Destra? Sinistra? Siamo tutti antisemiti.

[stellarossa1959]

Antisemitism Worldwide 2003/4
Click for 2004 updates on Italy
italy

The number of antisemitic incidents reported in Italy fell from about 150 in 2002 to about 80 in 2003; most were verbal or written expressions of antisemitism. There was a continuation of the anti-Zionist rhetoric of the far left, which radicalized after Ariel Sharon was elected Israel’s prime minister and George W. Bush became president of the US, with Bush portrayed as the puppet of the ‘Likudnik lobby’ which allegedly runs American policy from behind the scenes.



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), with smaller communities 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 Organizations
Alleanza Nazionale (National Alliance – AN) is led by Gianfranco Fini, deputy prime minister in the Berlusconi government. In the May 2001 national elections AN obtained 96 seats (out of 630) in the Chamber of Deputies and 46 seats (out of 324) in the Senate. The party lost a few key seats in the 2003 local elections (25 May–8 June), such as the Province of Rome, but its position remained firm. 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 laws 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 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 tried to gloss 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.

The AN club in Fiumicino (close to Rome), for example, called for a square to be named after fascist leader Ettore Muti, while the president of the region of Lazio, Francesco Storace, asked that each city dedicate a street to Giorgio Almirante, leader of the defunct neo-fascist party MSI, from which AN emerged.

In November 2003, AN deputy Antonio Serena (who switched from LN to AN in 2001) distributed to other parliamentary deputies a tape extolling ex-SS man Erich Priebke, who is serving a life sentence for the Ardeatine caves massacres (see ASW 1997/8). He was condemned by most senior AN executives and expelled from the party.

The party daily Il Secolo d’Italia tends to paint a rosy picture of the fascist regime, praising its values and RSI leaders. It refers to events in which young men “fought to the last” (on the side of the RSI) for Italy’s honor, without mentioning the persecutions against political opponents and Jews. For the sake of national unity, the party advocates overcoming the differences between pro-fascists and anti-fascists, since they were all fighting for an ideal.

During a visit to Israel in late November 2003, Fini labeled the racial laws issued by the fascist regime in 1938 as “infamous.” He also referred to the RSI as belonging to the most shameful pages of the past and considered fascism part of an era of “absolute evil.” Fini’s condemnation of the RSI aroused anger among party activists and supporters, some of whom were rumored to have threatened to quit. Thirty-four AN clubs out of 43 signed a document expressing their discontent. Alessandra Mussolini, the niece of deceased fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, was the only well-known person to leave the party. She went on to found the Libertà d’Azione (Freedom of Action – LdA) which later joined a coalition, Alternativa Sociale, together with Adriano Tilgher’s (marginal) Fronte Sociale Nazionale and Roberto Fiore’s Forza Nuova (see below) for the European elections. The coalition won 1.2 percent of the vote and Mussolini became a Euro-MP.

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. In the May 2001 elections the LN obtained 30 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 17 seats in the Senate. LN ran on a separate ticket in the regions of Lombardy and Venetia in the 2003 local elections in order to try to stop the plunge in votes that had reduced their share from 10 percent to 3.9 percent in the 2001 national elections. It received 5 percent of the vote and 5 seats in the European Parliamentary elections.

The LN tactic of differentiating their image from that of the other parties in the government coalition (CdL) and disputes with coalition partners during the electoral campaign succeeded in stopping and even reversing the erosion of support for the party almost everywhere.

LN has apparently abandoned the claim for a politically autonomous Padania (the northern region of Italy) in exchange for a promise by its coalition allies to enact a series of measures increasing regional sovereignty. The party espouses ethnic and populist regionalism, strongly tainted by racism. Using an aggressive style, sometimes peppered with direct insults, LN kindles social alarm regarding illegal immigration and “the Muslim invasion” and perceives a direct association 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 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 or 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 Forza Nuova movement.

Probably as a way to attract votes of AN sympathizers who opposed Fini’s trip to Israel, La Padania is involved in a campaign to discredit Fini, describing him as a turncoat because of his words about fascism and the RSI.

Since January 2003 LN has been fighting for the repeal of some laws that they deem prejudicial to freedom of opinion, such as the 1993 Mancino law against racial, ethnic and religious discrimination.

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 July 2003, La Padania published an article by the movie director Pasquale Squitieri (as well as other articles supporting him), defending the claim he had made earlier in the month that the 1938 racial laws were not antisemitic (see also ASW 2002/3).

The nationalist populist Movimento Sociale-Fiamma Tricolore (Social Movement–Tricolor Flame – MS-FT), founded in 1995, was led until the February 2004 convention by Pino Rauti. Rauti was replaced by Luca Romagnoli as party secretary. MS-FT returned only one senator, Lino Caruso, in the May 2001 political elections and has 14 town councilors. In the 2003 local elections they slated candidates for town and provincial administrations, especially in the south of Italy, but obtained less than 1 percent of the vote almost everywhere. MS-FT got 0.7 percent of the vote and one seat in the European Parliamentary elections.
The party has traditional links to the old fascist regime and strongly supports the Palestinian cause. During a party event in Rome in May 2003, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and other antisemitic books were displayed.

On the extreme right, only Forza Nuova, founded and led by Roberto Fiore, continues to expand throughout the country. It slated several candidates in the 2003 local elections but obtained poor results. Its political platform, which is close to fundamentalist (Lefebvrist) Catholicism, is pro-Palestinian, anti-Zionist, anti-globalization and anti-immigration from non-European countries, and it continually advocates abolition of the Mancino law.



