italy 2004

 

Most antisemitic instances in 2004 were verbal or written expressions, especially in Islamic websites and far left/anti-globalization sites and publications. Italian footballers took part in Rome in a ‘match of memory’ on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, in January.

 

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), and smaller ones 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), founded in 1955, 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.

 

political organizations and groups

Right-Wing and Far Right Parties

Alleanza Nazionale (National Alliance – AN) is led by Gianfranco Fini, foreign minister and deputy prime minister in the Berlusconi government. The party obtained 11.5 percent of the vote and 9 seats in the June 2004 European Parliamentary elections.

AN’s political program emphasizes Catholicism close to the official Church position, as well as law and order, especially legislation aimed at controlling immigration and national cohesion. It competes for votes with Lega Nord (LN, see below), its ally in the ruling right center coalition Casa delle Libertà (CdL), but AN is less strident on the immigration issue and its stress on national unity contrasts with the League’s regionalism.

Since its foundation in 1995, Fini has succeeded in glossing over  AN’s origins in the neo-fascist Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI), portraying it as a democratic conservative party which rejects antisemitism and racism, supports Israel and is devoid of nostalgia for the fascist era (Repubblica Sociale Italiana – RSI, 1943–45). Nevertheless, some party members continue to demonstrate their fascist inclinations (see ASW 2003/4).

            Lega Nord (Northern League – LN) is led by Umberto Bossi, who was minister for institutional reform and devolution in the Berlusconi government until July 2004. The party received 5 percent of the vote and 5 seats in the European Parliamentary elections.

            LN has apparently abandoned its claim for a politically autonomous Padania (the northern region of Italy), after obtaining a promise from its coalition allies to enact a series of measures increasing regional sovereignty. The party espouses ethnic and populist regionalism, strongly tainted by racism. With its aggressive style, sometimes peppered with direct insults, LN kindles social alarm regarding illegal immigration and ‘the Muslim invasion’, and a supposed direct link between immigration from non-European countries and crime and prostitution.

The party newspaper La Padania is close to the traditionalist, Lefebvrist (followers of Msgr. Marcel Lefebvre who refuse to accept the 1965 Second Vatican Council reforms) fringes of the Church and deals with many issues central to that culture such as denunciation of Freemason plots and defense of Catholicism as the religion of the masses. Through former extreme right-wing militants such as LN Deputy Mario Borghezio, it also finds a certain community of views with the radical anti-globalization, anti-Zionist Forza Nuova movement.

While, officially, the party platform is pro-Israel and pro-Judaism, some articles in La Padania, the party newspaper, seem to contradict this position. For example, in “Quei 150 mila soldati ebrei di Hitler di cui nessuno ha mai osato parlare” (Those 150 Jewish soldiers of Hitler that none ever dared speak about − 31 March 2004), a review of the book Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers by Bryan Mark Rigg, Pasquale Squitieri wrote that “a collective innocence of the Jewish people” did not exist (see also ASW 2003/4).

 

The Muslim Community

Approximately 800,000 Muslims currently live in the country, accounting for about 1.2 percent of the population. Unione delle comunità ed organizzazioni islamiche in Italia (UCOII; www.islam-ucoii.it) represents ‘organized Islamism’ in Italy, and is a member of the FIOE (Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe), a roof organization for groups associated with the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe. About 700,000 of the Muslim faithful and over 80 percent of Italy’s mosques and Islamic cultural centres are identified with the UCOII (see ASW 2003/4).

UCOII does not hide its marked anti-Zionism, expressed, inter alia, in support for Palestinian suicide bombers and their ideology, and rejection of Israel’s right to exist − with Israel almost always referred to as the ‘Zionist entity’ (see, for example, the UCOII website and Italian dailies, in particular, comments by Magdi Allam in Corriere della Sera). A prominent member of the Union took part in the presentation, in Genoa on 28 September 2004, of a book entitled Sul terrorismo israeliano (On Israeli Terrorism), published by Edizioni Graphos and edited by French Holocaust denier Serge Thion. In the leaflet introducing the book, the ‘Zionist state’ is defined as a “national socialist” entity waging a “racial” war aimed at the genocide of the Palestinians.

