Antisemitic poster in Italian media: 'Takes me back to dark days'
A poster inciting against an Italian RAI broadcaster was hung at a radio station in Rome, protesting the coverage of the terror attack in Samaria where two IDF officers were murdered. The network's CEO condemned the act, comparing it to the darkest days in the country's history. Police have opened an investigation.
An antisemitic poster was hung yesterday, Wednesday, morning on the bulletin board of a public radio station in Italy, depicting a predator baring its teeth, wearing a kippah and sidelocks, dressed in hiking gear and holding walking sticks, with a network microphone in front of it. The poster was hung as a 'critique' of the network's Jerusalem correspondent's coverage of the terror attack that took place in Samaria last week.
The event that led to the poster was the terror attack last Friday near the village of Tel in Samaria, in which Sergeant Major (res.) Benyahu Malet and Major Yuval Ezra, of blessed memory, were murdered. In his reports on the incident, the network's correspondent, Giovan Battista Brunori, used the term 'hikers' (מטיילים), similar to the language used by the IDF and Israeli media, which sparked criticism from left-wing elements in Italy.
The poster was hung on the bulletin board of Radio 1 at the RAI broadcasting complex in Rome, and is signed by two pro-Palestinian groups. At the bottom, it is written in large letters 'L'escurSIONISTA', a play on words combining the Italian word for 'hiker' with the word 'Zionist'.
The CEO of the broadcasting network, Giampaolo Rossi, strongly condemned the poster and said it was a 'very serious incident, which follows days of biased controversy and threats' against Brunori. According to him, the poster 'extracts images from the worst antisemitic propaganda of the past', and its hanging in the network's offices 'recalls methods of intimidation and isolation of journalists that take us back to the darkest days in the history of our country'.
«The poster extracts images from the worst antisemitic propaganda of the past», — stated Giampaolo Rossi.
The radio station manager reported it to the police, who arrived at the scene and opened an investigation, in parallel with an internal review being conducted by the network.
The president of the Jewish community in Milan, Walker Magnaghi, demanded 'an immediate and thorough investigation by the judiciary to locate and punish those responsible for this heinous act'. The Union of Jewish Communities in Italy stated that 'once again, a sick ideology is being poured onto the media in the name of an ideological litmus test', while the network's journalists' union defined the poster as a 'worrying warning sign' for Brunori's safety and demanded that his protection measures be increased.
