italy 2001-2

 

The rising trend in antisemitism observed in the year 2000 continued into 2001/2. About one hundred antisemitic incidents were reported, including two violent acts in 2001 and one in early 2002. The impact of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was a leading cause in the escalation of antisemitism. Right-wing extremists exploited the anti-Israel/anti-Jewish atmosphere to intensify their antisemitic activity, while extreme left-wingers and anti-globalization activists radicalized their anti-Israel/anti-Zionist and sometimes explicitly antisemitic rhetoric and participated in violently anti-Israel demonstrations.

 

the jewish community

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); smaller communities exist in Turin, Florence, Livorno, Trieste, Genoa and several other cities. Jews have been present in Italy for over two thousand years and have developed unique customs and traditions

The Unione delle Comunità Ebraiche Italiane (UCEI) is the roof organization of Italian Jewry. It represents the community in official matters and provides religious, cultural and educational services. There are Jewish schools in the main communities. The Jews of Rome publish a monthly journal, Shalom, and the Milan community puts out the monthly Bollettino. In March 2002 Dr. Riccardo Di Segni was formally invested as chief rabbi, replacing Rabbi Elio Toaff who had occupied the post for 50 years.

 

POLITICAL PARTIES AND EXTRA-PARLIAMENTARY GROUPS

Right and Extreme Right Political Parties

Alleanza Nazionale (National Alliance – AN) is led by Gianfranco Fini, currently deputy prime minister in the Berlusconi government. In the May 2001 national elections the AN obtained 96 seats (out of 630) in the Chamber of Deputies and 46 seats (out of 324) in the Senate. The AN political program emphasizes traditional Catholicism (i.e., Catholicism that opposes the “neo-modernist” position of the Church but accepts its hierarchy) and law and order, especially laws aimed at controlling immigration. In the latter respect, the AN competes for voters with the other traditionalist governmental party, Lega Nord (see below).

Since its foundation in 1995 Fini has tried to gloss over AN’s origins in the neo-fascist Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI), portraying it as a democratic conservative party which rejects racism and antisemitism and supports Israel. The position of the UCEI toward the AN is twofold. On the one hand, it accepts Fini’s position as a democratically elected party leader and government representative and admits that his relations with the State of Israel can only be decided by Israel itself (see ASW 2000/1). On the other hand, the UCEI demands that the party and its leader issue a declaration acknowledging the responsibility of the Repubblica Sociale Italiana (RSI; 1943–45), which arrested and deported Jews in collaboration with Nazi Germany. While he considered a series of statements made by the AN leader a substantial change in the right direction, UCEI president Amos Luzzatto noted that “the party’s intermediate ranks” seemed to think differently. Fini, for his part, continued to reiterate that the 1995 AN founding congress declaration, which repudiated racism and antisemitism (see ASW 1995/6), clearly formulated the party’s stand on this issue.

On 24 January, during a Holocaust memorial ceremony organized by the Memory Dialogue and Peace Foundation, Fini declared before about thirty deputies and senators from all parties: “It is important to remember … so that such atrocities will never be repeated.”

At the same time, Fini is always careful to follow the party line of equating the horrors of Nazism to those of communism. Thus, during an official visit to Trieste in June 2001, Fini paid homage to both the concentration camp in the rice fields of San Sabba and to the victims of the foiba (ravines) of Basovizza, where hundreds of Italians were killed by Tito’s partisans.

Within the party there are many examples of a desire to keep alive the myths of the fascist and the neo-fascist period. These include continuous attempts by mayors aligned with the AN to rename streets and squares in towns and cities under their administration after fascist figures (for example, Via Nicola Pende in Pesche, Isernia, and Via Benito Mussolini in Tremestieri, Catania); a website run by an AN-affiliated Bergamo town councilor Enzo De Canio, which disseminates images of the Belgian Nazi Leon Degrelle; and publication in the party organ Il Secolo d’Italia of articles that favorably re-evaluate collaborationist intellectuals or events in fascist history, such as the colonial period in Libya.

