Leaders of Italian Jewry last week condemned a recent spate of public expressions of hatred of Jews and Israelis, which one of them said on Monday that the government needed new laws to address.
“The level of pro-Hamas propaganda in Italy is insane,” Davide Romano, director of the Museum of the Jewish Brigade in Milan, told JNS, citing the appearance of posters reading “Israeli not welcome” in his city. Days later, a poster showing a man in a Nazi uniform with Star-of-David armband appeared at a prominent bus stop in Rome.
Walker Meghnagi, president of the Jewish Community of Milan, said in an interview published in Il Giorno on Monday: “The legislation on so-called hate crimes is insufficient, it does not protect, it does not prevent. We see it every day now.”
Under Italy’s 1993 penal code, the sentence for assault may be increased by up to half the base sentence if the crime was aggravated by racist or xenophobic hatred.
Other countries have tougher penal codes when it comes to hate crime, including France, where it can increase sentences by up to 10 years in prison and trigger a €150,000 fine.
“In Milan, antisemitic stickers are appearing in some streets, for example on Buonarroti St. In Lorenteggio, signs of the same tenor have appeared. And the other evening, the council of the 6th District condemned Israel without even mentioning the victims of Oct. 7, 2023,” said Meghnagi, referring to the Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel on that date. “Instead of dealing with the acts of antisemitism that occurred in the area, local authorities focus on a biased foreign policy,” he said.
The poster of the Nazi uniform in Rome was removed by the owners of the advertising space where it had been placed without their permission.
Beyond the notable incidents, an anti-Israel narrative has permeated the public discourse, fueling antisemitism, said Romano.
“The problem is far more serious: 90% of media narratives are strongly anti-Israeli. Singers, actors and intellectuals constantly issue appeals against Israel, treating it as if its soldiers enjoy shooting women and children in Gaza,” he told JNS.
The bulk of this discourse comes from “left-wing extremists and Islamists,” he added.
Meghnagi also said the agitation was mainly on the left, noting a July 2 op-ed penned by former senator Gianluca Ferrara of the left-wing Five-Star Movement, in which he called on Italian Jews to criticize Israel. “My invitation is: Leave the ghetto! Join the protesters: You are welcome. But do it now. Before it’s too late,” wrote Ferrara in Il Fatto Quotidiano.
“He said Jews should exonerate themselves for what is happening. Are you kidding? How dare he! This is antisemitism,” Meghnagi told Il Giorno with regard to Ferrara’s remarks.
Italy has about 27,000 Jews, according to a demographic study performed by the Italy-born professor Sergio DellaPergola of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The Foundation Contemporary Jewish Documentation Center, or CDEC—a nonprofit research institute for the history of Jews in Italy in the Contemporary age based in Milan—registered 877 antisemitic incidents in 2024 compared to 454 in 2023.
