italy 2007
The 52 antisemitic incidents recorded in 2007 included vandalism, graffiti, emails to Jewish communities and
institutions, and slogans during football matches. A new book
reviving the Jewish blood libel myth was withdrawn from circulation, following
a fierce public debate. French Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson spoke at the
conference “The Gagged History” at Teramo University.
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 there are smaller ones
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 (http://moked.it/), founded in 1930, 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 two communities. The Jews of Rome publish a monthly journal, Shalom
(www.shalom.it), and the Milan community puts out the monthly Bollettino
della Comunità ebraica di Milano (www.mosaico-cem.it).
The CDEC (Contemporary Jewish Documentation Center)
Foundation in Milano (www.cdec.it ) maintains the website L'Osservatorio sul pregiudizio
antiebraico contemporaneo (Observatory of Contemporary Anti-Jewish Prejudice) (www.osservatorioantisemitismo.it )
political
organizations and groups
Far Right and Populist Parties
The Forza
Nuova (New Force), led by Roberto Fiore, is a traditionalist Catholic movement tied to myths of fascism and the Repubblica Sociale Italiana
(Italian Social Republic, RSI, Nazi-allied state in northern Italy, 1943-45).
It campaigns against immigrants, especially Muslims, as well as against
homosexuals, and opposes abortion and euthanasia. In addition to its
anti-Zionism and anti-Israelism, it claims that Freemasonry is linked to world
Jewry. For example, under the heading “Freemasonry” on its website, the FN
mentions B’nai Brith as a global Masonic power. The movement is active
throughout Italy, organizing propaganda rallies and demonstrations, and sit-ins
over social issues. FN also attracts skinhead sympathizers.
Identification with Forza Nuova is increasing, especially
among “ultra” (see ASW 2006) supporters of some football teams and among high school
students. Its average electoral return is 0.6 percent. In the 2007 local
council elections, the FN ran on a joint ticket with the Alternativa Sociale
(led by Alessandra Mussolini),
Movimento Idea Sociale (led by Pino Rauti), and
Volontari Nazionali (led by Alberto Rossi), getting representatives in some
town councils. Leader Fiore, who spent nine years as a fugitive in Britain after being convicted of conspiracy in the bombing of Bologna train station in 1980, took up
the Euro-Parliament seat vacated by Mussolini in April 2008.
Movimento Sociale-Fiamma Tricolore (MS-FT Social Movement –
Tri-colored Flame), is led by Luca Romagnoli (secretary general), Maurizio
Boccacci (secretary for Rome, and former leader of Movimento Politico
Occidentale) and Piero Puschiavo (regional coordinator for Veneto and former
leader of Veneto Fronte Skinhead). Since 2004 the movement has reorganized
radical right militants whose associations were disbanded in 1993 under the
Mancino law against discrimination and incitement to violence on a racial,
ethnic, religious or national basis. In 2007 protest groups such as Casa Pound in Rome looked to MS-FT for leadership in regard to social issues (such as squatters and
workers rights, and “defending” citizens against illegal immigrants).
The
ethno-regionalist populist Lega Nord (Northern League – LN), led by Umberto
Bossi, espouses ethnic and populist regionalism, strongly tainted by
xenophobia. With its aggressive style, sometimes peppered with direct insults,
LN kindles social alarm regarding Roma people, illegal immigration and “the
Muslim invasion,” and assumes a direct link between immigration from
non-European countries and crime and prostitution. LN continues to cling to the
separatist notion of a politically autonomous Padania
in northern Italy and opposes the symbols of the Italian unitary state. In
December a LN city councilman in Treviso proposed using SS methods against
immigrants: punishing ten immigrants for each wrong done to an Italian citizen.
The Muslim Community
Approximately one million Muslims
live in the country. Unione delle comunità ed organizzazioni islamiche
in Italia (UCOII) 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. UCOII does not
hide its marked anti-Zionism and rejection of Israel’s right to exist −
with Israel almost always referred to as the “Zionist entity” (see, for
example, UCOII website, www.islam-ucoii.it).
On May 26, 2007, a meeting against the Mancino law, organized by the far right organization Comunità
Politica di Avanguardia (Vanguard Political Community; www.avanguardia.tv), was attended by Roberto Hamza Piccardo, spokesman and secretary of
the UCOII. Piccardo maintained that the Italian press was “almost entirely
enslaved to Zionist dominance… it supports every activity linked to Jewish
interests in discriminating and criminalizing critics of Israel.” The Mancino law was
being used as the basis for a legal investigation of Piccardo and the
UCOII (see below).
