Segre urges antisemitism bill OK tweaked to exempt some criticism of Israel

Segre urges antisemitism bill OK tweaked to exempt some criticism of Israel

(ANSA) - ROME, 28 SET - Holocaust survivor and Life Senator Liliana Segre on Monday called for the unanimous approval of a bill against anti-semitism if it is amended so that not all criticism of Israel is automatically deemed anti-semitic. The 96-year-old survivor of Auschwitz said this would enable the opposition, centre-left Democratic Party to reverse its opposition to the bill. "It is essential to pass the antisemitism bill unanimously," she said in a statement to ANSA, explaining that if necessary, "it would be appropriate to be open" to a "non-essential amendment" to the text. This amendment would clarify that criticism of the State of Israel—like that of any other country—is permissible and should not automatically be deemed antisemitic. "I am making a renewed, heartfelt appeal to all parties," the senator-for-life stressed, "to make a further effort of generosity and responsibility, setting aside political maneuvering and focusing on the higher interest of the country. "They must recognize that a rift over such a sensitive issue would damage Italy's image and contribute to fuelling a climate of intolerance and the spread of hatred." Antisemitic hate crimes are on the rise in Italy. The president of the Left for Italy group and former PD MP Emanuele Fiano, a critic of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said in a newspaper editorial Monday that he was ready to leave the PD unless it reverses its stance on the bill. "Do not accuse me of playing the victim, for you are barking up the wrong tree. At stake is the spirit of a collective political choice and, for me, the future of a modern Left—one capable of countering the advance of backward-looking nationalisms with something other than a Left that merely echoes the rhetoric of decades past," wrote Fiano in his op-ed for Il Foglio. "The Democratic Party," he adds, "has decided to vote against the bill on antisemitism, which was passed by the Senate and is now under review by the Chamber of Deputies. "If that decision stands, it will represent an impassable boundary for me. "I have asked my party—at both local and national levels—to promote initiatives, meetings, and studies regarding what was unfolding. Silence. "The news," Fiano continued, "reaches me at Birkenau. I am here for the assembly of the International Auschwitz Committee—on whose executive board I serve—and, together with a representative of the German Roma community, I am looking at the site where the 'Zigeunerlager' once stood—the sector where Roma and Sinti people were imprisoned. "I tell him about my father, who remembered the night of August 2-3, 1944, when thousands of Sinti and Roma were gassed and then incinerated, and that sector of the camp was completely and permanently emptied. "I do not accept," the former Democratic Party MP adds, "that the fight against antisemitism is portrayed as an obstacle to criticizing the Netanyahu government, the Israeli army, or settler violence. Such criticism is legitimate and necessary. "In 2017," he continued, "(PD leader) Elly Schlein signed a draft resolution against antisemitism submitted on behalf of the Socialists and Democrats group (in the European Parliament), of which the PD was a member. "One can certainly change one's mind, but in politics, one ought to explain *why* one is changing one's position if the circumstances haven't changed; otherwise, there is a risk of losing one's identity. "I would like an Italian magistrate," he adds, "to tell me exactly what would happen once the law is passed. Does the law define specific offenses? Does it prescribe penalties? My concern is that the Left should not leave the task of responding to antisemitism to the Right," Fiano concluded. (ANSA). Read article...