JEWISH COMMUNITIES

Some 30,000 Jews live in Italy out of a total population of 57 million. The largest communities are in Rome (15,000) and Milan (10,000) and there are smaller communities in Turin, Florence, Livorno, Trieste, Genoa and several other cities.

Jews have lived in Italy for over two thousand years and have developed unique customs and traditions.

PARLIAMENTARY PARTIES AND EXTRA-PARLIAMENTARY GROUPS

During its second programmatic conference, held in February 2001, AN continued to project the image of a party no longer affiliated with the fascist right (see ASW 1997/8, 1998/9). Nevertheless, Fini has remained loyal to his commitment to traditional values, namely, “God, Fatherland and Family,” as proclaimed in the AN political manifesto as the underlying values of the state.

AN members are also involved in the historical discourse over remembrance of the fascist period and its influence on present-day Italy (see below). Officially, the AN condemns antisemitism, and the party has supported an official Holocaust Memorial Day. On the other hand, there is growing resentment in the party against “this continuous asking forgiveness from the Jews,” “those never ending tests,” or the numerous futile attempts to establish official contacts with Israel. The roof organization of Italian Jewry, UCEI, refuses to establish formal relations with the AN because of the presence of extremist elements within its ranks. The UCEI also objects to Fini paying an official visit to Israel. According to the UCEI, the AN has not yet publicly admitted that the RSI (Repubblica Sociale Italiana, 1943–45) actively participated in property confiscation, arrests and deportations of Jews from Italy. Similar criticism was leveled by some AN figures, such as councilor and National Assembly member Enzo Palmesano, founder of the Centro Studi Giorgio Perlasca (see ASW 1997/8). It should be noted that Il Secolo d’Italia, the party newspaper, still follows the traditional editorial line, glorifying fascist leaders, as well as poets and writers who became fascists outside Italy in the interwar period, and celebrating Italy’s colonial adventure in Ethiopia during the fascist era.

Lega Nord per L’indipendenza della Padania (Northern League for Padanian Independence – LN) is led by Umberto Bossi, a member of the European Parliament. The party is active mainly in Italy’s northern regions. LN participated in the May 2001 elections within the CdL coalition, obtaining only 3.9 percent of the vote on the national level (a minimum of 4 percent is required to enter the Chamber of Deputies – see below). However, LN candidates obtained 30 seats in the Chamber and 17 in the Senate as a result of previous agreements with the CdL, and holds three ministries (Bossi is minister of institutional reform and devolution). The party has three seats in the European Parliament.

The Movimento Sociale–Fiamma Tricolore (Social Movement–Tricolor Flame – MS-FT), founded in 1995, gathered in its ranks all those MSI members who refused to join Fini’s AN. There are 61 local sections. At the October 2000 party congress, Pino Rauti re-elected as leader. However, some activists, sucas Chieti’s mayor Nicola Cucullo, a well known sympathizer of Mussolini, have left the party, accusing Rauti of being too dictatorial, old-fashioned and unimaginative. Cucullo’s trial for an antisemitic statement made in 1994 (see ASW 1999/2000), was postponed until October 2001. He was elected mayor of Chieti for the third time in 2001 with 59.3 percent of the vote.

The October 2000 party congress manifesto declared that immigrants from non-EU countries endangered the social fabric of the country. At the same time, the foreign policy committee stated its support of the oppressed Palestinians and defense of their right to have their own country. A Palestinian delegation led by Y. Mohid, first secretary of the Palestinian mission in Rome, was received by the congress participants with pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel slogans.

Numerous small ultra-right organizations were formed in Italy to oppose globalization, petty crime and non-EU immigration. These groups are in constant flux, members moving from one group to another and some groups barely functioning after their foundation. After its movement toward the center, the AN left a large group of radical supporters without a strong political reference point. The need to unite them into a single movement increased when a electoral law was passed in 1994 introducing a 4 percent threshold for election to the Chamber of Deputies. MS-FT tried to assume this role, but Rauti seems unable to attract many groups.

Forza Nuova, founded in 1997, is led by Roberto Fiore, a former Terza Posizione militant who co-founded the movement with the late Massimo Morsello (who died in March 2001), formerly of Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari. Both had returned to Italy in 1999 after 18 years in London as fugitives from justice (see ASW 1998/9, 1999/2000). According to police in the UK, Fiore and Morsello had a thirty billion lire tourist business in London. The movement opposes globalization and immigration, which are viewed as part of an international conspiracy aimed at annihilating nationalism. It identifies with European fascism of the interwar years and the myths of the RSI. FN militants, who have been involved in several acts of violence, find fertile ground for their propaganda among soccer supporters. Following a December 2000 bomb attack against the left-wing newspaper Il Manifesto, there was wide support for outlawing the movement. Open and violent antisemitism can be found in the literature of some local sections of Forza Nuova and in discussion forums on the Internet. Its uncompromising anti-Israel/pro-Palestinian views are evident at demonstrations, in official documents and on its website.

