The vandalism of a mural depicting a survivor of last year’s 7 October Hamas attacks, which killed around 1,200 people in Israel, is an example of rising antisemitism in Italy over the past year, according to the Antisemitism Observatory in Milan.
Incidents of antisemitism have increased to about 80 or 90 a week in the past year, compared to around 30 a week previously, said Stefano Gatti, a researcher at the observatory. He described the increase as “overpowering.”
“While before 7 October, the incidents were mostly on internet websites, now they consist of real-world acts,’’ he said. “Antisemitism has also become more socially acceptable.”
This includes graffiti, insults, acts of intimidation, and aggression that have not yet resulted in cases of bodily harm. He mentioned one incident in which a rabbi was followed in the port city of Genoa by someone brandishing a screwdriver, and another when a restaurant owner casually told two diners he did not realise were Jewish that Hitler was right to seek to wipe out Europe’s Jews.
“We have not seen a situation like this since 1945,” Gatti said, referring to the end of World War II and the Nazi Holocaust, which killed 6 million European Jews. “Not even in 1982,” during the war in Lebanon when Israel invaded southern Lebanon. He noted that local mayors and university officials have not been clear in their condemnation of such events, which “has helped the phenomenon grow.”
The vandalised mural, titled October 7th, Escape by AleXsandro Palombo, depicted Vlada Patapov escaping the Hamas attack. Vandals erased the figure’s head and legs from the mural, which is located near Milan’s state university.
Palombo stated that whoever “decapitated” the image “is not fighting for the liberation of Palestine. These extremist movements that are increasingly radicalising our society have the sole purpose of defending terrorist beliefs in our Western democracy.”
The artist added that images of the Hamas massacre “have been removed from the collective memory too soon, and instead need to be circulated more until they are imprinted and become a warning against the threat of Islamist terrorism and religious fundamentalism.”