In keeping with the party line to rewrite history so that RSI fascist fighters and partisans are given equal treatment as patriots, a mass was held in 2001 on the 13th anniversary of the death of veteran MSI leader Giorgio Almirante. Along with news of the event, Il Secolo d’Italia published a eulogy by Fini. It should be stressed that the trend to glorify RSI fighters and to advance other themes professed by the neo-fascist right are considered by some center-right supporters as options no less legitimate that those of the democratic left. According to Il Secolo d’Italia, one delegate declared during the party national assembly (June 2001) that many figures who had made MSI history were part of the current government and that “the party’s ties to its roots will never be forgotten.”

In an interview on 26 January 2002 to the press agency AGR (Agenzia Giornalistica Radio Televisiva), journalist Enzo Palmesano, a delegate to the AN assembly and author of the antisemitism amendment approved at the first AN congress in 1995, reiterated that anti-Jewish bias was still present in the party. He also said that Fini himself harbored many stereotypical prejudices, such as believing that the Jews considered themselves first Jewish and then Italian, and that an omnipotent Jewish lobby actually existed. In September 2001, Palmesano pointed out that part of the amendment condemning the 1938 racial laws had been omitted from the list of founding congress resolutions published on the AN home page.

It should be noted, too, that some peripheral party associations disseminate antisemitic propaganda on their websites. The website of Azione Giovani, the youth party organization in Sardegna, for instance, published a suggested reading list including works by Nazi authors, neo-fascist cult books, texts arguing against the 1993 anti-discrimination Mancino law and Holocaust denial tracts. It also has links to the bookstore of Fronte Nazionale founder Franco Freda, to a Holocaust denial site and to a skinhead home page. The website of the Cagliari cultural association Vico San Lucifero, associated with the AN, offers links to Forza Nuova and other neo-fascist and antisemitic home pages.

Lega Nord (Northern League – LN) is led by Umberto Bossi, currently minister of devolution in the Berlusconi government. After the May 2001 national elections, the LN obtained 30 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 17 seats in the Senate. The LN appears to have abandoned its secessionist program, but continues to underline and build a so-called Padanian identity, dating back to the ancient Celts. Like the AN, its political platform focuses on law, order and security, including closing Italy’s borders to immigrants from less developed, particularly Muslim, countries. Despite links to fundamental (Lefebvrist) Catholicism, the official line is to embrace traditional Catholicism and its values as an indispensable component of the “original” Italian culture. A few members have an extreme right-wing history, including Mario Borghezio, a European Parliament representative.

While the LN position toward the Jews and Israel is basically friendly, the anti-foreigner atmosphere and the exploitation of themes such as the revival of cultural purity and ethnicity and the concept of Catholicism as the state religion could be turned against the Jewish public. Moreover, in members’ speeches and articles in the party newspaper La Padania and elsewhere, the phenomenon of globalization and immigration are viewed as a conspiracy propagated by “hidden powers,” Freemasonry and international finance. La Padania also publishes articles criticizing the openness of the Church toward the Jewish people, evoking “Jewish power,” or condemning the “liberty-destroying and uncivilized” laws which forbid denial of the Holocaust in France and Germany.

Movimento Sociale–Fiamma Tricolore (Social Movement–Tricolor Flame – MS-FT; president, Pino Rauti; national chairman, Luca Romagnoli), founded in 1995, returned only one senator, Lino Caruso, in the May 2001 election and has 14 town councilors. Despite its loyalty to the memory of the fascist regime and the RSI, and a program close to that of other extreme right-wing groups, it has no antisemitic history, and themes related to Jews and Judaism are not usually discussed. Reports of antisemitism in local clubs have not been proven. It should be borne in mind that, despite their poor electoral showing, organizations such as MS-FT (as well as Forza Nuova and Fronte Sociale Nazionale, discussed below) are in close contact with the main right parties and have the money and means to influence election results in marginal constituencies.

 

Extra-Parliamentary Groups

Extreme Right Groups

The largest and most active extreme right group is Forza Nuova, founded and led by Roberto Fiore. Forza Nuova has 76 clubs and information booths throughout Italy. Anchored in fundamental Catholicism and nationalist populism, Forza Nuova’s political line is extremely anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and anti-globalization, with Holocaust denial as a central motif. Although some individual members express their antisemitic opinions openly, the group prefers to use the term “Zionists” in order to avoid prosecution under the Mancino law, which it wants repealed.

