‘Israeli not welcome’ signs in Italy reminiscent of antisemitic fascism of 1930s

Jewish leaders accuse authorities of failing to confront hate campaign as anti-Jewish signs and graffiti proliferate.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Large printed signs saying “Israeli [sic.] not welcome” were plastered in several areas of Milan, Italy last Thursday, angering Jewish leaders who accused the authorities of failing to confront a hate campaign that has grown along with Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The white on blue posters, which appeared especially prominently in the quarter where a majority of the Jewish community and school are located, had no sponsor logos to identify culprits, but the police immediately launched an investigation and reportedly located and arrested six young men and women who had similar signs in their possession.

Jewish municipal councilor Daniele Nahum, of the Azione party, denounced the placards, saying, “Posting discriminatory signs against any nationality is an operation worthy of the fascists of the 1930s.”

Targeting a people rather than a government was wrong and it could lead to endangering the lives of Milan’s Jews, he added, citing the statistic that there has been “a 400% increase in antisemitism” in Italy, which is “a very worrying situation.”

Earlier in the week, he had condemned a single sign that had appeared in Hebrew on a city storefront saying, “Israelis and Zionists are not welcome here,” which was photographed and spread across social media before being taken down the next day.

The hatred it showed “has gone out of control and society and institutions must give a response,” he said. “We need a great national mobilization against antisemitism.”

The head of the city’s Jewish community, Walter Meghnagi, blamed left-wing “pseudo-politicians” for the phenomenon, saying, “They do nothing but stoke hatred. They bear a large share of the responsibility for the spread of antisemitism… But no one seems to notice. At least some from the center-right have stood up to defend us.”

Italian Senate President Ignazio La Rosa, of the ruling right-wing coalition, wrote on social media that this was “an extremely serious incident that deserves clear and firm condemnation.”

Well-known film producer Tiziana Della Rocca backed Nahum unequivocally, posting on X, “By demonization of the State of Israel, which is antisemitism, I mean what happened in Milan; here they say that Israel, the entire State of Israel, together with all its citizens, is not welcome. It is pure racism that we must rebel against.”

Shlomi, an Israeli who has been living in Milan for four years, told the Israeli Mako news site that the Israel-Hamas war has turned many in the city against both Israelis and Jews.

“Before the war, being an Israeli here was almost no issue at all – we talked about it without a problem, we received love from the people, it intrigued them,” he noted.

But while initially there was “solidarity” with Israel “because of Hamas’s brutal massacres” during their October 7, 2023 invasion of Israel, he said, “Later the situation only began to deteriorate.”

“Friends who were close to us cut off contact, the streets began to be filled with antisemitic graffiti, the radical left here draws parallels between Israel and fascists, and thus more and more hatred is created against Israelis and Jews.”

Spray-painted graffiti that appeared on a bridge over a main road leading into Milan over a year ago that equates Jews with Nazis has yet to be removed, he complained, and “in general, there are a lot of swastikas everywhere in the city.”