In Italy, Antisemitism Comes at No Cost

On October 7, 2024, on the anniversary of the Nova Festival massacre, the Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano published a comic strip by its cartoonist Natangelo titled The Fairy Tale of October 7th. Little Red Riding Hood decides to go dancing at a rave, even though she had been warned of the danger. The big bad wolves are Hamas. The victims of the worst pogrom since the end of the Second World War are depicted as responsible for their own deaths. Their murderers are described as “freedom fighters.”

The cartoon is not an isolated incident. It will not be the last.

Simone Lenzi, a writer and then serving as Livorno’s Culture Councillor, posted a furious response on X. He described Il Fatto Quotidiano as a sewer and a laboratory of moral depravity. He compared the newspaper’s editorial line to that of Der Stürmer, the Nazi antisemitic propaganda sheet of the 1930s. He did not name Marco Travaglio. He criticized a newspaper and the message it chose to convey.

Travaglio sued him for aggravated defamation.

What followed is the story of how protection against antisemitism actually works in Italy.

Public Prosecutor Giovanni Porpora investigated for months. He interviewed Lenzi under questioning. He examined the defense brief submitted by lawyer Daniele Romeo, which reconstructed in detail the antisemitic content of the cartoon: the reference to the little girl in the red coat from Schindler’s List, the word “fairy tale” as a classic denialist trope, the message blaming the victims. The prosecutor concluded that no crime had been committed. Lenzi’s statements, however harsh, constituted legitimate criticism protected by law. He requested that the case be dismissed.

It was not enough.

Travaglio opposed the decision through his lawyer, Caterina Malavenda. The Preliminary Investigations Judge, Dr Nunzia Castellano, convened a closed hearing. On April 30, 2026, she issued an order requiring criminal charges to be brought: she rejected the prosecutor’s request to dismiss the case and ordered that Lenzi be tried regardless. Her reasoning: harshly criticizing a newspaper automatically damages the reputation of its editor, even without naming him. The judge held that it was enough that Lenzi could reasonably foresee the consequences of his words. Lenzi could not have failed to foresee that his statements would harm Travaglio.

A forced prosecution order is a legal instrument provided for under Article 409, paragraph 5 of the Italian Code of Criminal Procedure. It allows a judge to order a trial even when the public prosecutor has requested that the case be closed. It exists to prevent serious crimes from being buried. In this case, it is being used to prosecute someone who condemned an antisemitic cartoon published in a national newspaper.

Natangelo has not been investigated. No criminal investigation has been opened against Il Fatto Quotidiano. The cartoon is still available online.

Lenzi told Il Riformista that he now regards himself as a political prisoner. The label is provocative, but the substance of the case supports it. A citizen publicly exercised his right to criticism against content that the defense’s legal filing explicitly characterized as antisemitic. The investigating magistrate agreed with him. A judge decided he should be tried anyway.

The problem is not only legal. It is cultural. In Italy, the threshold of tolerance for antisemitic content published by major media outlets is systematically higher than that applied to those who denounce it. Natangelo’s cartoon passed through every stage of the editorial process without consequence. The outraged reactions produced one defendant. Not the author. The one who reacted.

The space within which the freedom to denounce antisemitism can be exercised in Italy comes at a precise cost. Legal, reputational, financial. It is being paid by those who fight antisemitism, not by those who publish antisemitic cartoons. In 1930s Germany, it worked the same way. Those who condemned the propaganda of Der Stürmer took the risk. Those who published it did not.