Not worried but no to violence - Bernini

(ANSA) - ROME, MAR 21 - The government is "not worried" about recent episodes of alleged intolerance and censorship in Italian universities amid mounting protests over the impact on the civilian population in Gaza of Israel's war against Hamas sparked by the October 7 terror attacks, but it rejects any recourse to violence, Universities Minister Anna Maria Bernini said on Thursday.
    "I am here to listen and share the most appropriate solutions so that recent episodes are not repeated," said Bernini ahead of a meeting with the deans' group CRUI.
    "We are not worried, we protect freedom of thought with just one insurmountable cut-off point: violence," she added.
    The meeting was called after La Repubblica editor Maurizio Molinari was on Friday prevented from speaking at Naples University due to his alleged pro-Israeli bias.
    "On Thursday we will meet with University Minister Anna Maria Bernini and with all the representatives of the 85 universities of the CRUI: we will launch ideas, actions, to make it even clearer that demonstrations that prevent people from speaking are not tolerated, universities are places of dialogue, when you ask to speak you must also know how to listen," said CRUI President Giovanna Iannantuoni at the time.
    Since then pro-Palestinian protests at Turin university led the Academic Senate to decide not to participate in a call for scientific cooperation with Israel, prompting Noemi Di Segni, the president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, on Wednesday to denounce the "worrying escalation in universities, with expressions of hatred towards Israel and Jews that in recent weeks have reached levels of very serious concern".
    (ANSA).