Anyone with half an eye on the Giro d'Italia this year will have seen the unending wave of protests against Israel and the cycling team that bears its name. As the war in Gaza rages on, the intensity of the protests against Israel-Premier Tech has increased.
Every stage has seen a mix of flags at the side of the road and pro-Gaza messages written on the roads the riders pass over, plus in-person protests at starts and finishes. Then something new started to happen. On stages 17 and 18, those signs were being covered up, painted over so they wouldn't show up on broadcasts. On Thursday, Italian publication Sondrio Today published a photo showing what appears to be workmen covering up a 'Free Gaza' sign painted on a road.
Painting over messages on the road is nothing new, in fact there's a team at the Tour de France responsible for removing (mostly phallic) art and messages from the Tour route. But big colouful paint pensis are different from anti-war protest. Until this week, messages and protests related to the war in Gaza have been left alone. So who's paying to remove them?