A reporter from the
television program “Annozero” on Rai 2 (Radio Televisione Italiana), Italy’s second
national TV channel, filmed with a “secret micro camcorder” an imam of Arab
origin in the mosque of via del Cottolengo in Torino, “preaching words of hate
against Westerners, Christians and Jews in a room where al-Qa`ida propaganda
newspapers are conspicuous.”
According to the
results of an investigation into jihadist terrorism, carried out by the Perugia public prosecutor’s office, an imam at the Ponte Felcino mosque stated during his
sermons: “God accepts Muslim martyrs… May God protect us from Americans… from
Jews and from Christians… from traitors… May God destroy them and weaken them…He
who kills a soul is rewarded… an American or a Jew’s soul…” (La Repubblica, July 22, 2007).
The Far Left and the
Anti-globalization Movement
Italy’s far left rarely resorts to traditional anti-Jewish
stereotypes but follows a strongly anti-Israel line that extends to
demonization and even delegitimation of the State of Israel. The Communist
newspaper Il Manifesto is noteworthy for its blatantly anti-Zionist approach.
On October 25, it published the reply of MEP Luisa Morgantini, from the PRC (Communist Refoundation Party), to an article written by journalist Fiamma Nirenstein in the daily Il Giornale (Oct. 22, 2007). Morgantini accused Israel of "an apartheid policy, yes apartheid, worse than in South Africa."
On the occasion of Holocaust Memorial Day, Marco Ferrando, leader of the far
left Communist Movement for Workers party (Partito Movimento comunista per I
lavoratori), which is not represented in the Italian parliament, claimed the right of
"freedom to be anti-Zionist” but not antisemitic (Il Giornale, Jan.
28, 2007).
In September 2007 an
online group called Gaza vive (Gaza lives www.gazavive.com)
was founded. The website, which promotes a strongly pro-Palestinian/
anti-Zionist/anti-Israel line, posted a petition declaring that the “Zionist
authorities” treat Gaza Palestinians “like [inmates] in Nazi concentration
camps” and perpetrate their “genocide.” It was signed by thousands of people,
among them well-known intellectuals close to the radical left.
antisemitic activity
CDEC’s
Observatory of Contemporary Anti-Jewish Prejudice recorded a decline in
antisemitic incidents in 2007 from the previous year: 53 overall, compared to 80 in 2006, some 30 of which were insulting and threatening emails sent during the Second Lebanon
War. Incidents in 2007 included vandalism, graffiti, abusive emails to Jewish
communities and institutions, and slogans during football matches. The figure does
not cover antisemitic websites, books, songs and videos.
Reports of graffiti
comprised the largest share (26 versus 36 in 2006) and mostly emanated from the extreme right. Seven of the instances were recorded in January, on or
around Holocaust Memorial Day. The content remained
unchanged: swastikas accompanied by praise of Hitler and the deportation and
killing of Jews. Rome had the largest number of graffiti incidents, nine, while
there were three in Milan.
The 12 abusive
emails, to members of the Jewish community in Milan − a fall from 2006
− were all from a single antisemitic individual who is suspected of being
mentally ill.
Vandalism and
Graffiti
Three incidents of vandalism were recorded against Jewish
facilities. Two days before International Holocaust Memorial Day, January 27, all the branches of a small
olive tree in Arezzo, Italy, marking the site of an 18th century Jewish
cemetery, were cut off and a swastika-adorned banner was left, reading:
“10,100,1000 Holocausts”
and “Priebke Libero [Free Priebke − referring to Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke serving a life
sentence under house arrest in Rome].” On the day itself, the slogans
“Jews get out,” Jews are swine” and “Dirty Jews” were painted on buildings and
walls throughout Rome. Also
in January, a yellow Star of David was painted on the door of Mantua synagogue.
In June, swastikas and the phrase
“10,100,1000 Shoahs” were painted on the wall of the synagogue in via
Montecuccoli in Milan.
On April 12, antisemitic and xenophobic slogans were reported on
walls near Rome’s Vescovio Square. The graffiti read, inter alia,
“Filthy Jews” and “Illegal immigrants get out.” Swastikas and the logo of the
neo-fascist Gruppo Forza Nuova appeared nearby.
A memorial to victims of the Third Reich in Bolzano was destroyed in August. The monument, made of glass tablets, bore the names of
124 Jews, Roma and Sinti, Jehovah’s Witnesses, disabled people, forced
laborers, opponents of the regime, and Slovenians murdered there during the
war.
Defamation and
Propaganda
In January, an exhibition of paintings, under the theme “Eucharist
Miracles,” held in a church in the city of Orvieto, included some antisemitic
images. The Roman Association of Friends of Israel wrote to Pope Benedict XVI
complaining that the paintings portrayed the Jews as “bloodthirsty people
desecrating the Christian religion.” Israeli Ambassador to the Vatican Oded Ben
Hur expressed shock over the exhibition to the president of the Commission for
Religious Relations, Cardinal Walter Kasper.
