"It would be desirable for the official opening of our schools to be anticipated by a minute of silence for the children of Gaza, who will once again be denied the opportunity and joy of beginning the new academic year". This is the appeal launched by the Giorgio La Pira Study Centre in Cassano All'Ionio, to which many Italian schools are responding. The appeal reminds that, as confirmed by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Gaza's schools have been decimated by incessant bombing. "In the third millennium, it is intolerable," declare the appeal's initiators, "that children, innocent and unwitting victims of the dark interests and logic of unscrupulous men, be denied the right to education. The minute of silence is intended to shake consciences and institutions at all levels. An entire generation is denied the chance to learn and create a better future".