Its political activity is open and includes rallies (often cancelled by the police for reasons of public order) and meetings on topical subjects: globalization, immigration, abortion, homosexuality, and solidarity with the “Palestinian holocaust” and against the “Zionists.” Forza Nuova appears to be gaining strength in schools and among soccer hooligans in Verona, as well as in Rome, where it has been regrouping after a period of stagnation. They appear to have put out only one issue of their newsletter Foglio di Lotta in 2002, on their website forzanuova.net in October.

The Fronte Sociale Nazionale, led by Adriano Tilgher, resulted from a merger of the Fronte Nazionale and a part of the MS-FT. Its home page, which reveals a conspiracy theory interpretation of history, includes texts condemning the Giornata della Memoria, the official Holocaust memorial day in Italy.

Comunità Politica Di Avanguardia, a minor organization based in Trapani, is linked to the monthly journal Avanguardia, the mouthpiece of its antisemitic, Holocaust denying and generally neo-fascist political line.

Movimento Cattolico Militia Christi (The Army of Christ), led by Filippo Lastei, was founded in 1992 in order to restore traditional Catholicism to Italian society, which is allegedly ruled and corrupted by a liberal-Masonic regime. Numbering about one hundred members, most of them in Rome, it counts Zionism and Freemasonry among its main enemies.

Fraternità Sacerdotale San Pio X, based in Rimini, with branches in Rome and Torino, was founded by Marcel Lefebvre, who caused a schism in 1988 in the Catholic Church when he rejected the reforms of the 1965 Second Vatican Council. Although preoccupied less with Jewish themes than in the past, its view of relations with Judaism is inspired by the anti-Jewish policy of Pope Pius X. Negotiations between the Fraternity and the Holy See aimed at healing the schism are in progress. The Fraternity publishes the periodical Tradizione Cattolica and Si Si No No (Rome). Another magazine close to the Fraternity and sharing the same line is the bi-monthly Chiesa Viva (Brescia).

Although similar in outlook, the Fraternity and the Mater Boni Consilii Institute are in conflict. Based in Torino, with a new branch in Rimini, the institute holds religious services according to the pre-Council ritual and publishes the periodical Sodalitium and various antisemitic books through the Centro Librario Sodalitium publishing house.

 

The Extreme Left and Anti-globalization Organizations

The traditional extreme left/communist position on the Middle East conflict as a battle between exploited and exploiter radicalized with the outbreak of the intifada in September/October 2000, reaching a peak in March–April 2002. During this period, all political parties, periodicals and intellectuals of the far left repeatedly charged the State of Israel and Zionism with genocide, apartheid/racism, Nazism, a final solution, ethnic cleansing, colonialism, expansionism, terrorism, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Since the May 2001 elections, the Partito della Rifondazione Comunista (PRC), led by Fausto Bertinotti, has eleven deputies and four senators in the Italian parliament. Although Bertinotti has underlined his disagreement “in the most radical way with any slogan that puts not only the Jews but even the State of Israel on the same level as a Nazi organization or country” (ANSA press agency, 6 April 2002), he himself has frequently accused the Israeli government of “pursuing a ‘final solution’ of the Palestinian problem” and carrying out “genocide” of the Palestinian people (see, for example, La Rivista del Manifesto, Jan. 2002). Giovanni Russo Spena, PRC vice-president of the Chamber of Deputies has also accused Israeli leaders of practicing a “final solution” (ANSA press agency, 23 Jan. 2002; 29 March 2002).

            Liberazione, the PRC official mouthpiece, wrote that the Jews wanted “a territory in spite of international law,” and that “later terrorism became part of the ... structure of the Israeli state, which is not a secular state, since it took the Old Testament as its constitution.”

The Partito dei Comunisti Italiani (PdCI), led by Armando Cossutta and Oliviero Diliberto, has nine deputies and three senators. While Cossutta accused Sharon of perpetrating “a new Holocaust” against the Palestinians (ANSA press agency, 21 Jan. 2002), Diliberto repeatedly described him as a “bloodsucker butcher” (ANSA press agency, 13 March 2002), accused the State of Israel of “profaning the [Christian and Muslim] Holy Places.”

In the communist Il Manifesto (founded 1969) Arab victims of the conflict all have a first name, a family name, age, gender and aspirations, the Israeli casualties are just numbers – “settlers,” “soldiers,” “immigrants” – victims of the Palestinian “partisans” (a trend observable also in Liberazione).

