Defaced mural of Oct. 7 survivor another example of rising antisemitism in Italy

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MILAN (AP) — The vandalism Monday of a mural depicting a survivor of last year’s Oct. 7 Hamas attacks that killed some 1,200 people in Israel, is an example of rising antisemitism in Italy over the last year, according to the Antisemitism Observatory in Milan.

Incidence of antisemitism has increased to about 80 or 90 a week in the last year, from about 30 a week before, said Stefano Gatti, a researcher at the observatory. He called the increase “overpowering.”

“While before October 7, the incidents were mostly on internet websites, now they consist of acts in the real world,’’ he said. “Antisemitism has also become more socially acceptable.”

It includes graffiti, insults, acts of intimidation and aggression that so far have not translated into cases of bodily harm. He cited one incident during which a rabbi was followed in the port city of Genoa by someone brandishing a screwdriver, and another incident when a restaurant owner casually told a pair of diners he did not realize were Jewish that Hitler was right for seeking to wipe out Europe’s Jews.

“We have not seen a situation like this since 1945,” Gatti said, citing the end of World War II and the Nazi Holocaust that killed 6 million European Jews. “Not even in 1982,” during Lebanon’s war when Israel invaded southern Lebanon. He said local mayors and university officials have not been clear in their condemnation of such events, “which has helped the phenomenon grow.”

The mural vandalized on Monday, “October 7th, Escape” by AleXsandro Palombo, depicted Vlada Patapov escaping the Hamas attack. Vandals erased the figure’s head and legs from the mural near Milan’s state university.

Palombo said in a statement that whoever “decapitated” the image “is not fighting for the liberation of Palestine. These extremist movements that are increasingly radicalizing our society have the sole purpose of defending terrorist belief in our Western democracy.”

The artist said that images of the Hamas massacre “have been removed from the collective memory too soon, and instead need to be circulated more until they are imprinted and become a warning against the threat of Islamist terrorism and religious fundamentalism.”