Posted on 11/24/2003 10:09:50 AM PST by knighthawk
Touring Israel's Holocaust memorial, Italian Deputy Premier Gianfranco Fini on Monday condemned his country's fascist past and said lessons must be learned to deal with racism and anti-Semitism today.
The Yad Vashem Memorial was the first stop on Fini's two-day official visit, meant to expunge his own neofascist past, including a show of admiration for Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.
Wearing a purple skullcap and a pin of the Italian and Israeli flags, Fini rekindled a memorial flame at the museum erected in memory of the six million Jews killed in the Nazi genocide during World War II.
Speaking under a rainy sky outside the museum, Fini said: "We have to condemn the shameful chapters in the history of our people and to try to understand why complacency, collaboration and fear caused no reaction from many Italians in 1938 to the disgraceful, fascist race laws."
"We have to do this not only to settle accounts with the past, but to prepare for the future. We have to do this so it is clear to all today, in 2003, with the racism and anti-Semitism, so no one can say `I am not connected, it has nothing to do with me, it is not my place to respond,'" he said.
Fini's National Alliance party - the second-biggest in Premier Silvio Berlusconi's ruling coalition - is the successor of a party founded on the ashes of Mussolini's Fascist dictatorship. In 1994, Fini called Mussolini the "greatest statesman" of the 20th century, but last year he retracted the statement.
In recent years, Fini has been trying to clear his name and moderate the image of his National Alliance Party.
He toured the Auschwitz death camp in 1999 and has tried for years to visit Israel. Leaders of the Jewish state initially ignored Fini's overtures but, persuaded recently that he is sincere, decided to embrace him during his visit.
The Berlusconi government has emerged as one of the most friendly to Israel - and to the Bush administration - on the continent. Fini is touted as a possible contender for the premiership.
Yossi Sarid of Israel's dovish Meretz Party, writing in the Haaretz daily, called Fini a "fascist creep." Sarid said he would not attend a visit by Fini to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday.
"He should say very explicitly to his supporters that Mussolini is not someone who should be admired," Sarid told The Associated Press. "On the contrary, he is the best example of those who should be detested."
Fini also met with Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and was to hold talks with President Moshe Katsav later in his stay.
Israel is concerned about what it says is rising anti-Semitism in Europe, citing attacks on Jews, Jewish interests and a recent poll that shows that most Europeans believe Israel is the greatest threat to world peace.
Sharon told the EUpolitix.com Web site this week that European anti-Semitism was not new, but was being "re-aroused" to "compromise Israel's right to self-defense, thus there is a danger to Jews."
"These days, to conduct an anti-Semite policy is not a popular thing, so the anti-Semites bundle their policies in with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," he added.
Sharon's hard-line policies toward the Palestinians have come under criticism from some in Europe, and his popularity at home has fallen in part because of the failure to resolve the conflict with the Palestinians and stop militant violence.
Fini told the Israeli daily Haaretz last year that Italians must accept responsibility for crimes under Mussolini, including the deportation of Jews to concentration camps. About 7,000 Jews were deported from Italy during World War II, 5,910 of whom were killed.
Mussolini was also responsible for anti-Semitic laws in Italy that expelled Jews from government and university jobs and the military, and restricted their work, schooling and right to own property.
Last week, Fini dismissed a National Alliance party member who had circulated a video praising a convicted Nazi war criminal.
Haaretz on Monday quoted Alessandra Mussolini, a granddaughter of the Italian dictator, as saying the world remains indebted to Jews.
"Not only Fini, but the entire world, including the Vatican and the pope, should beg forgiveness of Israel," Alessandra Mussolini told Haaretz in an interview.
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