            Sometimes Il Manifesto uses antisemitic argumentation. Its 10 June 2002 issue, for instance, underlined the alleged power of the American Jewish lobby, while on 6 March 2002 it repeated the conspiracy theory according to which the Mossad knew in advance about the attack on the World Trade Center and did nothing to prevent it. It should be noted that the “omnipotence” of the North American Jewish lobby (and of the Israeli secret service) is a theme that appears (although infrequently and with different nuances) in all Italian publications (see, for example: Ennio Caretto, “In America la lobby ebraica oscura la presenza araba” [In America the Jewish Lobby Obscures the Arab Presence], Il Corriere della Sera, 10 April 2002).

            It should be noted too that while Il Manifesto devotes special attention to any episode of extreme right antisemitism or racism, it practically ignores anti-Jewish acts carried out by Arabs/Muslims. Consequently, it hardly mentioned the violent antisemitic wave that swept Europe in 2001/2.

While all the extreme left wing publications (including La Fucina, La Rivista del Manifesto and Spartaco) are characterized by extreme hostility to the State of Israel and radical anti-Zionism (as well as radical anti-Americanism), Che Fare – Il Giornale dell’Organizzazione Comunista Internazionale goes even further. This journal (published thrice yearly) has repeatedly called for “the destruction of the State of Israel” (Feb./March 2001; June/July 2001), which it believes will be hastened by intensifying terrorist activity. In contrast to other radical movements and periodicals whose defense of Palestinian terrorism stems from their communist ideology, Che Fare enthusiastically backs the Islamic militant movement, believing that it is the only one in a position to destroy the “Israeli terrorist state.” Hence, supporters of this journal participated in a demonstration “in support of the fight of the Palestinian people,” organized by the UCOII (Union of Islamic Communities and Organizations in Italy), the main Islamic organization in Italy. (There are about 700,000 Muslims in Italy, of whom 50,000 have Italian citizenship.)

The anti-globalization movement is made up of a multiplicity of groups (anarchists, dissident Catholics, Leninists, Stalinists, Maoists, animal rights supporters and Third World solidarity groups), which despite opposing views on some issues are unanimously anti-Israel and anti-Zionist, and sometimes explicitly antisemitic. For example, a leaflet circulated by the Bologna Social Forum in April 2002 claimed that “the powerful Jewish lobby … directs Middle-East geo-politics.”

            Like the communist parties, the anti-globalization movement accuses Israel of being a Nazi, racist, bloodsucker and illegitimate state. Action for Peace, which organized a “Caravan for peace in Palestine” from 27 March to 4 April 2002, branded the Israeli government “criminal and racist” and Sharon’s policy making as “genuine apartheid.”

            The anti-globalization movement is so staunchly pro-Arab and anti-Israel that it sympathizes with Palestinian suicide bombers. For example, during a demonstration organized in Milan on 25 April 2002 by the non-aligned trade unions organization and some Islamic groups to celebrate “a 25 April for Palestine” (25 April is the Italian “V” Day), several banners praising suicide bombers (“We are all suicide bombers”) were displayed as well as slogans honoring the shahidin (martyrs).

 

AntiSemitic activities

The trend toward a rise in antisemitism observed in the year 2000 continued into 2001. Antisemitic manifestations increased in Italy as of autumn 2001 to a peak that has continued into 2002. About one hundred antisemitic incidents were reported, including violent acts and propaganda (in printed articles and on websites, graffiti on city walls, e-mail sent to websites dealing with Judaism, letters sent to Jewish institutions or individuals and leaflets). The escalation in antisemitism may be explained by several factors: the impact of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; the association made by the Italian public between the September 11 attacks and bin Ladin’s implication that Israel had caused “the birth of Middle East terrorism”; and the exploitation of this atmosphere by right-wing antisemites to intensify their antisemitic activity.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict was a leading issue in the media, in politicians’ statements, in the mobilization of political and public organizations, and in public opinion. Mobilization was directed mainly toward solidarity with the Palestinian people; for example, in radical anti-Israel demonstrations held throughout Italy (see below). Media information was characterized by bias: the attacks suffered by the Israeli civilian population were considered merely as a painful, but natural reaction to attempts at “genocide” perpetuated by the “arrogant” Israeli government and by its “all-powerful” army. From the outset the most vocal organizations supporting the Palestinian side (although the more moderate ones proclaimed Israel’s “right to security”) belonged to left-wing and anti-globalization groups and the Catholic camp, who were joined later by extreme right groups.

