Italian President Sergio Mattarella speaks in Rome, Friday, January 26, 2024. Italy’s president gave a powerful speech condemning the rise in anti-Semitism and supporting Jews. President Sergio Mattarella commemorated Holocaust Remembrance Day, which has been overshadowed by Israeli military operations in Gaza and increased anti-Israel acts in Italy. (Paolo Giandotti/President of Italy, via AP)
ROME – Italy’s president on Friday commemorated Holocaust Remembrance Day, which has been overshadowed by Israel’s military operation in Gaza and a rise in anti-Israel acts there, condemning the rise in anti-Semitism and calling for Jews to He gave a powerful speech in support.
The ceremony, held at the Quirinale Palace, was attended by the prime minister and leaders of Italy’s Jewish community, with President Sergio Mattarella calling the Holocaust “the most abominable crime” and saying Italians under fascism were colluding in the expulsion of Jews. I recalled what I had done.
Also on Friday, Rome’s police chief ordered pro-Palestinian activists to postpone a rally in the capital scheduled for Saturday, the actual Holocaust Remembrance Day. Israel’s Jewish community complains that these protests are an opportunity for anti-Israel forces to use the memory of the Holocaust against Jews.
Palestinian organizers said they were still willing to protest, considering the number of Palestinian deaths in Gaza that the potential for clashes with police was a small price to pay.
Mattarella has been strongly pro-Jewish during his presidency, and he continued that on Friday. He said the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas was “a horrifying reenactment of the horrors of the Shoah.”
But Mattarella also expressed distress at the rising death toll of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as a result of Israeli military operations and called for fundamental human rights to be respected everywhere.
“Those who have suffered despicable attempts to wipe their people from this land know that they cannot deny others their right to a nation,” Mattarella said.
Anti-Semitic incidents in Italy reached an unprecedented high last year, with 216 incidents reported in the last three months of 2023 after the October 7 attacks, compared to 241 in the whole of the previous year. The Jewish Observatory reported. Overall, 454 anti-Semitic incidents were reported last year, the largest increase on record.
Mattarella said: “The wind-scattered dead of Auschwitz are a constant warning to us that the human path is a steep and dangerous one.” “This signals the return of dangerous examples of anti-Semitism in the world, a resurgence of prejudice dating back to ancient anti-Semitic stereotypes, reinforced by social media without control or humility. It also shows.”
President Mattarella also strongly condemned the Nazi-fascist regime that carried out the Holocaust. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was sitting in the audience. His Italian Brothers party has neo-fascist roots but has strongly supported Israel and supported Italy’s Jewish community.
Mattarella said we should never forget that Italy under fascism enacted “vile racist laws” that barred Jews from schools and workplaces. He called the law “the opening chapter of the terrible book of extinction.”
“Members of the Republic of Salo actively collaborated in the capture, deportation and even genocide of Jews,” he added, referring to Benito Mussolini’s last government in the Nazi puppet state of Salo in northern Italy.
Importantly, he cited Italian-born Auschwitz survivor Primo Levi’s memoir “If This is a Man” as still a standard work of Holocaust literature. Just this week, Italy’s Jewish community cited Mr. Levy’s name in a flyer in which pro-Palestinian protesters advertised a protest scheduled for Saturday, which referred to Gaza rather than the Holocaust. accused of having done so.
This was one of several instances in which pro-Palestinian advocates used Holocaust memory against Israel and Jews. Nearly 50 small bronze stickers with the names of Palestinians killed in Gaza were placed on the pavement in front of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Rome on Friday. These were copies of one of the most powerful symbols of Holocaust memory in Italy: the bronze memorial plaques affixed to the cobblestones around Rome in front of the homes of expelled Jews during World War II. .
Noemi Di Segni, president of the Federation of Italian Jewish Communities, said such demonstrations tarnish the memory of Holocaust survivors and dilute their unique suffering and stories.
“Palestinians should invent other quotes, other authors, other forms of art,” she said.
Organizers of the sticker protest, who declined to be named citing safety concerns, defended the use of the same symbol as evidence that “something very serious is going on” for Palestinians.