Pro-Pal march: 'ban to guarantee war not peace'

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 5 - Participants in a banned pro-Palestinian march in Rome Saturday said it had been banned to guarantee war and not peace and said they were not celebrating Hamas but commemorating the thousands of civilians killed in Gaza, calling the Italian state Fascist in stopping people attending.
    "Despite the ban we took to the streets because we have a historical responsibility," said one of the representatives of the Palestinian Arab Democratic Union into a megaphone in the Piazza Ostiense square in Rome at the national demonstration.
    "We ask for an end to the bombings. Italy must take a clear line.
    "There was a mystification of this march. They told us that it was a celebration of Hamas but we are here to commemorate our dead, the Palestinian dead.
    "The only ones who celebrate here in Italy are the friends of Israel and the Italian war industry.
    "The ban came not to guarantee peace but to guarantee war." "We could have been many more if this was not a police state, a fascist state", said a young Palestinian activist.
    From the square came a chant against the forces of law and order: "shame".
    At the demonstration, in addition to the Palestinians, there were also demonstrators from lefwtwing groups and parties including 'Osa' (Dare), 'Potere al Popolo' (Power to the People) and the USB grass-roots trade union who reached Piazzale Ostiense.
    In the square there were also the flags of the 'knowledge network' and the Italian Communists. (ANSA).