Skinheads. According to police, there are 2,000–3,000 skinhead sympathizers in Italy, of whom 191 have criminal records (about 40 in Veneto, 35 in Lombardia and 30 in Lazio). Veneto Fronte Skinhead (VFS) is one of the bigger and better-organized groups. The smaller and less active Azione Skinhead, which operates mainly in Milan, is led by Dulio Canu who has joined Forza Nuova. Other groups include the Liguria Skinheads and the Hammerskins.

Among the most extreme Catholic fundamentalist periodicals, mention should be made of Ex Novo (Monza), headed by Giulio Ferrari. Its stand is pre-Council and anti-Jewish and it publishes articles defending Holocaust denying individuals and publications. A similar position is taken by the monthly Chiesa Viva (Brescia), edited by Don Luigi Villa, and by Teologia, issued by Edizioni Segno (Udine) and edited by Piero Mantero, which publishes articles “proving” the existence of a Jewish-Masonic plot.

ANTISEMITIC ACTIVITIES

A survey of Italian attitudes toward Jews, conducted by Istituto di Studi sulla Pubblica Opinione (ISPO) in December 2000, reveals an improvement compared with the findings nine years previously. Nevertheless, in 2000 there was a 30 percent increase in antisemitic manifestations over 1999, when even then, as in the last six years, a substantial number of occurrences was noted. This rise was probably influenced by the legitimization of antisemitic stereotypes that has accompanied the general desensitization of the Italian social and political atmosphere in recent years. The al-Aqsa intifada also caused an intensification of antisemitic manifestations.

One hundred incidents of antisemitic mail or leaflets and insulting remarks or jokes by politicians or in everyday conversations were reported. The most common slurs referred to traditional Jewish stereotypes of wealth, power, shrewdness and exclusivity. There has been a tremendous growth of hate on the Internet, including the dissemination of antisemitic and anti-Zionist materials. An extremely antisemitic site, apparently linked to Forza Nuova, was shut down by its Pisa provider in 2000 as a result of legal proceedings (under the Mancino law against racial, ethnic or religious discrimination).

The custom of branding a sports opponent “a Jew” is still prevalent, particularly on the soccer field. A banner held by supporters of the Lazio team during a derby match against the Rome team on 29 April 2001 in Rome’s Olympic stadium, read: “Negro team, Jewish arc [the section of the stadium for the Rome club supporters].” At a meeting between the presidents of the RomJewish community and the Lazio club, the latter reaffirmedhis commitment to combat such antisemitic manifestations.

Latent antisemitic messages can be found in the mainstream media, for example, in the case of Luis Ignacio Marsiglia, a Uruguayan citizen and Catholic religion teacher of Jewish origin, whom the media repeatedly referred to as “the Jewish professor.” According to police, Marsiglia had invented tales about antisemitic discrimination and intimidation in order to avoid being transferred from his school. The Jewish identity of the director of Channel One (Raiuno) news was also stressed when he was hired and when he later resigned, leading to remarks and jokes about the power of the Jews. He himself declared in an interview that “the antisemitic argument” had surprisingly begun to be used against him.

In the last months of 2000, in the wake of the al-Aqsa intifada , and especially in early 2001, Italian public opinion became more radically anti-Israel and uncritically pro-Palestinian. Frequently the media blurred the distinction between the terms “Israeli and “Jew.” Participants in a discussion forum concerning the publication of a picture of an Israel baby killed by a Palestinian sniper in Hebron, on the website of the daily newspaper La Repubblica, equated Israelis with Nazis, referred to “the Jewish victim syndrome” and even denied the Holocaust.

ATTITUDES TOWARD THE WAR, THE HOLOCAUST AND THE FASCIST ERA

In recent years there has been exceptional public awareness of both Jewish culture in general and the Holocaust in particular. This attitude was clearly demonstrated when the Italian parliament passed a law in July 2000 establishing Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January, “in memory of the extermination and persecution of the Jewish people and Italian soldiers and politicians in the Nazi camps.” The 2001 commemoration was marked by broad national press coverage, special programs on TV networks and an unprecedented number of educational initiatives involving both students and teachers throughout the country. President of the Republic Carlo Azelio Ciampi and Pope John Paul II dedicated speeches to the day; testimonies and documents were published, as well as a list of deportees; 40,000 copies of the movie Memoria (a collection of testimonies of ex-prisoners), by Ruggero Gabbai, were sold and most pupils chose the theme of the Shoah for the July 2000 high school final exam.

