An online campaign calling on people to surveil and report the whereabouts of Jewish and Israeli tourists, or anyone suspected of having ties to “Zionists,” has sparked anger among Israeli diplomats, local Jewish leaders and Italian politicians.
The anonymous campaign, focused in Milan, and spread via social media and messaging apps, involved a link that opened to a Google document.
It asked questions to identify the exact locations of Jewish and Israeli individuals, including specific hotels, vacation rentals, and commercial establishments, to create what it called “a mapping of Zionist tourism”.
The information would be used for unspecified future initiatives, the form said.
"This form is intended to record cases of Zionist tourism, property purchases, and, more generally, Zionist neo-colonisation in Italy,” according to the document. “The data collected will be received by the Global Sumud Movement and will remain protected and confidential."
The Global Sumud Movement, which organises anti-Israel activities in Europe, including the recent “freedom flotillas” to the Gaza Strip, denied any involvement in the campaign following the backlash.
"I think we're going back to the 1930s, to the hunt for Jews," Milan Jewish Community President Walker Meghnagi said. "Mapping where Jews are is extremely serious."
He called on the judiciary to intervene and for all parties to take a stand against the campaign.
Undersecretary of State to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Alessandro Morelli, a member of the conservative League Party, a junior partner in Italy's ruling coalition, condemned the form as "abhorrent," harking back to "the dark ages of Nazi fascism".
He also called for the unanimous political condemnation of the "racist initiative".
"We're essentially talking about blacklists. We're returning to the extremely dangerous climate that preceded the racial laws," said Italian Senator Graziano Delrio of the Democratic Party, the main opposition party, referring to a series of antisemitic and segregationist decrees enacted by Benito Mussolini's Fascist regime between 1938 and 1943.
Israeli Ambassador to Italy Jonathan Peled posted to X on Sunday, saying: "The initiative to map Zionist tourism in Italy is an abominable action that highlights the alarming growth of antisemitic hatred in Italy and reveals, once again, the extremist and discriminatory drifts of the Pro-Pal movement."
The European Jewish Congress, the main umbrella organisation for Jewish communities across Europe, said of the questionnaire: "Presented as a 'mapping of Zionist tourism,' the initiative effectively encourages the identification and targeting of individuals based on their actual or perceived Jewish identity or nationality.
“Such attempts to single out individuals based on their identity create fear, fuel hatred and place Jewish communities at greater risk.
"The Italian authorities must act swiftly to ensure those responsible are held accountable and that such dangerous practices are stopped immediately.”
To get more news, click here to sign up for our free daily newsletter.