Noemi Di Segni, President of the Federation of Italian Jewish Communities, 2018. Photo credit: Simona Granati – Corbis/Getty Images
Written by Louis Keene
January 23, 2024
Activists say references to the Holocaust should be removed from messages after a Primo Levi quote was used to promote a pro-Palestinian protest planned in Milan on Saturday, International Holocaust Remembrance Day. He received a rebuke from leaders of Italy’s Jewish community.
Levi, an Auschwitz survivor in Italy who has written several books about his experiences, says, “If it is impossible to understand, it is essential to know, because what happened can happen again.” “There is,” he famously wrote. Pro-Palestinian protesters slapped some of the quotes on flyers to promote protests against Israel’s war with Hamas, which is estimated to have killed more than 25,000 Palestinians. .
“Primo Levi must remain in our memory,” Noemi di Segni, president of the Federation of Italian Jewish Communities, said, news agency ANSA reported. according to to Associated Press. “Please have the dignity to express your thoughts without tarnishing the memory of survivors and find other quotes.”
Di Seigni’s reaction: spike Since October 7, anti-Semitic incidents have occurred in Italy, leading to the rise of a broader cultural discourse around the use of references to genocide and the Holocaust in the context of Israel’s war in Gaza. .
Levi, who died in Turin in 1987, reiterated this: condemned Israel’s treatment of Palestinians during his lifetime sometimes cited anti-Semitism as a reference point.
After the 1982 massacres in Sabra and Shatila, in which the Israeli Defense Forces supported Lebanese Christian militias and killed hundreds of Palestinians and Lebanese Shi’a civilians, President Levi ordered then-Defense Minister Ariel Sharon and Menachem – Demanded Prime Minister Begin’s resignation. , told an Italian newspaper, “Everyone is someone’s Jew.”