Far Left/Anti-Globalization Front
The ‘far left’ is used as an umbrella term for so-called anti-globalization groups and anti-parliamentary parties such as the Partito dei Comunisti Italiani, Partito della Rifondazione Comunista and Federazione dei Verdi [The Greens], as well as newspapers such as the communist Manifesto and websites such as Indymedia).

Italy’s anti-globalization front is a complex, multi-faceted movement, made up of heterogeneous and seemingly irreconcilable political cultures. For example, the non-violence of dissenting Catholics coexists with the violence of the centri sociali (social centers frequented by extreme left-wing youth). What brings the various groups associated with the anti-globalization movement together is a fusion of pacifism, terzomondismo (anti-capitalism/anti-colonialism) and fierce hostility (occasionally verging on subversion) toward the liberal economy, globalization, the US, Israel and the West in general. In addition, very definite pro-Arab leanings are evident; in the centri sociali, these sometimes take the form of support for the objectives of Islamic terrorism.

The Arabs and the Muslim masses in the Middle East as well as in Europe are perceived by the anti-globalization movement as symbolizing the ‘damned of the earth’. Thanks in part to the active support they get from much of the world of culture and entertainment (such as Punkreas, one of the most famous European punk bands whose song “Intifada” was a kind of hymn to the Palestinian shahid martyrs), anti-globalization groups enjoy enormous popularity, especially among young people. They draw their inspiration from many sources but have no acknowledged leader, and have no precise point of reference in parliament; however, the political parties most sympathetic to them are the PRC and the Greens.

On the far left there is rarely evidence of explicit use of traditional anti-Jewish stereotypes; however, an image of an unshakable rejection of the right of the Jewish people to a state very definitely emerges. Moreover, while it does not attack the Jews outright, the far left attributes to Israel part of the negative symbolism that classic antisemitism ascribed to Jews and Judaism, as part of its general anti-Zionist rhetoric.

Holocaust denial, too is practically absent from the cultural framework of the extreme left. Nevertheless, in its demonization of Israel, it continues to compare the modern Jewish state with Hitler’s Germany, thereby relativizing the genocide of the Jews. With the dimming of historical memory, the far left freely equates the Star of David with the swastika, Sharon with Hitler and the Hebrew state with fascist regimes. An example of this process may be seen in the satirical cartoons in the communist daily il Manifesto and in Liberazione, the official organ of the Partito della Rifondazione Comunista, which depict Israelis with para-Nazi features killing or torturing Palestinians who are sometimes characterized by symbols recalling the deported Jews.

Over the years (since the end of the Six Day War) Italy’s radical left has gradually adopted a more anti-Zionist attitude towards the Arab-Israeli conflict and, because of this prejudice, the State of Israel has – in its eyes – increasingly assumed the attributes of an ‘evil state’. Anti-Zionist sentiment radicalized after Ariel Sharon was elected Israel’s prime minister and George W. Bush became president of the US. In particular, Bush is portrayed as the puppet of the ‘Likudnik lobby’ which allegedly runs American policy from behind the scenes. Across-the-board anti-Americanism and the close relationship between Washington and Jerusalem have served to further fan the flames of anti-Zionism (see below).

Certain sectors of the extreme left even see the existence of the Jewish state as the source of all the world’s problems: “... there’s a widespread perception that Zionism is currently one of the most serious threats to peace and security worldwide; [there is] a feeling that Zionism is one of the most powerful incitements to global terrorism” (Danilo Zolo, L'asimmetria di un paradigma [The asymmetry of a Paradigm], il Manifesto, 26 Jan. 2004).

The anti-globalization and anti-imperialist rhetoric of this movement has thus acquired many points of contact with the invective of the extreme right. This shared approach is much in evidence on websites such as: Disinformazione – Oltre la Verità Ufficiale (Disinformation – Beyond the Official Truth – www.disinformazione.it), Nuovo Ordine Mondiale (New World Order – www.nwo.it), Come Don Chisciotte (Like Don Quixote – www.comedonchisciotte.net), and 11 settembre (www.11settembre.net), in which anti-Zionism, anti-Americanism, terzomondismo and anti-imperialist rhetoric are mixed with outlandish conspiracy theories.

Political parties with parliamentary representation that can be classified as belonging to the extreme left and which are close to the anti-globalization front are the Partito della Rifondazione Comunista (PRC; 11 deputies and 4 senators from the May 2001 elections), Partito dei Comunisti Italiani (PCI; 9 deputies and 3 senators) and Federazione dei Verdi (The Greens; as part of Gruppo Verdi l’Ulivo, 7 deputies and 10 senators).

These political forces have often organized events directed against the Jewish state, and promoted media campaigns aimed at a boycott of Israeli-made products, termination of politico-economic relations between Israel and Europe and introduction of sanctions against the Israeli government. A number of deputies have even demanded that Italian-Israeli diplomatic relations be severed. Many politicians belonging to these three political groupings frequently incite against ‘Zionist racism’ and against Ariel Sharon, whom they brand ‘genocidal’, or a ‘killer’.

