Holocaust survivor Liliana Segre
to lead the anti-hate Commission

Senator for life and Holocaust survivor Liliana Segre has been elected to the presidency of a Senate’s Commission against all forms of hate, racism, and antisemitism of which she was the main promoter and that was approved by the Senate in November 2019. The Commission began its work in mid-April 2021 with the appointment of Segre and the assignment of the two vice-presidencies (one to the center-left, the other to the center-right).
“I hope it can become an important moment for the Republic since the language of hatred is something that has hurt me all my life”, stressed Segre after the designation. “I began to hear the words of hatred very early and if I can end my life by putting one of those little stones that are put on graves in Jewish cemeteries to say ‘I have come to see you’, then this beginning of the Commission is also a small stone”.
Segre has played an active role also on a recent motion approved by the Senate to grant Italian citizenship to Patrick Zaki, the Bologna University postgraduate student held in Egypt, for over a year, in inhumane conditions. The Senator for life, 90 years old, came from Milan to vote. “I made this trip because there are occasions when one has to overcome forces that are not always brilliant”, Segre said. “I remember what the days spent inside a cell are, when you don’t know whether to prefer the door closed or when it opens and someone comes in and does or tells you something that can make you suffer even more”.