Current:Home > FinanceItaly’s leader denounces antisemitism; pro-Palestinian rally is moved from Holocaust Remembrance Day -Prime Capital Blueprint
Italy’s leader denounces antisemitism; pro-Palestinian rally is moved from Holocaust Remembrance Day
View
Date:2025-04-24 23:06:08
ROME (AP) — Italy’s president on Friday denounced rising antisemitism and delivered a powerful speech in support of the Jewish people as he commemorated a Holocaust Remembrance Day overshadowed by Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and a rise in anti-Israel acts here.
Also Friday, Rome’s police chief ordered pro-Palestinian activists to postpone a rally in the capital that had been scheduled for Saturday, the actual day of Holocaust Remembrance. Israel’s Jewish community has complained that such protests have become occasions for the memory of the Holocaust to be co-opted by anti-Israel forces and used against Jews.
In a ceremony at the Quirinale Palace attended by the premier and leaders of Italy’s Jewish community, President Sergio Mattarella called the Holocaust “the most abominable of crimes” and recalled the complicity of Italians under Fascism in the deportation of Jews.
He said the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas against Israel were “a gruesome replica of the horrors of the Shoah.”
But Mattarella also expressed anguish for the mounting Palestinian death toll in Gaza as a result of Israel’s military campaign and called for fundamental human rights to be respected everywhere.
“Those who have suffered the vile attempt to erase their own people from the land know that one cannot deny another people the right to a state,” Mattarella said.
Antisemitic episodes in Italy hit an unprecedented high last year, with 216 incidents reported in the last three months of 2023 following the Oct. 7 attack, compared to 241 in all of the previous year, the Antisemitism Observatory reported. Overall, 454 incidents of antisemitism were reported last year, the biggest-ever increase.
“The dead of Auschwitz, scattered in the wind, continually warn us: Man’s path proceeds along rough and risky roads,” Mattarella said. “This is also manifested by the return, in the world, of dangerous instances of antisemitism: of prejudice that traces back to ancient anti-Jewish stereotypes, reinforced by social media without control or modesty.”
Mattarella also strongly condemned the Nazi-Fascist regimes that perpetrated the Holocaust. Sitting in the audience was Premier Giorgia Meloni, whose Brothers of Italy party has neo-fascist roots but who has strongly backed Israel and supported Italy’s Jewish community.
Mattarella said it must never be forgotten that Italy under Fascism adopted “despicable racist laws” which barred Jews from schools and the workplace. He called the laws “the opening chapter of the terrible book of extermination.”
Referring to Benito Mussolini’s final government in the Nazi puppet state in Salò, northern Italy, he added that “members of the Republic of Salò actively collaborated in the capture, deportation and even massacres of Jews.”
Significantly, he quoted Primo Levi, the Italian-born Auschwitz survivor whose memoir “If This is a Man” remains a standard work of Holocaust literature. Just this week, Italy’s Jewish community denounced that pro-Palestinian protesters had cited Levi in a flyer promoting Saturday’s planned protest, but in reference to Gaza, not the Holocaust.
It was one of several instances of pro-Palestinian advocates using the memory of the Holocaust against Israel and Jews. On Friday, nearly 50 small bronze plaques appeared on the sidewalk in front of the offices of the U.N. refugee agency in Rome with the names of Palestinians killed in Gaza. They were identical to the bronze memorial plaques affixed to cobblestones around Rome in front of the homes of Jews who were deported during the Holocaust.
veryGood! (3)
Related
- Apple iOS 18.2: What to know about top features, including Genmoji, AI updates
- WATCH: Free-agent QB Baker Mayfield takes batting practice with Yankees
- Military lifts Osprey's grounding months after latest fatal crashes
- The 5 Charlotte Tilbury Products Every Woman Should Own for the Maximum Glow Up With Minimal Effort
- Trump issues order to ban transgender troops from serving openly in the military
- New Orleans’ mayor says she’s not using coveted city apartment, but council orders locks changed
- Delaware House approved requirements to buy a handgun, including fingerprints and training
- Features of TEA Business College
- Why we love Bear Pond Books, a ski town bookstore with a French bulldog 'Staff Pup'
- The Road to Artificial Intelligence at TEA Business College
Ranking
- B.A. Parker is learning the banjo
- Bye, department stores. Hello, AI. Is what's happening to Macy's and Nvidia a sign of the times?
- Duke-North Carolina clash leads games to watch on final weekend of college basketball season
- Walmart to expand same-day delivery options to include early morning hours
- 'As foretold in the prophecy': Elon Musk and internet react as Tesla stock hits $420 all
- Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift's Love Story Continues in Singapore for Eras Tour
- 'Inside Out 2' trailer adds new emotions from Envy to Embarrassment. See the new cast
- Natalie Portman and Benjamin Millepied Break Up: Revisit Their Romance Before Divorce
Recommendation
Skins Game to make return to Thanksgiving week with a modern look
'Inside Out 2' trailer adds new emotions from Envy to Embarrassment. See the new cast
Biden visiting battleground states and expanding staff as his campaign tries to seize the offensive
New Orleans’ mayor says she’s not using coveted city apartment, but council orders locks changed
Newly elected West Virginia lawmaker arrested and accused of making terroristic threats
Delaware House approved requirements to buy a handgun, including fingerprints and training
Jennifer Hudson, Barry Manilow mourn death of 'American Idol' vocal coach Debra Byrd
Halle Bailey tearfully calls out invasive baby rumors: 'I had no obligation to expose him'