Milan Jews Object to Planned Rally by Far-Right Movement

Image by flickr

By Ruth Ellen Gruber January 13, 2017

ROME (JTA) – Italian Jewish leaders warned against a neo-fascist rally planned for Saturday in Milan.

In a joint statement, the president of the umbrella Union of Italian Jewish Communities, Noemi Di Segni, and the leaders of the Milan Jewish community called the planned rally by the far-right Forza Nuova movement “a dangerous initiative, promoted by a movement that openly challenges the values of our democracy.”

The statement came after Milan police ruled Wednesday that the downtown rally could move ahead despite efforts to forestall it by anti-fascist, Jewish and leftist organizations, as well as Milan’s mayor.

Like other nationalist movements in Europe, Forza Nuova is strongly anti-immigrant and xenophobic. It has yet to win a seat in the Italian parliament.

The Jewish leaders’ statement noted that Jan. 27 is marked in Italy and other countries as Holocaust Memorial Day.

“We cannot allow those who trample the significance of memory and advocate racist and xenophobic theses to have a public place, and one in the center of Milan, in which to assert their ideologies of hate,” the statement read.

A counter-demonstration is also expected to take place at a separate location.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

This year, we have stood together in strength and sorrow. Our Forward team has worked around the clock to help you find clarity amid the chaos.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO