Pro-Palestinian calls at Sanremo Festival draw criticism from Jewish community

The 74th Sanremo Music Festival, the historic Italian song contest ended Saturday night, featured several calls for solidarity with Palestinians that drew criticism from the Jewish community. Singer Fiorella Mannoia urged the audience to “stay human,” a slogan coined by Italian pro-Palestinian activist Vittorio Arrigoni. The latter was so anti-Israel that after he was killed in Gaza in 2011 by a Salafist group, his family refused to allow his body to cross into Israeli territory.
During the competition, broadcast by the national public company RAI, rapper Ghali, whose full name is Ghali Amdouni, called for an end to “genocide.” And during the singer Teuda’s performance, broadcast from the Emerald Coast in Sardinia, Palestinian flags were on view. And what about the hundreds of Israelis tortured and killed by Hamas on October 7? What about the 240 abducted civilians, about a hundred of whom remain in Hamas captivity? Or the 250,000 who needed to be evacuated?
“Among the 1,200 victims on October 7, 360 young people were killed and raped at the Nova Music Festival. Forty of them were kidnapped and are still prisoners of terrorists,” noted Israeli Ambassador to Italy Alon Bar. “The Sanremo Festival could have expressed solidarity with them. It is unfortunate that this did not happen.” “It is regrettable that this stage was not also an opportunity to launch an appeal for the release of the hostages in the hands of Hamas,” said Noemi Di Segni, the president of Italy’s Jewish Communities umbrella organization, wishing in a note that at least there will be no distortion and boycott episodes at the upcoming Eurovision song contest.