 

The Far Left and the Anti-globalization Movement

Italy’s far left rarely makes use of traditional anti-Jewish stereotypes but adopts a strongly anti-Israel line that extends to demonization and even rejection of the State of Israel. Therefore, while it does not attack the Jews directly, in keeping with its generally hostile approach to Zionism it attributes to Israel part of the negative symbolism that classic antisemitism ascribes to Jews and Judaism. Holocaust denial, too, is practically absent from its cultural framework. However the horror of the Jewish genocide is banalized by comparisons between the modern Jewish state and Hitler’s Germany.

Parliamentary parties closely associated with the extreme left-wing are: Partito della Rifondazione Comunista (PRC), Partito dei Comunisti Italian (PCI) and Federazione dei Verdi (Greens) (see ASW 2003/4). These political forces have often organized events directed against the Jewish state and promoted media campaigns aimed at boycotting Israeli-made products, severing politico-economic relations between Israel and Europe and imposing sanctions on Israel. Many politicians belonging to these three political groupings frequently denounce ‘Zionist racism’ and Ariel Sharon, branding him a ‘killer’ and an ‘executioner’.

The anti-Israel bias of the far left is matched by a pro-Islam stand, exemplified by a friendly meeting that took place in Lebanon in November 2004 between an Italian Communist party leader and the secretary-general of Hizballah Hasan Nasrallah.

The multi-faceted anti-globalization front is united through a fusion of pacifism, terzomondismo (third-world liberation movements) and fierce hostility toward the liberal economy, globalization, the US, Israel and the West in general. There is also fiercely pro-Islam sentiment within the movement, which sometimes takes the form of support for jihadist terrorism in the centri sociali (social centers frequented by radical young left-wingers).

Thanks in part to the active support they get from much of the world of culture and entertainment, the anti-globalization groups enjoy enormous popularity, especially among young people. They draw their inspiration from many sources but have no acknowledged leader. They have no precise point of reference in parliament, although PRC and the Greens pay close attention to them.

 

antisemitic activity

Most antisemitism in Italy in 2004 was verbal or written (in books, articles, graffiti, public speeches or comments made in private, threatening letters, etc.). As in other countries the Internet has become an important means of disseminating anti-Jewish propaganda.

 

Islamist Activities and Publications

Adel Smith’s Guai a voi Scribi e Farisei. Il dovere di odiare ‘Israele’ (Watch out, you Scribes and Pharisees. It is our duty to hate Israel; Carchitti, 2004) summarizes the main anti-Jewish stereotypes. Smith argues that “the Zionists are about to take control of the world, and are working towards making non-Jews their slaves.” Smith, an Italian of Scottish origin and convert to Islam, has written countless essays − some of them antisemitic − all published by Edizioni Alethes, his own publishing house, and he is a regular guest on the main TV and radio talk-shows. Smith is chairman of the Unione musulmani d’Italia (UMI), the first organization claiming to be a proper Italian Islamic political party. However, UMI has probably no more than a few dozen supporters.

The majority of Italy’s Islamic websites have close ties with the Islamic fundamentalist world, and therefore abound in anti-imperialist rhetoric and strongly-worded anti-Zionism. Informazione di cultura araba ed islamica in Italia (www.arabcomint.com), Associazione Islamica Ahl al Bait (www.shia-islam.org), and Arab.it (www.arab.it), for example, publish articles, photos and satirical cartoons demonizing the Jewish state and Zionism. Comparisons between the Jewish state and Nazi Germany (and the inference of parallels between Zionism and Nazism) or South Africa under apartheid, as well as the claim of Jewish control of the media, are recurring themes. In addition, some of the negative symbolism which classic antisemitism ascribed to the Jews is transferred to Israel.

 

Left-Wing/Anti-Globalization Propaganda

Over recent years Italy’s far left has developed an increasingly anti-Zionist line on the Arab/Israeli conflict, with the Jewish state viewed as the source of the world’s problems (see ASW 2003/4). Far left publications frequently present an image of the ‘likudnik’ (member/supporter of Israel’s Likud Party) which verges on caricature. A particular target is former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, often depicted as the ‘big Jew’ who is carrying out a secret Likud plan to manipulate US foreign policy in a way that will further the aims of Ariel Sharon and the Mossad. For example, in the book L’imperialismo democratico. Uomini e teorie della dottrina Bush per il dominio del mondo (Democratic imperialism − the Bush doctrine to rule the world; Datanews, Roma, 2003), left-wing journalist Fabio Giovannini describes Wolfowitz as the leader of a neo-conservative ‘cabal’: “There are men [Wolfowitz] in a blue suit, with an anonymous face, unknown to the general public, who decide about the fate of the world and about the life or death of millions of people.”

