Anti-Semitism doubled in Italy on the web and in reality after 7 October

«A frightening wave of hatred and anti-Semitism». Use these words Liliana Segre denouncing the situation that the senator for life experiences in Italy also towards Italian Jews who have nothing to do with it and who do not share the political decisions of the State of Israel. Around the world the situation is similar and has changed for the worse after October 7, 2023

The report of theAnti-Semitism Observatory of the Contemporary Jewish Documentation Center Foundation of Milan, reported by Repubblica, reports growing hatred on the web and in the real world. There are verbal and physical attacks, vandalization, attacks against students, and written death threats. L'Anti-Defamation League he says that after the Hamas attack on Israel and the Israeli response there was “the worst wave of incidents since the end of the Second World War”. The countries with more “anti-Semitic incidents” compared to 2022 are “United States, France, Great Britain, Australia, Italy, Brazil and Mexico”. In Italy there were 241 attacks in 2022, 454 in 2023, 216 of which between October and December 2023: 259 occurred online and 195 in real life.

«Anti-Semitism does not come from nowhere and is the product of a situation of political, economic and social unease, even if it is intense», said the director of the Cdec Foundation, Gadi Luzzatto Voghera, «after 7 October the number of anti-Semitic episodes that we call offline, therefore physical, increased greatly. And it is a trend that has grown even more since the end of 2023.”

The data of theOscad, the observatory for security against discriminatory acts, say that from 7 October to the beginning of May there were at least 345 incidents attributable to anti-Semitism. Among these there are 41 hate crimes, 175 cases of hate speech, hateful speeches and words, and 112 of online hate speech.

Liliana Segre denounced the new wave of anti-Semitism in a meeting, The victims of hatred, with the Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi at the Shoah Memorial. “We would need a team of doctors to go and ask the haters why they wish death on someone who is close – like me – because the haters need to be treated.” It's still: «I get crazy threats and I worry about these haters, because I'm a mother and a grandmother and these haters have huge problems: more than the hated, the haters should be protected and cared for. Do they wish me death? I reply: “Calm down, I'm 93 and a half years old. I saw everything, how do you want me to be afraid to go out?”.

«Italian Jews have nothing to do with the decisions of the Israeli government, they may not even agree with them, they may have never been in Israel, but we are accused of things that we ourselves would not want» concluded the senator for life. Minister Piantedosi, commenting on the data, said: «We have raised barriers but the feeling of anti-Semitism can fuel forms of terrorism. There is a certain underestimation in the public discussion. Criticism of the Israeli government is not up for discussion, but denying someone a say, attacking a Jewish target, is the wrong thing to do.”