In October 2003, il Manifesto, the Greens and the Communists (PCI), as well as members of the more mainstream left Democrazia di Sinistra party (along with Arab/Islamic associations including Comunità palestinese del Lazio – Palestinian Community of the Lazio region, Forum Palestina, Comitato di solidarietà con l’Intifada and Amici della Mezzaluna Rossa – Friends of the Red Crescent) decided to organize a protest march against the ‘Apartheid Wall’. Following declarations of support and justification of terrorism by suicide bombers made by one of the organizers of the ‘Stop the Wall’ movement the PRC decided party not to join the march, although some members did participate.



The Islamic Community
Approximately 800,000 Muslims currently live in the country, accounting for about 1.2 percent of the population. This number includes about 100,000 illegal immigrants, 50,000 non-Italians with authorized permanent residence and 15,000 native-born Italian converts. Half of the legal Muslim immigrants originate from North Africa (Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia); the second largest group of Muslims comprises eastern Europeans (from Albania, Bosnia, Macedonia). In absolute terms Islam is the second religion in Italy after Catholicism.

While there is no shortage of fierce pro-terrorist and anti-Zionist polemics, criticism of the Jews as a group is seldom heard in mosques or in cultural centers close to the Islamist movement. Nevertheless, individual Jews (Italian Jewish journalist Fiamma Nirenstein, for example), Jewish capital and the ‘Jewish/Zionist lobby” (particularly in the US) are frequently targeted. In addition, bugging devices installed by Italian security forces inside certain Islamic cultural centers or in the homes of Islamists, have recorded a number of violently anti-Jewish remarks, as well as openly terrorist threats.

The group that has the greatest nationwide coverage and is most representative of Italian ‘organized Islam’ is the Unione delle comunità ed organizzazioni islamiche in Italia (Union of Islamic Communities and Organizations in Italy – UCOII). About 700,000 Muslim faithful and over 80 percent of Italy’s mosques and Islamic cultural centers identify with this organization, which tends toward Islamism and is regarded as the Italian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, although it has no formal ties with the movement. Its chairman is Mohammad Nur Dachan, a Syrian heart surgeon with Italian citizenship, and its secretary-general is Hamza Roberto Piccardo, an Italian convert to Islam and former activist of a militant far left group in the 1970s. Piccardo supervised a 1994 Italian translation of the Qur’an (Il Sacro Corano Inimitabile) for the UCOII, annotated with Islamist and anti-Jewish connotations. Moreover, in 2002 Piccardo – described by one of the foremost experts in Italian Islam as “the best known and most vigorous defender of Hamas’ ideology and strategy in Italy” – put his signature to an Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood document, published on the www.aljazira.it website, in which jihad against “the colonialist and racist Zionist entity” was invoked.

The UCOII has never taken a clear stand against Islamist-inspired subversion, merely condemning “all terrorism and all warfare.” Its strong anti-Zionist leanings are manifested, inter alia, in open support for Palestinian suicide bombers and their ideology, and in its outright rejection of the State of Israel’s right to exist (almost always referred to as the ‘Zionist entity’).

A distinctly antisemitic approach prevails in the UCOII’s online bookshop (www.libreriaislamica.it) which offers a small number of anti-Jewish publications for sale.



Antisemitic activities
The number of reported antisemitic incidents fell from about 150 in 2002 to about 80 in 2003. The 50 incidents recorded from January to August 2004 were mostly concentrated in the first few months of the year. Most antisemitic occurrences were verbal or written expressions of antisemitism (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.

Some 20 percent of the 2003 reports (and 25 percent of those reported in the first eight months of 2004) consisted of graffiti, in almost every case daubed with far right symbols. Some of the written slogans in 2003 targeted individual Jews, for instance: the vice-chairman of the State television network, Paolo Mieli (March 2003), the chief editor of news programs on the RAI-1 State TV channel, Clemente Mimun (Nov. 2003), a university lecturer (Jan. 2003) and a doctor (Sept. 2003). By 2001 – the year that marked a new surge of antisemitism – the number of such graffiti incidents had declined to almost zero.

The two acts of violence against Jewish individuals in 2003/4 followed antisemitic insults suffered by a 13-year-old Jewish schoolboy at the hands of a classmate (Voghera, Nov. 2003) and by a Jewish boy hit on the head by a skinhead in a bar (Vicenza, Jan. 2004); in the latter case the perpetrator was charged with racially motivated violence, but not remanded in custody.
Again, in 2003, commemoration stones and plaques recalling deportees were vandalized and a threatening letter (containing a white powder) was sent to the municipal authorities in Padua. In April 2004 vandals desecrated tombs in the Jewish cemetery at Scandiano (Reggio Emilia).

The issues underlying anti-Jewish polemics were similar to those of the previous year. The usual traditional prejudices about the dominating role played by Jews in the economy, culture and international politics were mixed with accusations against Israeli ‘persecution’ of the Palestinians, as well as with American Jewish instigation of the war in Iraq (“America paese ebreo” – America, a Jewish nation) through their control of Pentagon policy. The Jewish/Israeli/Nazi link was also commonplace. On the far right, these motifs were combined with Holocaust denial and allegations of Jewish exploitation of the Holocaust.

Antisemitism of a religious nature was observed in a number of articles and in some readers’ letters to newspapers, as well as in certain low-circulation but extremely ‘committed’ periodicals published by Catholic integralist groups (see below). In Italy as elsewhere, Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of Christ was not well received by critics but it attracted huge audiences and provided traditionalist Catholic circles – and above all, Catholic integralist organizations – with an opportunity to rekindle their accusations of deicide.

