An anonymous online form that urged people to report Jewish and Israeli citizens at hotels, lodging facilities, and businesses in Italy alarmed the Jewish community. The form has been removed from some platforms following the intervention of General Pasquale Angelosanto, National Coordinator for combating antisemitism. “This is an escalation of antisemitism not to be underestimated,” said UCEI president Livia Ottolenghi. “This time, with a form disseminated online, we are dealing with new ‘yellow stars’ meant to report and map out alleged Zionist ‘colonies’ in Italy, mark Jews, and insinuate obscure, though non-existent, plots.”
Ottolenghi added that this kind of initiative takes us back to the years preceding the enactment of racial laws in 1938. The UCEI has learned of “thousands of other episodes in recent months that have tried to inoculate public opinion with ever more antisemitism. All this has occurred amid the deafening silence of society, which, except for a few sporadic exceptions, remains silent.”
Victor Fadlun, president of the Jewish Community of Rome, said, “The very idea of mapping ‘Zionist tourism’ online is abhorrent and must be perceived as a denial of fundamental individual, humanity, and constitutional rights on which the Italian Republic is based by all political forces and social organizations.”
Walker Meghnagi, president of the Jewish Community of Milan, was one of the first leaders to report the online form to the authorities. He denounced the risk of returning to the 1930s and a “manhunt of Jews.”
The president of the Senate Ignazio La Russa echoes these words speaking of an “abhorrent initiative, in open violation of fundamental individual rights and of the constitutional principles on which our nation is based. “Any racial profiling on the basis of religion or tie with Israel is neither acceptable or justifiable”, he declared. La Russa expressed his closeness to the Jewish world and exhorted “not to stand idly in the face of such serious events, which bring back the ghosts of the past.”