In articles and letters to the editor in mainstream papers, and especially in the extreme left press, many politically aware Italians equated Israel with Nazi Germany, and the Palestinians with the Jews of that era, and often used expressions such as “genocide” and “concentration camps” to describe events in the conflict.

While the Catholic Church did not condemn the Palestinians’ occupation of the Church of the Nativity in April–May 2002, it did denounce the Israeli army siege. The Israeli occupation of locations symbolic to the Christian world resulted not only in the Vatican’s adoption of extremely harsh positions but also the inclusion in commentaries and cartoons in the mainstream press of traditional theological antisemitic themes, reinterpreted in the light of current events.

 

Violence, Vandalism, Threats and Insults

The increased aggressiveness of antisemitic expressions (for example, death threats against Jews have become more common in graffiti on city walls) was translated into violence in only two cases in 2001, and one in early 2002. In the first, a 15-year-old Jewish boy was accosted and punched in front of Mifgash, a Jewish club in Milan, by a group of 18-year-old skinheads in January 2001. In November 2001 an attempt was made to set fire to the main door of Siena's synagogue, but caused little damage. A 19-year-old Siena youth was questioned about the incident, and was subsequently arrested on other charges. In January 2002 two skinheads entered the offices of a Roman Jewish lawyer, who had participated in several trials on behalf of the Jewish community (such as the Priebke case – see ASW 1997/8; the Forza Nuova case – see ASW 2000/1). They tied up his assistant and hit the lawyer with a blunt metal instrument, wounding him on the head and face. The attackers have not been caught.

A fake bomb threat was received in January by a theater in Novara, where a play by the Jewish writer Moni Ovadia was being staged. The caller stated: “We do not want Jews on the stage.”

Many e-mails, letters and phone calls containing insults and threats were received by Jewish institutions or Jewish individuals. Slogans such as “Jews to the ovens” and “Jews go home” reappeared on city walls and close to Jewish buildings after a relative absence of five or six years; and anti-Jewish jokes were heard in public places. Dozens of violently anti-Israel – but also anti-Jewish – e-mails were sent to Jewish journalists who dealt with the Middle East. Similar letters were sent to Jewish websites.

 

Propaganda

Several magazines regularly host anti-Jewish debates or contain articles with anti-Jewish motifs and Holocaust denial. Extreme right publications include L’Uomo Libero (published two to three times a year; circulation, several thousand); the nationalist Bolshevik Orion (monthly of the Società Editrice Barbarossa; largest circulation periodical of the extreme right);.and the radical but small circulation Avanguardia; which admires the RSI and has links to Iranian Muslims.

Besides the usual anti-Jewish themes, there was a revival, in traditional and integralist Catholic publications as well as in some periodicals of the extreme right, of motifs that characterized anti-Jewish literature of the 1930s and early 1940s. These included the alleged link between Freemasonry and Judaism and the accusation that the Jews exploited their belief of being a chosen race to act outside the law. Further, the anti-globalization message was used by the extreme right to elaborate anti-Jewish conspiracy theories. Formerly confined to books and magazines with limited circulation, these antisemitic themes are now disseminated freely on the Internet (see Giorgio Bongiovanni, “Nuovo Ordine Mondiale: I Signori del Mondo, www.disinformazione.it).

After the initial shock of the September 11 attacks, anti-Americanism was manifested not only by right- and left-wing extremists (including a minority in AN), but also by some radical parties (the communist parties, the Greens, Movimento Sociale–Fiamma Tricolore) and intellectuals (such as the writer Aldo Busi, the historian Franco Cardini). Moreover, it seemed that at least one-quarter of the Italian public, representing both left and right, were sympathetic to, or understanding of, bin Ladin’s position (see results of opinion poll in Corriere della Sera, 22 Oct. 2001).

