Pigs’ heads sent to Israel embassy, synagogue in Rome

Boxes containing pigs’ heads were sent to the Israeli embassy in Rome and the city’s synagogue, Italian media reported Saturday.

The package mailed to the embassy in the wealthy Parioli area of the Italian capital was intercepted by police after other similar parcels were sent to the synagogue and the Jewish Museum of Rome, which is hosting an exhibit on the Holocaust.

The threats came days ahead of the International Commemoration Day in memory of the victims of the Holocaust on Monday, January 27.

“Those who insult the Jewish community offend Rome. We reject the intimidation outright,” Rome mayor Ignazio Marino said in a tweet.

The synagogue’s package was delivered Friday just as staff received an anonymous phone call claiming there was a parcel bomb on site, the reports said.

Rome’s Great Synagogue (photo credit: Ilan Ben Zion/Times of Israel staff)

Bomb disposal experts who rushed to the scene discovered the grisly head, which they believe came from a slaughterhouse.

Police are analysing fingerprints and DNA traces found on the boxes, which were sealed with packing tape and delivered by the same postal company.

Local media reported Saturday that anti-Semitic graffiti also appeared outside a municipal building in a Rome neighborhood. One graffito read “the Holocaust is a lie” and the second showed a swastika with the words “Hanna [sic] Frank is a big liar,” Corriere Della Sera reported.

Local politician Yuri Bugli condemned the vandalism in his district, calling the perpetrators “cowards” and “unrivaled idiots.” He called for “firm condemnation” of the act, while “remembering each day the horrors caused by Nazi racial hatred.”