In the world of sports supporters, and particularly among soccer fans and far right groups, the word ‘Jew’ continues to be used to insult opponents during matches. Racist or antisemitic banners, on the other hand, have become a rarity now that the police have intervened repeatedly. Nonetheless, in February 2004 during a Roma-Lazio match, a banner was displayed referring to the player Aaron Winter (not a Jew but, according to his own admission, of Israeli origin): “Per una vittoria hai permesso a un ebreo di arrivare alla gloria” (In order to win you’ve let a Jew become the glory boy).



Far Right and Christian Fundamentalist Propaganda
A number of periodicals, most of which appear online and which appeal mainly to like-minded groups, consistently address issues from the anti-Jewish discourse, sometimes presented under the guise of ‘anti-Zionism’. They include Avanguardia (Trapani), a monthly with neo-Nazi leanings published by the Comunità Politica di Avanguardia; the half-yearly New Right-inspired Uomo libero (Milan); the monthly Orion (Milan), which declares itself not to be “influenced by orthodox thinking of either the right or the left” but which, in fact, has close ties to the traditional far right. Among the integralist Catholic periodicals is the annual or bi-annual Sodalitium, published by the Centro Librario Sodalitium of the Istituto Mater Boni Consilii in Verrua Savoia, which took a strong stand against reforms in the Catholic Church after the 1965 Vatican Council II. The catalog of the Centro Librario presents 14 booklets of which half have anti-Jewish content. The monthly Tradizione Cattolica, which pursues the same line, used to address Jewish issues extensively, but has done so to a lesser extent in the last year or two.

In 2003 two books by Maurizio Blondet were published (Edizioni Effedieffe). The first, 11 settembre colpo di stato in USA (9/11, Coup d’état in the USA), underscores the Jewishness of certain figures he regards as ‘conspirators’. The second, Osama Bin Mossad, attributes a series of international political events that occurred after 9/11 to a conspiracy hatched by the ‘Jewish international’. Former SS man Erich Priebke and his attorney Paolo Giachini authored the book Vae Victis, an all-out defense of Hitler’s political ideal which contains classic anti-Jewish stereotypes. Palestina su carta (Palestine on Paper) is a collection of noteworthy examples from the work of satirical cartoonist Vauro (see above). The cartoons depict Israeli society as barbarous and sadistic, and the Palestinians are often compared with the Jews under Nazism.

Effepi, a small Genoa-based firm specializing in extreme right material, published a series of booklets in 2003, under the titles: Dagoberto Bellucci, I-Tal-Ya. Ebrei e Lobbies ebraiche in Italia (Italy: Jews and Jewish Lobbies in Italy] and Iraq 2003. La seconda guerra giudaica contro Saddam Hussein” (Iraq 2003: The Second Judaic War against Saddam Husayn); George Montandon, Come riconoscere e spiegare l’Ebreo (How to Recognize and Explain Jews); Claudio Mutti, Minima Holocaustica Minimilization of the Holocaust). In 2002 the same firm published titles such as L’omicidio rituale ebraico (Jewish Ritual Killing] and Le vittime del delirio sionista (Victims of Zionist Frenzy).

The most violently anti-Jewish Internet site is the Italian section of Holywar. The deicide issue is introduced immediately, on the home page. The site hosts satirical cartoons and texts that range from the homilies of Giovanni Crisostomo to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Holocaust denial texts. The site draws its inspiration from the anti-modernist philosophy of the Church in the early 20th century and is violently opposed to modernization of the Church. Similar topics but of a less violent nature may be found on the Sodalitium site, which posts articles from the journal of the same name. More anti-Judaic material appears on the Centro Orientamenti e Tradizione site, http://libreopinion.com/members/orientamenti/, which in an article on the crucifixion of Jesus as portrayed in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of Christ, accuses the Jews of deicide and having had the film censored.

On the radical right front, too, some sites are simply the online version of printed periodicals. The same goes for the sites of publishing houses, which host catalogs of their publications. The most violent radical right site is Crimini, Terrore e Repressione dei Regimi totalitari comunisti, http://crimini.web-gratis.net/nuova1.htm, which includes titles such as “Comunisti. Ebrei e Massoneria” (Communists. Jews and Freemasonry) and “Vampiri, assassini o semplicemente antiche ‘usanze’?” (Vampires, Assassins or Simply Age-Old “Customs”? – which addresses the accusations of ritual killing), and enables downloading of The Protocols.

Numerous texts of an anti-Jewish nature appear on Edoardo Longo’s website http://xoomer.virgilio.it/edoardolongo/. Longo, a well-known figure on the far right, is also the attorney of don Nitoglia, author of many antisemitic texts and a contributor to Sodalitium. The Protocols and Mein Kampf may be downloaded from the Società Thule Italia site www.geocities.com/societathule/index.htm, which has neo-Nazi leanings. Associazione Culturale Limes (www.asslimes.com) aligns itself “with Iraqi and Palestinian resistance to Yankee and Zionist imperialism” and against the “powerful American Jewish lobby” and the “Zionists on both sides of the Atlantic” who influence US policy.



Far Left/Anti-globalization Propaganda
At the end of October 2003, a group of Disobbedienti (anti-authoritarians) tried to prevent a meeting of the Italy-Israel Friendship Association at the Hotel Hermitage in Capua, claiming that this gathering was an attempt to put a more acceptable face on ‘Zionist racism’. In his statements to the press, the leader of Disobbedienti justified the violent means they employed by maintaining that Israel is an ‘illegitimate’, ‘genocidal’ and ‘terrorist’ state.