The
book Pasque di sangue (Bloody Passovers: The Jews of Europe and Ritual
Murders; February 2007), by Israeli historian Ariel Toaff, son of the former
chief rabbi of Rome, Elio Toaff, was recalled by the publishers, Il Mulino,
in the wake of a fierce controversy. The book, which suggests a possible historical
basis for the centuries-old charge that Jews murdered Christians and used their
blood for ritual purposes, revived the legend of Simonino da Trento
(the boy Simon from Trento), allegedly martyred by the Jews
in 1475. The centuries-old cult of San Simonino was abolished by the Church
in 1965. Fundamentalist Catholics came out strongly in support of Toaff. For
example, in February, the Comunità Antagonista Padana, a group of
students close to the Northern League at the Catholic University of Milan, hung
a poster accepting the legend and describing Toaff as a victim “of the power he
depends upon [Israeli academia],” a man who dared to “write about a truth which
non-Jews are no longer free to investigate.” They also compared Toaff to British
Holocaust denier David Irving, supposedly another victim of Jewish power.
In March the newly constituted Saint Simonino Committee in Trento presented Toaff’s book and launched an appeal to reinstate worship of the child and the
return of related relics (http://www.osservatorioantisemitismo.it/sub_tipologie.asp?idtipo=60&idmacro=1&idfiglio=204&n_macro=2&pagina=Dibattito%20sul%20libro%20di%20Ariel%20Toaff). It should be noted that Toaff himself decided to
reconsider his thesis and reframe those sections of it that he felt had been
misunderstood by readers and mischaracterized in the press (particularly the
review by Sergio Luzzatto in Corriere della Sera, Feb. 6). Toaff issued the revised version in 2008; it includes
a new cover photo, a lengthy postscript (“Processes and Historical Methodology.
In Defense of Pasque di sangue”) and a change in the tense of many
statements to the conditional form.
Former Alleanza Nazionale representative
Francesco Storace, founder in July 2007 of the far right La Destra – the Right), posted the comments on his blog “La Destra” about Senator for Life Rita Levi Montalcini, who is of Jewish origin: “Montalcini is
old, she’s put billions aside and she is also a ballbuster. She is annoying,
even more hateful in profile… I would assign her a political role in the
ghetto, I would appoint her as representative, spokeswoman of the Jewish
community!”
A Jewish journalist, Gad Lerner, was insulted
by a Radio Padania (of the LN) host, following a comment the former made during
his TV program “L'Infedele” defending the Roma people. Lerner had said that
many arguments against the Roma recalled the anti-Jewish propaganda of 70 years
ago. Calling him “a big-nosed quack,” the host said on his program: “I'm going
to grab him by the neck in the synagogue.”
A Catholic priest, the founder of a
rehabilitation community, reacted to sexual harrassment charges brought against
him by former members of the community by saying:”I don't know what is behind
this story... maybe a Jewish radical... lobby.” Following a barrage of
protests, the priest said that what he actually meant were Freemasons.
Following President Mahmud
Ahmadinejad’s eliminationist declarations against Israel, a local high school
teacher in Turin declared to his class in January that “Ahmadinejad is right. Israel must be erased from the map.” He also advised his students to read Hitler’s Mein
Kampf.” The education minister opened an investigation.
Lazio football club supporters in Rome are known for their far right sympathies and identification with fascist ideology. In
May, before and during a Lazio-Livorno match, they chanted slogans against a
Livorno player and Livorno supporters: “Lucarelli Jew” and “Livorno supporters
are Jews.” During the half-time of a Lazio-Parma match in Rome, also in May,
Lazio supporters chanted “Roma juden club” and “Rome supporters are Jews.”
opinion polls
Two surveys were carried out in Italy in 2007, one by the
Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the other by the Milan-based Istituto di Studi
sulla Pubblica Opinione (ISPO). In the ADL poll, which was part of a
Europe-wide one (2,714 pollees; 500 in Italy), Italy fared better than other
European states. For example, whereas in Italy 48 percent agreed with the
statement “Jews are more loyal to Israel” than to their country of citizenship
− a considerable decrease from 57 percent in 2005 − among other
countries in Europe there was an increase in those who thought Jews were more
loyal to Israel (compare, for example, Netherlands).
In other findings, 42 percent assented that Jews have too much power in
business, compared to 32 percent in 2005, while 46 percent thought Jews talked
too much about the Holocaust compared to 49 percent in 2005.