Fringe elements of the far left have even adopted theories of far-right Catholic fundamentalists. Edoneo.org, an anti-globalization website, has a page (http://smart.tin.it/rancinis/FIAMMA.html) devoted to articles by the Catholic fundamentalist journalist Maurizio Blondet, who has written several antisemitic books.

Leftist demonization of Israel has resulted in representatives of the Israeli government (or anyone reputed to be a ‘Zionist’) being prevented from taking part in conferences organized by Italian universities. In October 2004, Shai Cohen, counselor for political affairs at Israel’s embassy in Italy, was invited by the Faculty of Political Science of Pisa University to speak on “The Republic of Israel.” He was unable to deliver his lecture due to verbal attacks from representatives of the Collettivo autonomo di Scienze Politiche (Autonomous Collective of the Political Science Faculty), who shouted, inter alia, “Sharon executioner and murderer,” “Terrorist Israel” and “Fascists, assassins.”

In line with the idea that yesterday’s victims have become today’s persecutors, the communist daily il Manifesto (28 Dec.) alleged that Israel was using a mysterious gas to poison Arabs who crossed the Allenby Bridge. Il Manifesto (16, 29 Dec.) also criticized the French government’s decision to impose a blackout on satellite broadcasts of the Hizballah TV station al-Manar. It painted a highly positive profile of the network and extensive comments from Hizballah leaders who accused the “Zionist racist lobby” of being behind the ban.

In January 2004, the Italian PeaceLink website published a report from Israel entitled “Una settimana in Palestina – Avvocati e registi in Medio Oriente” (A week in Palestine – lawyers and film directors in the Middle East), which claimed that the arrogance and violence typical of Jews are fostered by “some element of the Jewish religion that helps make all this happen” (see ASW 2003/4). Also in January, the spokesman of the Campo Antiimperialista association (www.antiimperialista.org), Moreno Pasquinelli, a prominent anti-globalization figure, began contributing to the online magazine Il Resto del Siclo (The Change from a Shekel), which minimizes the Holocaust, exalts Arab/Islamic radicalism and foments anti-Zionism. Campo Antiimperialista for its part proposes a universal jihad against the US and Israel, through an alliance of terrorist movements, irrespective of their leanings, provided they are anti-American and anti-Zionist.

            Participants at an anti-fascist, anti-imperialist demonstration in Rome, organized by the Communist parties on 13 November, shouted anti-Jewish and anti-Israel slogans.

 

responses to antisemitism

In April 2004 the ADL released the findings of a survey of antisemitic attitudes in ten European countries, compared to figures for 2003. Antisemitic attitudes declined in all countries, including in Italy − from 22 percent in 2002 to 15 percent. The ADL attributes the decrease, first, to admission that the problem exists, and then to the role of governments in battling antisemitism and hate crimes. In January 2004 a poll ordered by Corriere della Sera was published, revealing that 33.7 percent of Italian respondents (compared to the European average of 35.7 percent) believed that Jews “should stop playing the victim of the Holocaust.”

            On 10 December 2004, a military court in La Spezia tried in absentia, and acquitted, a former Nazi officer, 85-year-old Herman Langer. Langer was charged with the execution of 60 people at the Farneta Monastery in Tuscany, including Jews and other nationals, on 2 September 1944. Italian officials were shocked at the verdict.

            Italian footballers took part in a ‘match of memory’ on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, January 2004, at the Rome Olympic Stadium, where five years previously hooligans displayed a banner reading, “Auschwitz is your homeland, the ovens are your homes.” The proceeds of the match were destined to help pay for a Holocaust Museum in Rome. Players wore T-shirts marking Holocaust Memorial Day.

            On 15 December 2004 at an international conference in Rome on the effects of antisemitism on democracy hosted by the Italian Foreign Ministry and sponsored by the ADL and Il Foglio, European justice commissioner Franco Frattini proposed a continent-wide law against racism, xenophbia and antisemitism. Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini censured anti-Jewish acts inside and outside of Europe. Journalists present agreed that antisemitism must be curbed without hampering the right to criticize the State of Israel. Romano Prodi, then president of the European Commission and a former prime minister, convened a seminar in Brussels on 19 February against antisemitism and for a 'Union of diversity'.