The anti-globalization front’s rejection of the Jewish state sometimes encourages antisemitic expressions. For instance, the discussion forums on the Indymedia-Italy website, perhaps the best known online forum of the Italian far left, often post messages containing classic examples of anti-Jewish prejudice. These range from suggestions to read The Protocols of the Elders of Zion to get a better understanding of Zionists, to publication of long excerpts from the antisemitic paper by Emmanuel Ratier, “I guerrieri di Israele. Inchiesta sulle milizie sioniste” (Warriors of Israel. Investigations into the Zionist militias – Centro Librario Sodalitium, Verrua di Savoia, 1998). One also find extensive support for the terrorism of al-Qa‘ida and suicide bombers, and denunciation of ‘Nazi-Zionists’.

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 infers that the nastiness, arrogance and violence typical of Jews are fostered by “some element of the Jewish religion that helps make all this happen,” and that “some underlying defect” makes Judaism, unlike the other great religions (Buddhism, Christianity, Islam), incapable of “fulfilling man’s spiritual needs.”

In January 2004, the website of the Holocaust denial association AAARGH (Association des Anciens Amateurs de Récits de Guerres et d’Holocaustes) launched an online monthly magazine, Il Resto del Siclo (The Change from a Shekel), much of which is devoted to minimizing the Holocaust, exalting Arab/Islamic radicalism and fostering anti-Zionism.

Among the wide range of columnists (rightist, leftist, Islamist) writing for Il Resto del Siclo is the spokesman for the Campo Antiimperialista pro-terrorism association (www.antiimperialista.org) and a prominent figure in the anti-globalization movement. Campo Antiimperialista proposes a universal jihad against the United States and Israel through an alliance of all types of terrorist movements, irrespective of their leanings, provided they are anti-American and anti-Zionist. In April 2004, Pasquinelli was arrested by the Italian police in connection with an investigation into Italian cells of Turkish terrorism.



Dailies and periodicals
While, in general, Italy’s radical left political press appears to avoid anti-Jewish or antisemitic sentiments, it exhibits widespread hostility toward the Jewish state, which is sometimes perceived as the source of the world’s direst problems. Extreme left newspapers tend to describe Israel as an ‘evil state’ committing actions that bring to mind those of the fascist regimes. Underlying this is the notion that yesterday’s victims have turned into today’s persecutors: as a result, the Palestinian Arabs now occupy the role of victims of the former victims and their suffering is tantamount to what the Jews suffered at the time of the Holocaust. Anti-Israeli terrorist attacks are consequently depicted as legitimate actions by partisan resistance.

This preconceived rejection of Israel goes hand-in-hand with pro-Islamic policies, which may be attributed to the fact that the Muslim/Arab masses are identified as the archetypal new proletariat exploited by capitalism, and therefore considered the natural ally in the struggle against globalization. On occasions this closeness to Islam goes so far as support for the activities of organizations such as Hamas and Hizballah.

The periodical Che Fare, published by the Organizzazione Comunista Internazionale, has on a number of occasions demonstrated its support for jihad, considering it the most effective means of destroying Israel. According to il Manifesto, Hamas and Hizballah are charitable associations with a resistance-orientated element.

Both Liberazione (of the PRC) and il Manifesto welcomed the results of the 2003 Eurobarometer poll, according to which EU citizens regarded Israel as the most serious threat to world peace (see General Analysis).

Sectors of the extreme left press deny the existence of the ‘new antisemitism’: “The campaign against today’s so-called new antisemitism in Europe is basically a cynical expedient on the part of the Israeli government to save the Zionist state from all criticism of its constant and systematic brutality against the Palestinians” (Tariq Alì, Uno stato contro un popolo [A state against a people], il Manifesto, 26 Feb. 2004). At the same time, acts of anti-Jewish violence of the sort that take place in the suburbs of Paris are regarded as mere vandalism that have nothing to do with anti-Jewish prejudice.

Not only do the radical left and anti-globalization groups totally refute the fact that, since September 2000, a wave of anti-Jewish violence has swept across Europe; they also reject the idea that the Islamic world is gripped by virulent antisemitic sentiments. According to the extreme left, anti-Jewish feeling among Muslims, as well as among Europeans, is exploited by Israel in order to point a finger at (and threaten) those governments hostile to it. In an article about the series “The Diaspora” and “Horseman without a Horse,” televised by Arab networks during Ramadan (see ASW 2002/3 and Arab Countries, in this volume), a journalist writing in the communist newspaper Il Manifesto (31 Oct. 2003), supports the defense offered by the al-Manar TV network (“This TV series is not against Jews. It’s against Zionism”) and minimizes the antisemitic nature of both series.



Conspiracy Theories
The election of George W. Bush as US president and the events that followed the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, have led to the emergence of an important theory in radical circles, and hence among the extreme left too, according to which the ongoing international crises are being manipulated by a Zionist lobby, embodied in a neo-conservative cabal running the American administration. This opinion has begun to gain credence in non-extremist circles, too. Even a US correspondent of the ‘liberal’ daily La Repubblica has endorsed it. According to a Liberazione journalist, 9/11 marks the date on which the neo-conservative shadow men effectively gained power. They have “used the 9/11 attacks exactly as Hitler did the Reichstag fire.”