On 28 October 2001, following the assassination of Israeli Minister Rehavam Ze’evi and the Israeli army’s entry into Bethlehem and Beit Jalla, an article by the well-known progressive journalist Barbara Spinelli appeared in the Torino paper La Stampa. Under the title “Ebraismo senza ‘mea culpa’” (Judaism without “mea culpa”), Spinelli claimed that the dangers of Islamic terrorism could be reduced if Israel were to ask forgiveness from the Muslims for the wrongs it had done the Palestinians, as the Pope did to the Jews. Spinelli further stated that the time had come for Diaspora Jews to abandon their dual loyalties and break their “blood ties” to Israel. The Jewish people, she contended, put their alleged religious-historical rights ahead of the rights of other peoples and behaved as if God allowed them to live in a state of absolute freedom while the rest of humanity lived in the “harsh kingdom of necessity.” The article provoked a lengthy debate on the newspaper’s website, with many supporting Spinelli’s arguments.

One of the consequences of this radical anti-Israel/anti-Jewish atmosphere was pointed out by the conductor of a klezmer (Jewish musical) group. He declared to a Jewish newspaper that they had had to cancel shows for fear of appearing “politically incorrect” and because “it does not seem appropriate to stage a concert of Jewish music with all that it is going on in Israel.” This same argument was used in April 2002 in a different context. A well-known Bologna professor of Church history decided to cancel his participation in a meeting on the reinstatement of Jewish professors to positions from which they had been expelled by the 1938 racial laws, because of “what is happening in Palestine.”

Since April 2002, a change of tone has appeared in the Italian media. Many articles and letters by readers reflect concern with the rise of antisemitism. Moreover, leading journalists (such as Paolo Mieli, Piero Ostellino and Ernesto Galli della Loggia of Italy’s main national newspaper Corriere della Sera and Giuliano Ferrara, editor of Il Foglio), as well as politicians (chairman of the Senate and Forza Italia party member Marcello Pera and Piero Fassino, leader of the left-wing Democratic Party), denounced the simplistic portrayal of the conflict. These statements were followed by the withdrawal of Democratici di Sinistra (left) party representatives and trade union delegates from a national demonstration in Rome, on 6 April, under the slogan “For Peace in the Middle East.” This rally, organized by the radical left and anti-globalization groups, turned out to be violently anti-Israel, with young men dressed as suicide bombers.

            On 18 April 2002 the formerly extreme left-wing journalist Oriana Fallaci published a scathing denunciation (“Io trovo vergognoso”) of the “new antisemitism” in the weekly Panorama. She blamed anti-Zionist and anti-Israel motifs in Italian culture and politics for fostering an atmosphere which permitted demonstrators to dress as Palestinian suicide bombers, a bishop, Hilaryon Capucci to define these bombers as martyrs, Osservatore Romano, the Pope’s official mouthpiece to side with the terrorists, and state television to sympathize only with dead Palestinians. According to an opinion poll held by Panorama, a week later, 63.2 percent shared her views completely or more or less, and 22.1 percent partially disagreed.

 

Books

There has been renewed right-wing interest in the antisemite and doyen of Italian fascism Julius Evola. In 2001 three collections of his articles were published.

Claudio Mutti’s La contesa di Parma. Processo al professore (The Parma Dispute: A Professor on Trial – Centro per la libertà della scuola/Asefi Editore, Milano), concerns a row which broke out in the Romagnosi high school in Parma in 2000 following antisemitic and homophobic remarks by Mutti’s son, Solimano. In the book Mutti defends his son’s actions in the name of freedom of expression. Mutti teaches in the same institution and runs a small publishing house (Edizioni all’insegna del Veltro), which has issued numerous anti-Jewish and Holocaust denial tracts.

In 2001 an Italian reprint of I.B. Pranaitis’ book, I segreti della dottrina rabbinica. Cristo e i cristiani nel Talmud (Secrets of the Rabbinical Teachings. Christ and the Christians in the Talmud), was published anonymously. The original volume was printed in Saint Petersburg in 1892. The text has appeared on antisemitic websites such as Holywar, Radio Islam and Nuovo Ordine Nazionale (see below).

In 2002 the extreme right Società Editrice Barbarossa, which issues the periodical Orion (see below), published a collection of articles by the well-known Catholic integralist Curzio Nitoglia, Per padre il diavolo. Un’introduzione al problema ebraico secondo la tradizione cattolica (The Devil as Father. An Introduction to the Jewish Problem according to the Catholic Tradition). Nitoglia is a member of the editorial staff of Sodalitium, the periodical of Verrua Savoia (see below).

