Italian PM warns of Hamas-like attacks against Italian Jews

Gianluca Pacchiani is the Arab affairs reporter for The Times of Israel

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni speaks during a press conference after meeting with The Netherlands' Prime Minister Mark Rutte at Chigi Palace government offices in Rome, March 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni speaks during a press conference after meeting with The Netherlands' Prime Minister Mark Rutte at Chigi Palace government offices in Rome, March 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni says her country needs “to intensify the protection of Italian Jews, because there is a risk of criminal acts against them in imitation of what we have seen at the hands of Hamas.”

Speaking during a visit to the Tempio Maggiore, Rome’s main synagogue, and a meeting with the head of the Jewish community Victor Fadlun and Chief Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, Meloni says “With this visit, I wish to express my solidarity with the Jewish community in Rome and throughout Italy, because the heinous scenes that have come to us from Israel are beyond the usual war scenes. Civilians were hunted down house by house, children and youths were rounded up.”

According to a report in the Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica, Meloni says: “These acts speak of a hate for a whole people. Defending Israel’s right to exist means defending these young people, these children and these women. Therefore we need to strengthen the defense of Italian citizens of the Jewish faith on our territory.”

Meloni was one of five Western leaders who signed a joint statement yesterday to express “steadfast and united support to the State of Israel” and “unequivocal condemnation of Hamas and its appalling acts of terrorism.”

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