The media close to the radical left (and particularly il Manifesto) have also given ample coverage to the theory claiming that the neo-con Zionist lobby instigated the second war against Saddam Husayn in order please Israel. Commenting on the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and alluding to alleged Zionist influence behind the war, il Manifesto writes: “Behind this glaring mass of lies there was a special Pentagon intelligence unit called the Office of Special Plans. And behind this office was Douglas Feith, under-secretary of defense, one of the perverted neo-con minds who had set up this office after 9/11 (and behind Feith, ready to supply every single little bit of ‘evidence’ was the Israeli government).”

In 2003 an article on the neo-cons, published by Datanews, underscored the Jewish and Zionist background of Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. Il Manifesto has published numerous articles on the ‘neo-conservative cabal’, all alluding to the Jewish origins of these ‘Likudniks’ and their shadowy influence on the White House. According to this paper, the Zionist lobby organized the war in Iraq in order to be able to colonize Mesopotamia and create a ‘Greater Israel’ stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates.



Islamist Activities and Publications
On 29 March 2003, during a peace rally held in Turin, Moroccan imams Abdelaziz Khonati and Bouriqui Bouchta (close to the UCOII) voiced the cries: “O beloved Saddam, strike Tel Aviv… With our blood we sacrifice ourselves for Saddam and for Iraq.” Both imams are known for their fiery statements criticizing the Jews and supporting jihad.

The ‘Zionist conspiracy’ theory is fairly common among representatives of Turin’s Muslims, and references were also made to it after the terrorist attacks in Casablanca, in May 2003.

The only periodical of any real significance is Il Puro Islam, published by the Ahl-al-Bait Shi‘i Islamist association, based in Naples. The founder and chairman of Ahl-al-Bait, as well as editor of the magazine, is Ammar De Martino, an Italian convert to Islam who was once an activist with Pino Rauti’s MS-FT. The journal is characterized by emphatic anti-Zionism mixed with calls for jihad against infidels, and support for the Lebanese Hizballah.

Long excerpts from the anti-Jewish essay “Chi comanda in America?” (Who’s in Charge in America?; Effedieffe, Milan, 2002/2003), by Maurizio Blondet, a well-known antisemitic intellectual with Catholic fundamentalist leanings, appeared in Il Puro Islam in March/April/May 2003 (no. 8).

The cover of the book Iddio maledica l’America. Ultimatum dell’Islam all’America (May God Curse America: Islam’s Ultimatum to America – Edizioni Alethes, Carchitti [RM], 2003), by Adel Smith, depicts an American flag with skulls in place of the stars and overlaid by a Star of David, which the author defines as the ‘Israeli swastika. Smith, an Italian of Scottish origin and a convert to Islam known for his antisemitism, is chairman of the Unione musulmani d’Italia, the first organization to present itself as a proper Italian Islamic political party; its following, however, is minimal – a few tens of supporters. Smith’s text, which rehashes many ideas taken from Maurizio Blondet’s antisemitic essays, portrays the Jews as an omnipotent, bloodthirsty lobby controlling the destiny of the whole world.

There are a great many Italian Islam-inspired websites, the majority of them directly associated with Islamic fundamentalism. While radical anti-Zionism is a constant of these sites, antisemitic stereotypes are few and far between, and are generally cloaked in anti-imperialist rhetoric, with frequent comparisons between the State of Israel and Nazi Germany, and use of terms such as ‘genocide’ and ‘ethnic cleansing’.

Websites such as Informazione di cultura araba ed islamica in Italia (www.arabcomint.com), Associazione Islamica Ahl al Bait (www.shia-islam.org), Arab.it (www.arab.it) and Aljazira.it la stampa araba in un clic! (www.aljazira.it) are almost entirely given over to documents (articles, photos, satirical cartoons, etc.) that demonize the Jewish state.



Attitudes toward the Holocaust and the fascist Era
The history of the fascist regime is marked currently by two trends: on the one hand, it is interpreted less ideologically and more historiographically; on the other hand, there is a tendency to banalize the events that took place, especially in speeches and actions of certain members of the AN.


Holocaust Commemoration
Participation in events marking the fourth annual remembrance day (Giorno della Memoria), 27 January 2004, was unprecedented. Whereas the 2003 events were marked by the absence of some leading political figures, almost all of them, including the presidents of the republic and the ministers of interior and education, attended in 2004. Activities included marches, educational exhibitions, concerts, plays, films, conventions and workshops on various aspects of the Holocaust and on its ethical and symbolic significance. Visits to the various memorial sites in Italy and to concentration camps were also organized for students and others. Vice-president of the Cabinet Gianfranco Fini, as well as other leading parliamentary members, took part in the “Dies Memoriae 2004” event, organized by the Spiritual Convivium parliamentary committee, at the seat of the Province of Rome. In his speech he recalled that “anti-Zionism masks antisemitism” and that “it is essential to… admit as well the responsibilities of those who collaborated, as has been done, and as I did.” President of the Chamber of Deputies Pier Ferdinando Casini urged an audience in Nettuno not to underestimate signs of antisemitism and not to forget that “we were also accomplices in racial persecutions.”

A minute’s silence was observed by the Interior Ministry in offices of the prefecture and in police headquarters, as well as in schools. The Ministry of Education announced, inter alia, a contest on a theme concerning the Shoah for students of all grades from elementary through secondary school. and organized special courses for teachers.

