An Italian Senate committee approved the draft text of a bill that could help authorities ban gatherings that promote antisemitism as defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition, which includes anti-Israel hatred.
The draft bill was adopted but will undergo an amendments phase in the Senate’s Constitutional Affairs Committee until Feb. 10. It will then be prepared for readings in both chambers of the Italian parliament.
The draft bill would make the IHRA definition binding for Italy’s judiciary and law enforcement. The definition lists as potential examples of antisemitism the singling out of Israel and its demonization.
The draft bill would extend the 1931 Law on Public Safety to events with “a serious potential risk due to the use of symbols, slogans, messages, and any other antisemitic acts pursuant to the working definition of antisemitism adopted by this law.”
If passed, the law could give new legal grounds for bans on protest rallies and gatherings.
The bill is likely to pass sometime during the first half of 2026 in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, he added.
Italy’s Senate Constitutional Affairs Committee is also reviewing other draft bills on antisemitism.
The text of the document, “Draft Law 1722,” requires online platforms to treat antisemitic content as a specific category of hate content using the IHRA definition.
The draft bill states that online platforms should suspend users who repeatedly repost removed antisemitic content, provide users with flagging tools and set up a registry of content that is antisemitic according to the IHRA definition.
