More than a dozen police officers were injured during rioting that erupted on Friday in Bologna, northern Italy, outside a basketball arena where an Israeli team was playing.
Thousands of protesters, some carrying flares, crackers, smoke grenades and projectiles to throw at police, arrived at the streets surrounding the PalaDozza sporting arena in Bologna as the local Virtus team played against Maccabi Tel Aviv on Friday. Virtus won the match 99-89.
Police, who used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the rioters, pushed them away from the PalaDozza to the Piazza Maggiore square, where some rioters confronted cops and set fires to dumpsters. The protesters and anti-Israel organizations on Facebook called the match “The game of shame.”
However, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi suggested that at least some of the rioters were soccer hooligans not motivated by any ideology relating to Israel, but merely using the occasion to stage one of a series of clashes they initiate with authorities.
“Last night in Bologna, once again, we witnessed yet another situation in which, on the one hand, there were people simply looking for a vulgar pretext to stage their usual unacceptable violence,” Piantedosi wrote on X.
The director of Milan’s Jewish Brigade Museum, Davide Romano, said many protesters came from outside Bologna. But, Romano added, “the protest was organized by the far-left, which is close to the mayor,” Romano told JNS, referring to Matteo Lepore of the left-leaning Democratic Party.
Police detained one person at the riot, which prompted other rioters to intensify their violence, the Corriere di Bologna, a local edition of the Corriere della Sera newspaper, reported. Ultimately, no one was arrested at the riot but 16 people have been identified and may face criminal charges, the paper reported.