However, a small segment of the population complained of a sense of saturation with Jewish themes. In a survey conducted by the ISPO on a sample of 5,000 interviewees 9.8 percent said that the Jews’ extermination was mentioned too often (the percentage grew slightly with interviewee age); 9.1 percent thought that the Nazi extermination of millions of them in gas chambers was a lie; and 37.1 percent asserted that the Jews should stop behaving like victims since the Holocaust and persecutions took place 50 years ago. At the same time, there has been increasing exposure to Holocaust denial, particularly among schoolchildren. In October, for example, a school teacher in Mestre read texts from Holocaust deniers such as Jürgen Graf and Richard Harwood. Moreover, numerous websites are devoted entirely or in part to Holocaust denial. Most, such as the Belgian Vrij Historisch Onderzoek and the French AARGH, are run by extreme rightists or Catholic integralists.

While public promotion of Holocaust denial is a phenomenon of the extremist fringe, the attempt to whitewash the negative significance of the fascist era is more mainstream. Supporters of this school try to minimize the conflict of principles between fascists and anti-fascists, on the basis that the Italian identity should be based on values shared by the whole nation. It is led mainly by members of AN who attempt to reinterpret RSI history as a “necessary” step to saving Italy’s honor after it had “betrayed” its German ally. The AN therefore requests modifications in twentieth century history textbooks, considered too divisive and deeply influenced by communist historiography. Several conferences have been organized to support this line.

In November 2000 a Verona military tribunal sentenced to life imprisonment former SS Lance-Corporal Michael Seifert, nicknamed Misha, who tortured and killed at least 18 prisoners in Italy’s Bolzano concentration camp (between 1944 and 1945). Italy will request the extradition of Seifert, who lives in Vancouver, Canada.

Friedrich Engel, an ex-SS commander in Liguria between 1944 and 1945, was traced to Hamburg by two German TV journalists. In November 1999 he was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Torino military tribunal for the death of 246 persons (non-Jews). German Minister of Interior Otto Schilly declared that Engel could not stand trial in Germany because of his age and poor health.

In May 2001, the Supreme Court (Corte di Cassazione) rejected an appeal for a pardon for Erich Priebke, who is serving a life sentence for his part in the Fosse Ardeatine massacre (see ASW 1997/8). Priebke’s lawyer Carlo Taormina has decided to request a pardon from the president of the republic.

At the beginning of May 2001 the special committee established in 1998 by the prime minister to locate Jewish property confiscated by the fascist authorities and never returned after the end of the war, presented their report. It found that most of the property had been returned in 1945 and only a small part has yet to be restituted.

After prolonged public pressure, the Italian insurer Generali of Trieste has agreed to compensate beneficiaries (and their heirs) of policies held by Holocaust victims throughout Central and Eastern Europe.

RESPONSES TO ANTISEMITISM AND RACISM

In addition to the outlawing of groups such as Freda’s Fronte Nazionale, under the Mancino law, individual right-wing extremists were convicted for infringing this law. At the end of September 2000, 43 VFS militants were charged with instigating racial hatred after they had participated in a rally during which flags with Celtic crosses were waved and antisemitic slogans such as Juden Raus and slogans against globalization and American imperialism were chanted. In February 2001, nine skinheads, apparently also VFS members, were arrested for provoking a brawl in a bar with three Moroccan immigrants and injuring two of them. In August 2000 a case of racism against a young colored man was investigated. He was insulted by a group of skinheads after a festival in the city of Bressanone. In February 2001, thirteen members of the Austrian Blood & Honour organization were arrested in Italy for violating the Mancino law. They were also charged with involvement in several incidents of violence. Eight more are under investigation. Members of this group are residents of the northern region of Alto Adige, having come from the city of Merano, considered a linguistic and cultural “extension” of Austria. Although outlawed in Italy because of its neo-Nazi ideology, the Austrian organization maintains contacts with Italian skinheads in Alto Adige, Friuli Venezia giulia and Emila Romagna.

In recent years the Vatican’s attitudtoward Judaism has undergone considerable change. Openness toward Judaism is now ofChurch policy,. Nevertheless, two declarations made in September 2000 (as well as the beatification of Pius IX) reveal attempts to reaffirm values more consistent with traditional theology. Cardinal Ratzinger, prefect for the Doctrine of the Faith Congregation, issued the first, known as the Dominus Jesus, which states that only a Catholic can be redeemed; Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, archbishop of Bologna, issued the second, which petitions politicians to prefer Catholic over Muslim immigration. In December the Emilia-Romagna bishops’ conference, headed by Biffi, issued a booklet entitled Islam and Christianity, on the incompatibility of Muslim immigrant culture with Italian culture. The declarations represent an attempt to conciliate those within the Church who demand a more restrictive interpretation of the 1965 Vatican Council resolutions.