By Shimon Samuels and Alex Uberti
Paris, 28 August 2024
Last week, the shockwave of 7 October saw the merging of antisemitic hatred and the threat of terrorism also in Europe.
While an Islamist lone wolf was randomly stabbing German citizens in Solingen and a pro-Palestinian Hamas copycat tried to firebomb a synagogue in La-Grande-Motte, France, revolutionary and subversive political movements in Italy were planning a more comprehensive approach to attack Jews and democracy.
In particular, the New Italian Communist Party or (n)PCI presented a list of Jewish and Israeli individuals, companies and institutions to be “isolated, targeted and eliminated”.
Dr Shimon Samuels, former Director for International Relations of the Wiesenthal Centre, recalled the similarities with the “Ils Sont Partout” online conspiracy in France, dating back to August 2021. After the Centre’s alert, French authorities promptly closed down the hateful site that portrayed a spiderweb of Jews, businesses and international organizations, purportedly “responsible for the Covid pandemic and other global tragedies”.
Self-defined as a revolutionary movement, the New Communist Party glorifies the Red Brigades (BR) terrorists that wreaked havoc in Italy 50 years ago and calls for a “popular insurrection” with typically anachronistic rhetoric. Since it claims to operate clandestinely “to avoid state repression”, its footprint is barely visible. It provides codenames to identify its members, it uses a post office mailbox address in suburban Paris for correspondence, it otherwise suggests encrypted messaging through a dark web portal. Many of these aspects make it illegal according to Italian law.
Alex Uberti, Consultant and Project Manager for CSW-Europe, confirmed that “Research is ongoing in France and in Italy to identify the current (n)PCI leader, webmaster and activists... Nevertheless, by delving into its origins, we found that it was created in 1999 by the Committee to Support the Resistance for Communism (CARC), that likewise defines itself as Marxist-Leninist and Maoist, and has been allegedly on the forefront of insurrectional communism for the past three decades.”
Italian lawyer, Adv. Francesco Catania, informed CSW-Europe that, just a few weeks ago, the CARC had hosted its “National Festival for the Popular Redemption”, mostly focused on supporting “Palestine” and attacking liberal-democratic values. Today, he has filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor's Office in Rome, denouncing the antisemitic threats, the outlandish conspiracy theories and “the danger against democracy” represented by the abovementioned groups and individuals.
Among the guest speakers at that event was infamous influencer and former cook, Gabriele Rubini (a.k.a. Chef Rubio), who has become a prominent post-7 October propagandist against Israel. Over the past 9 months, among other offences, he has publicly insulted Jewish personalities on X (Twitter), including Holocaust survivor and Italian Senator Liliana Segre, and has peddled online a horrifying double-edged (one blade to slice and the other to saw) “anti-Zionist knife”!
(LEFT) The "anti-Zionist" knife, implicitly meant to threaten Jews, Israelis and supporters (Rubio on X).
(RIGHT) Rubini speaking at the Festival, with CARC host and Maisa Shams of UDAP (CARC Facebook).
Asked by the Festival’s host on “how to get rid of the Zionists”, Rubini replied: “Their first supporters are journalists, who should be instead afraid to go to work every day; they must be scared for the safety of their own children...” This threat raised an applause from those present.
Another speaker, Maisa Shams of the Arab-Palestinian Democratic Union (UDAP), glorified the 7 October massacre as an act of “resistance”, stating that “those who were killed deserved it...”
We urge the Italian authorities to take the filed complaints seriously, to investigate the antisemitic instigators and blacklisters, and to immediately close down those websites that incite and support hatred and violence.
Dr Shimon Samuels is Former Director for International Relations of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre.
Alex Uberti is Consultant and Project Manager for CSW-Europe.
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