Swastika over Naples
This time it’s different.
In my little over four months in Naples, Italy, as a PhD candidate and researcher, I’ve seen a lot of anti-Israel(i) sentiment and propaganda that’s disturbed me — sometimes I gaslight myself into thinking I’m overreacting, sometimes I know that what I’m seeing and experiencing isn’t normal.
It’s usually the reaction of a local non-Jewish Italian that gives me an indication of how bad it really is. Tragically, and dangerously, local Italian Jews seem to be numb to the endless expressions of anti-Israel hatred as this horrible war continues.
It started with some colleagues boycotting me when I arrived because I’m Israeli (with no connection to my ideas or politics; I’m also very obviously American, but that doesn’t matter to them). Then it was the artist who refused to sell me one of his pieces five minutes into our interaction unless I said the exact words: “I’m Free Palestine!” after I told him I just arrived from Jerusalem.
Then there were the signs in restaurants and cafes stating: “Zionists not welcome,” “Zionists out!” which left me carefully scanning the entrance of every place I entered to make sure I was prepared to quickly answer “the US” when asked where I’m from. Then it was the entrance of a major university building proudly declaring “Intifada fino alla vittoria” (i.e., Intifada until victory). Finally, there were the posters of colorful illustrations of Arab fighters trampling bodies of slain IDF soldiers plastered across the walls of the historical city center with text that read “Death to Colonialism Zionist Invaders.”
Ah, and how could I forget? There was also Keshet, the brave LGBTQIA Italian Jewish organization (not Israeli, nor affiliated with the State of Israel) that was ferociously protested at the annual Pride march open-mic in July for daring to appear openly and publicly with Star of David Pride flags.
For those on the right who have a knee-jerk reaction to blame Muslim or Arab immigration to Europe, I assure you it wasn’t Islamists who showed up to Napoli Pride to shout Italian Jews off the stage.
However, today, seeing the Nazi swastika hand-drawn or painted on an Israeli flag, neatly positioned over the Star of David, made me sick.
It took me a moment to absorb what I was seeing.
Someone actually took the time and effort to order an Israeli flag and carefully cover it with red drops to symbolize blood, while inking a swastika over the same religious and national Jewish symbol that the swastika sought to brutally eliminate within our grandparents’ lifetimes… with boycotts, race laws, deportations, camps, forced labor, gas chambers, firing lines, mass graves.
The same swastika that this country (the very one in which this flag is displayed in the heart of its third largest city and facing major academic and cultural institutions in the city center) allied itself with and happily followed suit in instituting its own anti-Jewish race laws to appease.
In 1938, when the race laws shook up Italian society and surprised even some of the most ardent fascists, there were nearly 50,000 Jews in Italy. Today, there are half that at most. If it weren’t for Iranian Jewish immigrants in the 1950-70s, and several influxes of Libyan Jews fleeing anti-Jewish riots in 1945, 1948 and finally in 1967, the number would be much smaller.
From 1938 onwards, non-local Jews were forced out of the country, while Italian Jews were removed from government and military posts, public schools, and universities. They were banned from practicing law and medicine, “interracial” relationships between Italians and Jews were outlawed, and Jewish organizations were closely monitored.
These laws were rationalized as protecting fascist Italy against “Jewish internationalists” and communists; against Jewish “greed” and “disloyalty.”
There was no significant popular resistance to these laws — no mass protests, strikes, or displays of solidarity. The majority of Italians didn’t blink. They accepted the reality, ate up the propaganda and turned away as Jews were once again forced behind the defensive walls of their communities.
Between September 1943 and June 1944, the Italian government and police collaborated with the Nazis to round up and deport between 7,500 and 8,000 Italian Jews. They were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Mauthausen, and Dachau.
7,680 never returned, murdered in the camps.
Italy never took accountability for this collaboration.
After the Allied invasion and occupation of Italy and finally Mussolini’s public execution, the fascists went right back into all levels of local, regional and national government after the war, as the Italian mainstream began to craft mythologies of widespread resistance and anti-Nazi activism (I’ve never met an Italian who will admit their grandparents or great-grandparents were fascists — somehow, everyone is descended from a partisan).
And so today, as if two or three generations ago, Italian Jews were not deported to concentration camps while most Italians silently stood by, outrage (some of it admittedly legitimate at this point) towards the world’s only Jewish state somehow permits — justifies, demands — the use of the old swastika.
And the worst part? From my experience, I’d wager I’m the only one who even noticed. Thousands of people pass by this same building every day or every week and likely don’t think a thing.
