{"id":112,"date":"2014-04-19T20:15:09","date_gmt":"2014-04-19T18:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moked.it\/international\/?p=112"},"modified":"2014-04-20T10:37:49","modified_gmt":"2014-04-20T08:37:49","slug":"news-italys-jewish-locals-insulted-by-comedian-politicians-remarks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moked.it\/international\/2014\/04\/19\/news-italys-jewish-locals-insulted-by-comedian-politicians-remarks\/","title":{"rendered":"NEWS – Italy\u2019s Jewish locals insulted by comedian-politician\u2019s remarks"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Lisa Palmieri-Billig<\/strong>*<\/p>\n

ROME \u2013 Beppe Grillo, a comedian as well as founder and leader of the populist Five Star Movement (M5S), defended his use of the Holocaust, Auschwitz and Primo Levi as a launching pad for ferocious criticism against the president, prime minister and the entire Italian parliament.<\/p>\n

Grillo\u2019s blog published a photo of the infamous Arbeit macht frei (Work makes free) sign above the gates of Auschwitz, retouched to read \u201cP2 macht frei.\u201d P2 is a secretive \u2013 and, in the eyes of many, subversive \u2013 Italian Masonic lodge that counts many politicians among its members.<\/p>\n

Grillo also paraphrased Primo Levi\u2019s famous poem If This is a Man, renaming it \u201cIf This is a Country\u201d and replacing Levi\u2019s references to the Holocaust with references to the evils of Italy\u2019s government.<\/p>\n

The Italian Jewish community and opinion leaders of all origins were outraged.<\/p>\n

Renzo Gattegna, president of the Italian Jewish community, said Grillo\u2019s words \u201care an obscenity against which we cannot remain silent.<\/p>\n

They provoke attitudes of anti-Semitism by straddling the popular discontent that increases during these times of crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gattegna accused Grillo of \u201ccriminal desecration of the value of the memory of millions of innocent victims.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked by the media whether he would apologize to the Jewish community, Grillo replied that he had nothing to apologize for, saying the community\u2019s president was \u201cstupid, ignorant, not very intelligent and harms the community,\u201d adding that he should be replaced.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you touch the powerful, these things surface, these lobbies, lobbies of business. It is they who hide behind certain tragedies,\u201d he said. \u201cWho is behind [Carlo] De Benedetti [an Italian Jewish industrialist], who is behind the banks, behind the finance?\u201d This financial power, Grillo added, \u201ccauses Holocausts once a year, once a month, once a day…. Rwanda, the gas in Syria… the financial and banking systems cause thousands of deaths every year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grillo\u2019s blog often indulges in conspiracy theories that obliquely refer to Jewish power without saying so by name. In the past he accused the Mossad of being behind MEMRI, a media watchdog group that, according to him, purposely \u201cmistranslated\u201d statements by former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.<\/p>\n

Grillo\u2019s political and business partner, Gianroberto Casaleggio, a network strategist who edits the blog, has produced apocalyptic videos foreseeing a future of virtual \u201cInternet democracy\u201d by the survivors of a predictable global war. Blog commentators often indulge in anti-Semitic fantasies.<\/p>\n

According to recent surveys, Grillo\u2019s prospective voters have risen to 25 percent of the electorate. The rest of the country is concerned that his populist, anti-European Union rhetoric will win him seats in the May elections for the EU parliament and make M5S Italy\u2019s second-largest political party, paralyzing a future government.
\n
\n*Lisa Palmieri-Billig is the Jerusalem Post correspondent in Rome. This article appears on the Jerusalem Post<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Lisa Palmieri-Billig* ROME \u2013 Beppe Grillo, a comedian as well as founder and leader of the populist Five Star Movement (M5S), defended his use of the Holocaust, Auschwitz and Primo Levi as a launching pad for ferocious criticism against the president, prime minister and the entire Italian parliament. 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