Posted on 07/18/2002 2:26:05 PM PDT by knighthawk
ROME (AP) — Dozens of Jewish graves were desecrated in a nighttime rampage through a Rome cemetery in Italy's latest display of anti-Semitism, prompting condemnation Thursday from politicians and Jewish leaders.
The culprits smashed parts of headstones, ripped off marble Star of David decorations and tore off parts of gravestones bearing Hebrew writing in the Jewish section of the Verano cemetery. At least one coffin was partially ripped open.
In all, 34 graves were damaged. The desecration, which happened after the cemetery closed Wednesday, was discovered Thursday by a visitor.
The vandalism, Deputy Premier Gianfranco Fini said, ``is an infamy that provokes horror and offends the consciences of all.''
Fini added that the desecration ``unfortunately shows that our society isn't immune from the risk of new and odious forms of anti-Semitism.'' The new anti-Semitism, he said, is ``often masked by a violent criminalization of Israel.''
A wave of anti-Jewish violence has swept much of Europe in the last few months. Firebombs have been hurled at synagogues and Jewish schools in France, and Orthodox Jews have been assaulted on the streets of London. Other countries reporting anti-Semitic violence have included Belgium, Germany, Russia and Ukraine.
``We are now in a situation of tension,'' Rome's chief rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni, told Associated Press Television News. He called the desecration a ``deep wound, a great offense, but this offense is made to the sensitivity of all citizens of Rome.''
In a statement, a spokesman for Milan's Jewish community, Yasha Reibman, said that ``in Italy and in Europe, a new, political anti-Semitism is growing, which uses as an alibi all that's happening in Israel.''
The surge in anti-Semitic attacks in Europe began when the Palestinian uprising broke out in September 2000 and was renewed this spring after Israel launched a military offensive in the West Bank.
I wonder when Jews are going to realize that neofascists like Fini are on their side, and that their enemies are the leftists who are unable to condemn the Islamofascists.
The old "I'm not anti-semitic, just anti-Zionist.
I read this to mean that "a violent criminalization of Israel" is being used to "mask" anti-Semitism which is an age-old ploy.
And , yes, the hard left is defining Israel as criminal which gives the anti-Semitic crowd cover.
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