The Italian football federation ordered that on the Sunday preceding Remembrance Day all the players were to enter the field wearing a T-shirt inscribed with the words “Remembrance Day.” Further, a football match in memory of the Jews deported from Italy was organized at the Olympic Stadium in Rome, together with the Jewish community.

As in previous years the focus was also on citizens who saved Jews. The beatification of Giovanni Palatucci, police superintendent in Fiume who helped numerous Jews escape from Nazi Europe, is under way. Gardens of the Righteous were inaugurated in Milan and Catania. In the small town of Bellaria (Rimini), a garden was dedicated to Ezio Giorgetti, a hotel-keeper who saved 38 Jews and who was designated a Righteous among the Nations.

In 2004 Italy took over the presidency of the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research.

The extensive participation in remembrance events in 2004 appears to contrast with the phenomena of widespread antisemitism (albeit less than in 2003) and anti-Israel sentiment. Explanations are varied and contradictory: complying with the obligation of remembering the dead in order to be able to condemn Israeli Jews with an easier conscience; using Remembrance Day to declare one’s solidarity with ‘the Jews’ at a time when prejudice against them is stronger and more visible (see Opinion Polls below). On the other hand, perhaps the two behaviors have no connection and the mass participation in Remembrance Day is simply the result of didactic and educational efforts in recent years to publicize the history of the persecutions.

For several years representatives of the right and the center right, especially the AN, have demanded, in addition to the Holocaust, recognition of other massacres that occurred in the 20th century, such as victims of the Soviet gulags and of the foibe – Italians from the eastern provinces thrown into ravines by Tito’s Communist partisans. Hence, the government instituted another remembrance day (Giorno del Ricordo), to be marked on 10 February. (On 10 February 1947 the Italian republic signed the Paris treaty with Yugoslavia and the other Allies.)



Holocaust Denial
Propaganda of Holocaust denial persists, although it seems to have weakened over the years. There is only one Italian site left on the Internet that is entirely devoted to Holocaust denial – the Association for Historic Revision. Some international sites, such as Aaargh, Codoh, and Russgranata, have Italian sections. The Italian neo-fascist site brigatenere88 also has a Holocaust denial section. Holocaust denial texts can also be found at some anti-Jewish sites such as Holywar or RadioIslam, or at extreme right ones.

Holocaust denial books that came out in 2003 were all issued by the same small neo-fascist publisher, Effepi of Genoa, the only one that still deals with denial texts. Effepi has dedicated two series of books to the Jews: Judaica and Revisionism, in addition to various monographs. The titles published in 2003 were: Carlo Mattogno and Jürgen Graf, KL.Stutthof. The Stutthof Camp and Its Function in Nazi Policy toward the Jews; Claudio Mutti, Minima Holocaustica; and Robert Faurisson, Auschwitz: The Facts and the Legend.

It should be noted that parents of students in a Venetian secondary school refused to send their children on a school trip to Auschwitz in 2003, because they claimed the extermination camps were “pure fancy.”


opinion Polls
A survey on racism in Italy commissioned by the Unione delle Comunità Ebraiche Italiane in 2003, reveals, inter alia, the penetration of certain stereotypes regarding Jews among Italian 14–18 year-olds: 34.6 percent of respondents said they agreed with the statement that global financial power is in the hands of Jews: 17.5 percent agreed that the Jews should all go back to Israel; and 17.4 percent concurred with the statement claiming that descriptions of the extermination of the Jews are exaggerated.

In the Eurobarometer poll conducted in October 2003 on “Iraq and World Peace,” 48 percent of interviewees indicated Israel as the greatest danger to peace. As in the rest of Europe, protests were made by the Italian Jewish community about the ambiguous way in which the questions was formulated, and the poor scientific approach adopted in the poll. The outcome of these protests was a wide-ranging debate on antisemitism connected with radically anti-Israeli opinions. The need to understand public opinion with respect to the Jews triggered several surveys in the space of just a few months.

In November 2003 the findings of a poll conducted by ISPO (Istituto per gli Studi sulla Pubblica Opinione) pointed to a close correlation in Italy between a high level of antisemitism, ‘dislike’ of Israel and poor knowledge of the history of Israel and of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and vice versa.

Among the stereotypes or negative attitudes toward Jews in general that obtained the highest percentages were: “Jews have a special relationship with money” (39 percent); “they should stop acting the victim over the Holocaust” (38 percent); “they are not real Italians” (22 percent); “they lie about the Holocaust” (11 percent); “I neither like nor trust them” (11 percent); “they should leave Italy” (8 percent). (For further details, see Corriere della Sera, 11 Nov. 2003; www.corriere.it.)

In January 2004 ISPO repeated the same poll, this time extending it to nine European countries. In the overall rating for antisemitism, the result obtained for Italy was 17 percent versus a European average of 15 percent. As in the previous survey, there was a close link between little or no knowledge of the history of Israel and the conflict, and antisemitism. The percentages of concurrence with ‘negative’ statements tended to be similar, if not lower, than those gathered two months earlier. (For further details, see Corriere della Sera, 26 Jan. 2004; www.corriere.it.)

In addition, in January 2004 EURISPES (Istituto di studi politici economici e sociali) conducted a poll to gather Italians’ opinions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as on the Jews in general, as follows: In regard to the statement, “Jews determine American political choices,” 7.5 percent very much agreed while 22.9 percent tended to agree; for “Behind the scenes they control economic and financial power, as well as the media,” 9.2 percent very much agreed and 24.9 percent tended to agreed; for “The Holocaust did not produce as many victims as is claimed,” 4.1 percent very much agreed, 7.0 percent tended to agreed (but 16.6 percent tended to disagree and 64 percent totally disagreed); for “The Holocaust never happened” 1.4 percent very much agreed and 1.3 percent tended to agree (but 8.8 percent tended to disagree and 83.5 percent totally disagreed. (For further data, see www.eurispes.it/visualizzaComunicato.asp?val=7.)

