More Antisemitic Displays in an Italy Gone Mad

Though the governments of Ireland, Spain, and Norway are more hostile to Israel than Italy, in the size of its anti-Israel protests, the Bel Paese comes in first. In early October 2025, 400,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators screamed their slogans: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” “Death, death, to the IDF,” “Globalize the Intifada,” and others to that ghastly effect, in 29 cities, including Milan, Venice, Rome, Udine, Florence, and two dozen others. They waved their Palestinian flags, keffiyehs draped around their necks, and screamed their hatred of the Jewish state, that according to them is a colonial-settler apartheid genocidal country that should be replaced by a 23rd Arab state. And there were scrawls on synagogues, and attacks on Jews who dared to appear wearing clothing or jewelry — kippahs, Star-of-David ornaments on chains — signifying that they are Jews.

More on the recent attacks on Jews and synagogues in Italy can be found here.

The walls of a Rome synagogue and a plaque dedicated to the memory of a two-year-old victim of terrorism were vandalized, Italian Jewish organizations reported on Monday.

ADVERTISEMENT

The memorial plaque commemorating Michael Stefano Gaj Taché, on the wall of the Beth Michael Synagogue, was defaced with black spray paint, according to photographs shared by the Jewish Community of Rome, the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, and the Union of Young Jews of Italy.

The toddler was murdered in an October 9, 1982, terrorist attack on the Great Synagogue of Rome by Palestinian terrorists associated with the Abu Nidal group. According to The New York Times, the attackers threw grenades and fired submachine guns at worshipers as they left Shabbat and Shemini Atzeret services, wounding 34.

“Free Palestine” was spray-painted nearby, on the wall of the Monteverde Vecchio neighborhood’s synagogue.

Jewish Community of Rome president Victor Fadlun said in a video statement that the community had confidence in the police, but the desecration of the memorial and synagogue came amid a “climate of intimidation” and “antisemitism in general.”

Last May, a Naples restaurant in Naples told an Israeli family to leave, saying: “Zionists are not welcome here.” The couple promptly left, but they might have tried to enlighten the hotel manager about his absurd charge of “genocide” by providing him with a few facts. They might have noted that of the 58,000 people whom Hamas claims have died in Gaza, at least 24,000, according to the IDF, were Hamas combatants a, and historically 800 people die in Gaza each month from accidents and diseases, which means that in 22 months of war 17,600 — a month over 22 months — died from diseases and accidents, that is from non-combat related causes. And that means only 16,400 civilians died from the war. Most regrettable, but that number is far less than 1% of the 2.2 million people in Gaza. Can one really describe as a “genocide” the killing of 1% of the population? Furthermore, “genocide” requires intent. How can Israel be accused of deliberately intending to kill civilians, when the IDF has engaged in a tremendous campaign to warn civilians away from sites about to be targeted? Millions of leaflets have been dropped, millions of text messages been sent, millions of robocalls been made, all in order to warn civilians away from danger, and minimize their deaths. Hamas, on the other hand, which embeds its fighters and weapons and rocket launchers among civilians, wants to increase the number of civilian deaths so as to blacken the image of Israel. And this strategy, alas, has been working.

Would that Oriana Fallaci, the famous left-wing Italian journalist who took the measure of those she called “the sons of Allah” in her book The Rage and the Pride, that was written in white heat just after September 11, 2001, were still alive to smite the antisemites in Italy hip and thigh. But as she is not, I hope you will accept, in her stead, this pretty skimpy looking, but heartfelt, denunciation.

The Italian government needs to do more than express its outrage at these acts and proclaim its solidarity with the Jewish victims. It needs to post police round the clock outside every synagogue, Jewish school, and Jewish communal institution. It ought to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism. The government should monitor social media, and pressure the major platforms, especially X/Twitter, to ban antisemitic content. Italian President Sergio Mattarella can address the nation “on a matter of national shame,” denouncing this wave of antisemitic attacks, reminding Italians that “we now are experiencing horrifying echoes of the “racial laws — leggi razziali — put into effect by the Fascists in 1938, for our Jewish citizens are now being singled out again for mistreatment. And this must stop. Punto e basta.”