“Freedom is not saying whatever we want”
Roberto Cenati resigns from ANPI local leadership

“That’s enough now. I do not agree with the line of the national ANPI (National Association of Italian Partisans), I do not recognize myself in the use of the term genocide for the humanitarian tragedy that is happening in Gaza. Genocide is something else and using this term has dangerous repercussions on the Jewish Community.” Roberto Cenati sounds bittered and angry, while speaking with Pagine Ebraiche about his decision to leave the presidency of Milan’s ANPI, a role he has held since 2011.
He had been thinking about a possible step back for some time. Too many contrasts, too many internal attacks in an association whose primary task should be “the defense of freedom, not meant as the possibility of doing whatever we like. The freedom for which the men and women of the Resistance fought. The idea that we are free if we fight for our neighbors to be free as well.”
Instead, Cenati said, within the ANPI some have chosen to politicize the association. They have chosen slogans, as happened with the March 9 national demonstration called by CGIL and Anpi together to “prevent genocide” in Gaza. “That term indicates though the planned extermination of an entire people. It is the Shoah, with the camps, the deportations, the gas chambers, the millions of dead. As terrible as what is happening in Gaza is and as much as one can criticize the choices of the Netanyahu government, there is no analogy. What’s more, we forgot too quickly about Oct. 7 and what Hamas terrorists are.”
Cenati remains on the provincial committee of the Partisan Association. His plans for the future include working with schools to spread the values of the Constitution, legality, and the fight against oppression. Some celebrated his resignation. “It’s not a good feeling”, he said. “But it is the end point of an increasingly aggressive climate within the ANPI. In its own small way, it is a mirror of our society: increasingly angry and unable to discuss peacefully or accept that others think differently.”
From the Jewish world came full solidarity and support. “I am also sorry for this,” said Cenati. “With the Jewish Community of Milan and UCEI we have built a solid and fruitful relationship over the last 13 years. I hope that all this work will not be lost. Not least because today the network built with Italian Jewry is important to combat rising antisemitism. “Regarding antisemitism, this is one of the most worrying phases in Italy since the postwar period. Accusing Jews of being the new Nazis is not only a shameful distortion of history, it is also an extremely dangerous operation.” It is a comparison, Cenati stressed, legitimizing those who carry out antisemitic attacks.