The Jewish Brigade and members of the Milan Jewish community were violently insulted and harassed during a parade to celebrate Italy's Liberation Day on Saturday, and ultimately were forced to withdraw under police escort.
Italy's April 25 celebrations (Festa della Liberazione) are a national holiday marking the end of Nazi-fascist rule and the victory of the Italian Resistance in 1945 during World War II.
Every year at the parade, the Jewish Brigade Group, a military unit of the World War II era made up mostly of Jewish volunteers from Mandatory Palestine who fought as part of the British Army against Nazi Germany, is honored. Many members of the Jewish community march under Jewish Brigade banners today to commemorate Jewish soldiers’ role in defeating fascism.
However, on Saturday, members of the Jewish Brigade, as well as members of the Milan Jewish community and anti-regime Iranians protesting alongside, were kicked out of the parade by extremist left-wing and pro-Palestine groups who wanted to block their passage.
After setting off from Via Boschetto toward Piazza Duomo, the members of the Jewish protest only made it a few hundred meters before they were interrupted by openly antisemitic insults such as “You should have been made into soap.” The chant invokes the Nazi-era imagery of murdered Jews being turned into soap. Nazi salutes were also reported.
After more than an hour of a standoff, a corridor was opened, and the Jewish members and others in the party were escorted by police out of the march.
Emanuele Fiano, an Italian politician and former president of the Jewish Community of Milan, was attending the march for the 50th time, the first having been with his father carrying signs about the camps.
"Today, in Milan, an extremist minority decided who may participate and who may not, and it is a disgrace for the whole country. Someone left us alone. And I am not speaking about the police. I mean a substantial part of public opinion that is grinding down centuries of coexistence. It is a horrible precedent," he said.
'A dangerous drift we thought belonged to the past'
Former MP Paola Concia said it is "unacceptable that on Liberation Day Jews are insulted and expelled from a march," adding that those words and behaviors "evoke a dangerous drift we thought belonged to the past.”
Davide Romano, Director of the Jewish Brigade Museum, said what happened was "not only a violation of the rights of the Jewish and Iranian communities" but "an institutional and constitutional wound of the gravest kind."
"The right to commemorate the heroic contribution of the Jewish Brigade to the liberation of Italy from Nazi-fascism — a contribution of blood, sacrifice, and determination — was denied by those who arrogate to themselves a monopoly over memory and the public square."
Daniele Nahum, municipal councilor, said he met with the Milan police chief to tell him that the handling of the incident was inadequate.
"While understanding the security reasons that led to the route being diverted, I consider it a defeat for the institutions that the Jewish Brigade was forced to change route because of the violence of these red fascists," he said. Nahum also noted that this is the first time since 1938 that Jewish citizens were prevented from demonstrating as Jews.
“As an Italian, son of a partisan and a Jew, it was a traumatic experience," said Carlo Riva, president of The Italian Federation for Progressive Judaism (FIEP).
“I have always believed in progressive values, and I am alarmed by the antisemitic drift that now appears across the political spectrum.”
Union of Young Jews of Italy said kicking the Jewish Brigade out of the parade is to desecrate the memory of the liberation.
Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said he found it "shameful and unacceptable that there are still episodes of intolerance and attacks against the Jewish community, as happened in Milan."
He did, however, thank the police for how they managed public order during the more than 60 demonstrations that took place across Italy.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said, "If these are the ones who claim to defend freedom and democracy, I’d say we have a problem."
Israel's Foreign Ministry called it "deeply troubling" that, on Italy’s WWII Liberation Day, Jewish participants in Milan were targeted and excluded by violent extremists.
It thanked political leaders who have spoken out in condemnation of these "antisemitic and anti-patriotic incidents."
"Such a shameful exclusion of the Jewish community must never be allowed to happen again."