 

Internet

Various websites deal regularly or occasionally with themes related to Judaism. Like the books and articles mentioned above, these sites, apart from three Islamist ones, are mainly ultra-rightist or integralist Catholic.

The two most virulently antisemitic sites are Holywar and until recently Radio Islam (see Sweden), which contain, or contained, pages in Italian. The Italo-Norwegian Catholic integralist Alfred Olsen is responsible for the first, which covers antisemitic themes from Holocaust denial to ritual murder.

Two extreme right-wing, antisemitic sites were closed as of early 2002. These were Crimini, Terrore e Repressione dei Regimi Totalitari Comunisti and Nuovo Ordine Nazionale. The former re-opened after a brief period.

Italian sites dedicated to Holocaust denial include Revisionismo.com – Archivio di Revisionismo storico and Associazione per il Revisionismo Storico. Non-Italian sites with pages in Italian are Russ Granata and L’Association des Anciens Amateurs de Récites de Guerres et d’Holocaustes.

Islamist sites containing anti-Jewish and Holocaust denial material include Islam Islam and Informazione di cultura araba ed islamica in Italia.

Among the online discussion forums, the most virulently antisemitic are Politica’s Tradizione Cattolica and Forzanuova.net, linked to Forza Nuova, and the anarchist Contropotere.

In May 2001, a watchdog group monitoring the extreme right linked to the PRC lodged complaints to the police concerning the content of 17 home-pages which defended Nazism or were antisemitic.

 

Sport

The use of racist/antisemitic slogans and banners during soccer games continues to be a problem in Italian stadiums. This phenomenon is part of the general climate of violence and intolerance which characterizes soccer fanaticism. The most serious offenders tend to be rival supporters from the city of Rome teams, Roma and Lazio (see ASW 2000/1). In June 2001 a magistrate of Verona held for questioning nine youths from Piacenza for racist and antisemitic calls during a match between Chievo and Piacenza. Supporters from other teams reportedly protested to their team’s management about hiring colored players.

 

public opinion and the jews

Opinion Polls

In October 2001, and again in April 2002, a poll gauging the extent of Italian prejudice and hostility toward Jews was conducted on a sample of 5,000 Italian citizens. The research, carried out by the ISPO institute in Milan, replicated a previous poll held in December 2000, as well as a 1992 survey. In the October 2001 one over one-third of persons questioned (37.4 percent in October and 36 percent in April), compared with 26 percent in December 2000, agreed with the statement that Jews displayed cultural, social and political differences from Italians. A series of questions, which dealt with classical antisemitic biases, were then put to those who had answered positively.

Compared to the December 2000 results, there was rise in October 2001 and a slight fall in April 2002, in the percentages of positive answers to statements relating to Jewish stereotypes. Sixty-two percent in October 2001, compared to 49 percent in December 2000 (54 percent in April 2002), concurred that Jews had a special relationship with money. Almost forty-four (43.7) percent, compared to 31 percent in December 2000 (37 percent in April 2002), agreed that Jews should stop behaving like victims because of the Holocaust. Twelve percent, compared to 8 percent in December 2000 (10 percent in April 2002), were of the opinion that Jews were lying about the Holocaust. Finally, 23 percent, compared to 14 percent in December 2000 (19 percent in April 2002), declared they disliked Jews, and 11 percent, compared to 5.5 percent in December 2000 (9 percent in April 2002), thought they should leave Italy. It should be noted that this last October finding (11 percent) represents 4.3 percent of the Italian population.

 

The Catholic Church

While mainstream Catholicism rarely displays anti-Jewish prejudice, signs of impatience with the pontificate of John Paul II among some elements have become increasingly evident. In addition to his “requests for forgiveness” (from, among others, the Jewish people – see ASW 1999/2000), the pope has been criticized for excessive ecumenism toward other religions (including visits to synagogues and mosques), and his refusal to beatify Queen Isabelle the Catholic, who drove the Jewish people out of Spain in 1492. Until recently open criticism was confined to the schismatic Lefebvrians.

 

Attitudes toward the Holocaust and the nazi era

Holocaust Commemoration

For some years now commemoration of the Holocaust has been officially integrated into Italian culture and is accepted by a large segment of the Italian population. Significant dates, such as 16 October, when the Roman Jewish community was rounded up for deportation, are marked in schools and at the local, provincial, regional and national level. Parliamentary discussions on the erection of a state Holocaust museum in Ferrara began in early 2002.

