(see related) Ex-premier and 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Giuseppe Conte on Saturday compared the Italian government's decision to abstain in a UN vote on a resolution calling for a truce in Gaza to Pontius Pilate's conduct in the trial of Jesus.
"You need backbone and courage to achieve peace, not the weakness and cowardice of a government that, with a Pilate-like decision, shows that it considers the suffering of civilians a dramatic but inevitable 'side effect' of war," Conte said in social media.
Conte said the government's assertion that it did not back the resolution because it failed to condemn Hamas and to state that Israel has the right to defend itself was an excuse, because the United Nations had clearly expressed its stance on both issues after the October 7 attacks.
"Is the Italian Government trying to suggest that 120 United Nations member states support Hamas?," he said.
"Have France, Spain, Belgium, Portugal and 116 other countries expressed their backing for the Hamas terrorists? "Or have all these States expressed a clear position so that international humanitarian law is guaranteed?".
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