Italian authorities have been quick to intervene against ISIS supporters, but things seem to be different when the issue concerns Hamas.
(September 6, 2024 / JNS)
On Sept. 3, the Young Palestinians of Italy association (Giovani Palestinesi d’Italia) published a post on Instagram announcing a demonstration in Rome, planned for Oct. 5, to celebrate the Oct. 7 massacre.
“October 7, 2023, is the date of a revolution. After a year, the value of the Palestinian resistance operation and the battle of the ‘Al Aqsa Flood’ is clear to the whole world.
“On October 5, 2024, we will take to the streets of Rome for a national demonstration, to support the Palestinian people and their national liberation movement, to honor the over forty thousand martyrs of Gaza and its fighters who have been fighting relentlessly for a year, to honor all of Palestine that resists and rises up against the invader and his colonial state.”
This announcement was published two days after the news of the slaughter of six hostages in Gaza—five Israelis and an Israeli-American: Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Ori Danino, 25, Alex Lobanov, 32, Carmel Gat, 40, and Almog Sarusi, 27.
They were all murdered in cold blood, shot at close range by Hamas terrorists who then escaped as the IDF was approaching. Terrorists like the ones Young Palestinians praised in its post.
The Oct. 7 massacre was the worst pogrom perpetrated against Jews since the Shoah, but the Young Palestinians prefer to call it a “resistance operation.” They aim to “honor the fighters,” terrorists who kidnapped, murdered, mutilated, raped and even filmed everything in some cases.
A few days earlier, that same Instagram account published another post glorifying Muhhamad Jaber, aka Abu Shujaa, founder and commander of the Tulkarem Battalion of the Fatah-linked al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terrorist organization, and recently killed by the IDF.
On the evening of Sept. 3, harsh reactions were posted on X by MPs of both the Italian political majority and the opposition such as Giulio Terzi and Giovanni Donzelli of the Brothers of Italy party, and Ivan Scalfarotto and Luciano Nobili of Italia Viva.
How did Italy get to this point? The Young Palestinians have been demonstrating almost every week since October, side by side with far-left groups and with the Association of Palestinians in Italy. Three days after the Oct. 7 massacre, the leader of the Association of Palestinians in Italy, Mohammad Hannoun, defined the massacre perpetrated by Hamas as “self-defense.” The statement was made in an interview with the Italian state channel Rai 3.
In January 2024, Hannoun used his personal Facebook account to glorify Hamas bombmaker Yahya Ayyash, aka “The Engineer,” and Saleh al-Arouri, a senior Hamas leader in Lebanon whom Israel killed in Beirut in a drone strike on Jan. 2, 2024.
On March 30, 2024, during a pro-Palestinian demonstration outside Milan’s Central Station, Hannoun, microphone in hand, concluded his speech by inciting to turn all Israeli embassies into centers for Palestinian “resistance.”
Another important case involves a Bologna-based Pakistani preacher, Zulfiqar Khan, who used the pulpit of his mosque and his Facebook accounts to glorify Hamas, and took part in an Italian mainstream TV show making antisemite statements. In July, Italian MPs Sara Kelany and Marco Lisei from the ruling party Brothers of Italy presented an inquiry to the interior minister, Matteo Piantedosi, asking for explanations regarding Khan’s activity.
Hamas is blacklisted as a terrorist organization by the European Union, just like ISIS. Through the years, the Italian authorities have been quick to intervene against ISIS supporters, but things seem to be different when the issue concerns Hamas.
Hannoun is still preaching, Khan’s Facebook pages are still active and, unlike other Islamist supporters who have been deported for much less, he hasn’t. The reasons for all this are unknown, but the message perceived is that the local authorities have tolerance towards this type of narrative and the Palestinian cause.
Therefore, we cannot be surprised if the Young Palestinians have no qualms about organizing an event in Italy to celebrate Oct. 7.
On Aug. 22, an Italian far-left group called the New Communist Party published a blacklist of Jews and non-Jewish “Zionists” that includes many people from the academic, political and media arena, as well as entrepreneurs. A case that sadly recalls the darkest years of the early 20 century.
The list received the support of the Arab-Palestinian Democratic Union branch active in Italy; on Aug. 4, at a public event in Tuscany, one of its main activists, an Arab woman from Nazareth known as “Maisa,” defined the Oct. 7 massacre as “a day that we claim with our heads held high.”
Something in Italy is not working as it should. This is not free speech; this is an apology for terrorism.
This article was originally posted n JNS: https://www.jns.org/the-young-palestinians-of-italy-to-celebrate-oct-7-in-rome/
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