On 27 January 2002, Italy marked its second Holocaust memorial day, commemorating both the extermination and persecution of the Jewish people and the deportation of Italian soldiers and politicians to Nazi camps. Events included school activities, student tours to Auschwitz, plays, photo exhibitions, meetings and public demonstrations, as well as lengthy programs on radio and on two national TV channels.

The second memorial day, however, was more modest in scale than the first one. Less than three weeks before the date, UCEI president Amos Luzzatto complained about the lack of government initiatives and the silence of the minister of education. Preparations for the day itself caused arguments among the center-right parties, particularly within the AN, with some members claiming that victims of communism and the millions of people killed in the Soviet gulags should also be remembered.

 

Holocaust Denial

Holocaust denial is a theme shared by the entire far right. It appears on websites (see above), in leaflets, in interviews with skinhead activists, in journals such as Orion, Avanguardia, Sentinella d’Italia and Rinascita, as well as in e-mail messages and letters. Occasionally, the case of a high school history teacher who propagates Holocaust denial theories in the classroom comes to public attention (see ASW 2000/1). Since early 2002, Holocaust denial arguments have been widely used to support anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish claims.

The cultural association Nuovo Ordine Nazionale organized a conference on the subject “Revisionism and the Dignity of Defeated Countries,” in Trieste, in October 2001, chaired by two members of the Movimento Fascismo e Libertà. The program listed lectures by Holocaust deniers J.L. Berger, Russ Granata, Ahmed Rami, Vincent Reynouard and Fredrick Toben. Another such meeting was held in Trieste in May 2002 by Nuovo Ordine Europeo, entitled “La storia non raccontata.” The program listed contributions by deniers G.A. Amaudruz, Carlo Mattogno (who represented Russ Granata), Ahmed. Rami, Vincent Reynouard, and Adriano Tilgher, among others.

Two new “revisionist” books were published: Carlo Mottogno, “Sonderbehandlung” ad Auschwitz. Genesi e significato (Edizioni Ar, June 2001) and Franco Deana, Studi revisionistici (Graphos, Jan. 2002).

 

responses to racism and antisemitism

Legal Activity

At the beginning of June 2002, a police operation extending from Venezia to Treviso led to one arrest, a detainment and six house searches of extreme right-wing sympathizers. The investigation began after racist and anti-Jewish graffiti had appeared on the walls of a few towns. During a house searches, the police found a map of Venice, on which three red dots marked the Jewish ghetto.

On 14 November 2001, the First Court of Assizes in Milan acquitted Nicola Cucullo, mayor of Chieti, of the charges of defending genocide and fascism. In December 1993, during a lunch with 44 other mayors affiliated with the MSI party, Cucullo (now listed as a MS-FT member) shouted: “Hitler was the most intelligent person in the world. But the Germans made a mistake. They should have fried all the Jews.” The case was dismissed because of the right of freedom of thought guaranteed by the constitution, and because, according to the judge, the circumstances did not justify a conviction.

On 22 October 2001, Francesco Ciapanna, editor of the monthly magazine Fotografare, was sentenced to 13 months in prison for racial discrimination because of an article he published in 1998. Ciapanna had published many violently anti-Jewish articles in the past.

The Nazi criminal Michael Seifert, aka Misha, was arrested in April 2002 in his home in Vancouver. In November 2000, he had been sentenced to life imprisonment by a military tribunal in Verona. He was found guilty on 9 out of 15 charges, including the execution of 18 people. Italy had asked Canada for his extradition. Due to his age and health, an appeals court in Ottawa granted Seifert a conditional release.

At the end of May 2002, ex-SS officer Eric Priebke requested a provisional pardon from the military court in Napoli. Priebke was sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the 1944 Ardeatine Caves massacre. The provisional pardon would reduce the sentence to ten years in prison. The court’s verdict was pending. Priebke is currently serving his life sentence under house arrest.

On 4 July 2002, a Hamburg tribunal sentenced Friederich Engel, former SS head in Genoa, to seven years in prison for his role in the execution of 59 Italian war prisoners (the Turchino massacre). Engel had already been sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment by an Italian military tribunal for several massacres, which cost the lives of 248 people.