According to the results of a poll conducted by the Anti-Defamation League in April 2004 on “Attitudes toward Jews, Israel and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in ten European countries,” the classic stereotype “Jews have too much power in the world of business” met with affirmative answers from 29 percent of Italians consulted; “Jews have too much power in the international financial market,” 31 percent; “Jews stick together more than others,” 73 percent; “Nowadays they have too much power in our country,” 14 percent; “Jews don’t care what happens to anyone but their own kind,” 24 percent; “Jews still talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust,” 43 percent.



RESPONSES TO Antisemitism
In recent years, parallel to the increase in antisemitic manifestations, there has been a simultaneous growth of interest in Judaism among Italians. For example, for the annual Judaism Day (17 Jan.), held by the Council of Churches, over 1,000 people queued to visit the Milan synagogue. On many occasions persons representing the very highest governmental offices have attended or supported events and congresses organized by Jewish communities, and specific declarations of commitment to the struggle against antisemitism have been made repeatedly by President of the Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and by the presidents of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate (Casini and Pera), as well as by the mayors of Rome (Veltroni) and of Milan (Albertini), and by presidents of various regional authorities.

On 21 January 2004 both the Chamber and Senate approved two separate motions against antisemitism. The one adopted by the Chamber (with five AN deputies voting against and five abstaining) committed the government, among other things, to “intensify the struggle against antisemitism by introducing effective measures to prevent this loathsome phenomenon” and to encourage schools – on Remembrance Day – to explore and study contemporary antisemitism and the Jews’ contribution to national history. The motion passed by the Senate, with the support of all political groups except the Lega Nord and PRC, mandates the government to ask the European Union to have a ‘dictionary of antisemitism' drawn up by the Vidal Sassoon Institute in Jerusalem, and to engage in a struggle against the Hizballah and Hamas terrorist organizations.

On 2 February 2004 Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu, on the instructions of Prime Minister Berlusconi, began work on forming an inter-ministerial committee to fight discrimination and antisemitism. Its mandate is to combat all forms of intolerance, racism and xenophobia, using cultural and educational means as well as disciplinary action. The committee began work in July.

.................................................. ...............................................



Nessuno si salva.

[I'm Hate]

Addirittura lega nord e an!!!!!!!

[vlad84]

In Origine Postato da I'm Hate
Addirittura lega nord e an!!!!!!!

eccolo qui
appena sente odore di antisemitismo spunta come un fungo il maestro dell'odio idiota.

[stellarossa1959]

In Origine Postato da vlad84
eccolo qui
appena sente odore di antisemitismo spunta come un fungo il maestro dell'odio idiota.

Già, ma accusano anche la sinistra. E la cosa mi fa piuttosto incazzare.
Criticare la politica di Israele equivale ad essere antisemiti?
Questo significa criminalizzare la sinistra!
Trovo queste "liste di proscrizione" vergognose.

[Fenris]

In Origine Postato da stellarossa1959
Criticare la politica di Israele equivale ad essere antisemiti?

Questo è l'andazzo, caro mio. E questo è niente, aspetta che entri in vigore il mandato di cattura europeo ed Israele entri nell'UE, ne vedremo delle "belle".

[S.P.Q.R.]

In Origine Postato da stellarossa1959

Trovo queste "liste di proscrizione" vergognose.

mai come quelle che girano su cittadini italiani fatte da voi compagni

[Mastea]

Io non capisco.

Questo è proprio il modo giusto per alimentare l'antisemitismo.

[gherrianu]

In Origine Postato da stellarossa1959
Già, ma accusano anche la sinistra. E la cosa mi fa piuttosto incazzare.
Criticare la politica di Israele equivale ad essere antisemiti?
Questo significa criminalizzare la sinistra!
Trovo queste "liste di proscrizione" vergognose.

Il colmo è che ad essere antisemiti sono proprio i sionisti in quanto l'unico popolo semita presente in zona è quello Palestinese! Mi chiedo come un Ebreo di Milano, di Varsavia o di dove gli pare a lui possa definirsi "Semita" .... Siamo più semiti noi Sardi di loro... L'unica cosa semita presente nello stato Israeliano è il neo ebraico (che ovviamente la maggiorparte delle persone impara da zero una volta arrivata li.... mah!!

[Perdu]

ma allora sono antisemiti anche i cittadini israeliani che obiettano e che protestano contro l'operato del governo sharon?????

[Perdu]

In Origine Postato da gherrianu
Il colmo è che ad essere antisemiti sono proprio i sionisti in quanto l'unico popolo semita presente in zona è quello Palestinese! Mi chiedo come un Ebreo di Milano, di Varsavia o di dove gli pare a lui possa definirsi "Semita" .... Siamo più semiti noi Sardi di loro... L'unica cosa semita presente nello stato Israeliano è il neo ebraico (che ovviamente la maggiorparte delle persone impara da zero una volta arrivata li.... mah!!

hai ragione, sono molto più semita io con il mio sangue fenicio punico di qualsiasi ebreo russo o belga!