'The worst old-fashioned slogans against Jews. It’s terrible'

‘You’re lucky you’re not soap bars’: Jews forced to leave rally marking WWII end in Italy

Members joining march under banners of British Army’s Nazi-fighting Jewish Brigade and other Jewish organizations are insulted and prevented from continuing

Several Jews attending a rally in Milan celebrating the anniversary of Italy’s liberation from the Nazis and fascists at the end of World War II were insulted and prevented from continuing along the event’s itinerary on Saturday. Eventually, police urged Jewish participants, marching under the banners of the WWII Jewish Brigade and other Jewish organizations, to leave the event for safety reasons.

“[Yesterday] marked my 50th year joining the April 25 national rally,” Emanuele Fiano, a former MP for the center-left Democratic Party and the son of an Auschwitz survivor, told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera on Sunday. (In Italy, the war ended a few weeks before the official Victory Day celebrated across Europe on May 8).

“We were kicked out, I can’t describe it in any other way,” he added. “The Jewish Brigade that fought alongside the partisans against the Nazi-fascists, the ‘Left for Israel — two states for two peoples [organization]’, members of the Jewish community, members of the socialist Jewish scout group [Hashomer Hatzair], were all kicked out of a rally that was supposed to celebrate freedom.”

The Jewish Brigade was a group of about 5,000 Jewish soldiers, mostly from Mandatory Palestine, who volunteered to join the British Army to fight against the Nazis. The Brigade fought in Italy in the last few months of the war.

For several years, some members of the Jewish community have joined the rally under the banner of the Jewish Brigade (two vertical light blue stripes separated by a white stripe in the middle covered by a yellow Star of David).

Those marching under the Jewish Brigade symbols have regularly been targeted by pro-Palestinian activists over the years.

As in many other countries in the world, since the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught in Israel, vast segments of the Italian public opinion have become increasingly critical of Israel, a trend that accelerated following the widespread devastation documented in the Gaza Strip as the war there progressed.

Meanwhile, the number of antisemitic incidents has increased, especially those blurring the lines between the Israeli government, Israelis as people and the Jews of Italy, many of whom have close ties with the Jewish state, including relatives and friends who live there.

This year, ahead of Liberation Day, the authorities decided that all the organizations with a clear Jewish affiliation should join the march together, also with a group of Iranian dissidents, some of whom were openly expressing support for the shah (whose repressive rule was ended by a revolution in 1978 that was soon taken over by the current Islamic regime in 1979). Several Iranian dissidents also waved Israeli flags.

According to Fiano and other eyewitnesses, many rally participants hurled insults at various groups. The slogans included, “All Zionists out of the rally” and “Long live Hitler.”

“We joined the rally behind the banner of the left-wing Jewish scouts, grandchildren of camp survivors and partisans,” Daniela Ovadia, a member of the Jewish community who was at the rally, wrote on Facebook on Saturday. “My daughter was stopped by someone in the rally, [who told her] ‘You are lucky you are not a soap bar,’” (referring to the rumors that the remains of Jewish corpses who died in concentration camps were used to produce soap).

The different Jewish organizations were prevented from continuing their march by other participants for about an hour before the authorities asked them to leave and escorted them away for security reasons.

“The climate is horrible,” Fiano said. “From legitimate political criticism, we have started to see the worst old-fashioned slogans against Jews. It’s terrible, I don’t know what else to say.”

Several incidents were recorded in other rallies marking Liberation Day across the country. In Rome, an unknown individual targeted some people at the rally with an airgun, lightly injuring two people, who were treated at the site. Both in Rome and in Bologna, people carrying Ukrainian flags were insulted or asked to leave.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned both the insults against the Jewish Brigade and those against people carrying Ukrainian flags.

“If these are the people who claim to defend freedom and democracy, I would say we have a problem,” she wrote on X.