.
“We wanted to liberate Palestine,” read a sign in Rome, “Palestine has liberated us.” There is no doubt that in recent days, multitudes of young people, women, and men have seen in the genocide in Gaza a reflection of the injustice that in different ways prevails in the world we live—and in the liberation of Palestine, a new horizon for a more general struggle, to be articulated in every place where people live, work, and suffer. This is a first indication of how to continue the mobilization in the days ahead: we need to give this movement a perspective of lengthening in time, and this is only achievable by combining solidarity with Gaza with a more general rooting of political initiative in everyday life.
Let us not forget, though, that Gaza and Palestine, despite the powerful “globalization” of their plight, are still concrete places, where genocide continues unabated and the devastation exceeds in intensity any other caused by any river that has ever flooded in history. It is estimated that if every day 100 trucks left Gaza, the rubble would not be cleared before 2050: such is the scale of the violence of urbicide, of the systematic destruction not only of human lives but also of the conditions that make the reproduction of life possible. Those who speak of “peace” in reference to the “Trump plan” better have Tacitus’ words in mind: where they make a desert, they call it peace.
At a time when Hamas has agreed to exchange hostages and prisoners and negotiations appear to be resuming, it is nevertheless worth clarifying what the “Trump plan” actually amounts to. Characterized by uncertainty, this plan fully benefits Israel, on crucial points such as the withdrawal of the Israeli army and the “disarmament of Hamas.” IDF military operations can resume at any time (and in fact, immediately after Trump’s call for their suspension, air and artillery bombardments went on, and at least eleven more Palestinians had been killed at the time of writing). The plan also says nothing about the West Bank, where the penetration of settlers has long since broken the unity of the territory, pushing the Palestinian population into encircled areas that foreshadow real Bantustans according to the logic of apartheid. Palestinian self-determination is thus effectively removed from the realm of possibility.
If the movement against genocide, and for a free Palestine, continues to overflow, crossing national borders, the disparity of forces will also begin to be called into question.
The colonial imprint of the “Trump plan” is transparent, with its revival of the “mandate” logic that established British control over Palestine in 1920. Revival, indeed, but not without an update: the “technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee” to which “the day-to-day running of public services and municipalities for the people of Gaza” is to be assigned should operate under the “oversight and supervision” of a “Board of Peace,” chaired by Trump himself and with the executive coordination of Tony Blair. We remember Blair’s certified lies to justify the war in Iraq, but also his activism in recent years as an advisor to various Gulf governments (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates). And it is precisely the Gulf model that the “Trump plan” seems to propose for Gaza, a “special economic zone” with copious capital investments from that area and beyond.
And yet, there are obstacles to the implementation of this plan, including the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Here, I will limit myself to highlighting the claim to “resolve” the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with a purely business-oriented approach, through the simple denial of the existence of a “Palestinian question” and the proposal for Gazans—with the exception of a few “technocrats”—to choose between servitude and exile. Interviewed by Al Jazeera, Norman Finkelstein recalled that since the days of Jimmy Carter, almost every US president has presented a plan for “peace in the Middle East”: Trump’s is the first who, in doing so, does not mention any United Nations resolution or international agreement, moving exclusively on the business level—the movement and valorization of capital.
This can be seen as part of the broader context of war in which we are living, where the reorganization of economic spaces is a crucial issue. But as far as the movement that gave rise to the four memorable October days of mass mobilization in Italy is concerned, the tasks should be quite clear, even if they are far from easy to put into practice: the struggle against genocide, and for a free Palestine, must be deepened and go beyond the large demonstrations, however critical these remain. While the ceasefire is a goal that must be pursued by any means necessary, sabotaging the “Trump plan” and opening up the prospect of true peace means denouncing and boycotting the thousand forms of complicity with Israel’s death machine we are witnessing in Italy and Europe. This is an appeal to collective intelligence, to investigative work, and to the ability to intervene in effective ways.
Although overwhelmed by the flood of the mass movement the first few days of October, we are aware of the disparity of forces at play, both domestically and internationally; we know the difficulties that always arise when the explosion of a mass movement must be translated into a political force capable of lasting over time; and we know full well that the game is certainly not being played only on the Italian stage. But what has recently happened in Italy—among other things, two general political strikes in ten days—can certainly serve as a general indication, in Europe as elsewhere. If the movement continues to overflow, crossing national borders, the disparity of forces will also begin to be called into question.
Featured image: People march during the General Strike For Palestine on September 22, 2025, in Turin, Italy. Photo: Stefano Guidi / Getty Images. Courtesy of Truthhout.
Translated from the original in Italian by Rolando Prats.