According to the January 2007 ISPO survey of
2,156 Italians, 26 percent considered Jews were more loyal to Israel than to Italy, while 23.1 percent claimed Jews were not truly Italians. To the statement “At
the end of the day, money is always in the hands of Jews,” 26.7 responded
positively. In regard to the past, 30.3 said Jews talked too much about their
tragedies and neglected those of others,” while 26.4 percent agreed that the
Jews had turned from victims into aggressors (complete findings forthcoming at www.osservatorioantisemitismo.it).
Attitudes toward the
Holocaust
An
intense public debate over the issues of Holocaust denial and free speech, and
fascist crimes and the law arose when Justice Minister Clemente Mastella
proposed a bill that would criminalize denial of the Holocaust (which is not
covered by the Mancino law). On January 25, the Italian cabinet approved a
draft law imposing jail terms for racist or ethnically motivated crimes, but
stopped short of making Holocaust denial illegal. Several leading university
professors involved in the discussion published an open letter, claiming
Holocaust denial was a cultural problem that could not be solved with jail
sentences.
The question of the
legitimacy of Holocaust denial accompanied a three-day seminar on April 17-19,
entitled “The Gagged History,” held at the University of Teramo. Speakers
included Holocaust deniers and anti-Zionists from the extreme right and extreme
left, among them French denier Robert Faurisson (see General Analysis). Faurisson was invited to lecture again at the university on
May 18 by the organizer of the conference, Professor Claudio Moffa. Following
protests from intellectuals and the Jewish community, the chancellor decided to
close the campus for the day in order to prevent the lecture from taking place.
A book published by Italian
journalist Andrea Tornielli in 2007 rejects accusations that Pius XII was
antisemitic and ignored the Holocaust during World War II. In Pius XII, Un
uomo sul Trono di Pietro (Pius XII: A man on Peter’s throne). Tornielli
labels these allegations a "black legend," unsupported by the facts,
and claims that Pius worked to help Jews. The book was published weeks after
the Vatican strengthened its efforts to have Pope Pius XII sanctified.
Three monographs deniyng the
Holocaust were published in 2007 by the small Genova publishing house Effepi, which
specializes in antisemitic and Holocaust denial literature, and advertised for
sale on its site, http://www.libroelibri.com/Italia-Effepi.htm:
Paul Rassinier, Il vero processo Eichmann ovvero gli incorreggibili
vincitori (The true Eichmann process or the incorrigible winners); Robert
Faurisson, La mistificazione del XX secolo (XXth century distortion); and
Carlo Mattogno, La deportazione degli ebrei ungheresi del maggio-luglio 1944
(The deportation of Hungarian Jews in May-July 1944).
The
antisemitic neo-Nazi website Thule Toscana (www.thule-toscana.com) has a large
section devoted to Holocaust denial material (www.thule-toscana.com/Documenti/Revisionismo/Revisionismo.htm).
responses to
antisemitism
At a meeting
with representatives of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) in the Vatican, held on 8 October, Pope Benedict XVI expressed his concern about rising
antisemitism among radical Muslims, as well as with the anti-Jewish and
anti-Israel declarations of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Members of
the WJC discussed with the pope the possibility of dialogue with moderate
Muslims.
Two
months earlier, however, the pope was strongly criticized by Rabbi Marvin Hier
of the Los Angeles-based Wiesenthal Center and the Europe Jewish Congress,
among others, for meeting in Rome with Father Tadeusz Rydzyk, owner of the
Polish nationalist Roman Catholic Radio Maryja, which disseminates antisemitic
propaganda (see Poland).
On
February 16, Mohamed Nour Dachan, head of the UCOII in Italy, and spokesman and secretary Roberto Hamza Piccardo were summoned to a preliminary hearing by
the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Rome for incitement to racial hatred. During
the 2006 Second Lebanon War, the UCOII had compared Israel’s military operation
in Lebanon to the Nazi persecution of the Jews. The UCOI was criticized, among
others, by the imam of the Milan mosque Abdel Hamid Shaari and leading members
of the Italian parliament. Interior Minister Giuliano Amato proposed that
Muslim organizations in Italy subscribe to a “charter of values,” which would
set out basic democratic constitutional rights and obligations, and provide
for acceptance among Muslim communities of republican, liberal-democratic
values.
Several
youths from the northern Italian city of Bolzano, members of the neo-Nazi
Sudtiroler Kameradschaftsring for the liberation of South Tyrol, were charged
under the Mancino law after they posed for photos at the Nazi concentration
camp of Dachau giving the Nazi salute. They received conditional prison
sentences of 12 to 30 months.
President
of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano delivered a speech on Holocaust
Memorial Day. He said: “… we can fight successfully every sign of racism,
violence and abuse against others, and above all, any resurgence of
antisemitism… even when it disguises itself as anti-Zionism, because
anti-Zionism means denying the inspiring source of the Jewish state, the
reasons for its birth yesterday and of its security today, regardless of the
different governments that lead Israel...”
