Around 15 percent of Italians consider physical attacks on Jewish people “entirely or fairly justifiable,” according to a survey published on Tuesday, as protests against Israel’s offensive in Gaza continue across the country.
Some 18% of those interviewed also believe antisemitic graffiti on walls and other public spaces is legitimate, according to the survey, conducted on September 24-26 by the pollster SWG among a national sample of 800 adults.
Roughly a fifth of respondents said it was reasonable to attack professors who expressed pro-Israeli positions or for businesses to reject Israeli customers, after some episodes were reported by Italian media.
Israel has long complained of growing antisemitism in European cities, in the Western press and social media, and in elite US universities.
Italy, scarred by 1938 antisemitic statutes under fascism, has laws punishing racial discrimination and hate crimes. The SWG poll showed that 85% of respondents believe attacking Jews is “not very or not at all justifiable.”
Last week, protesters in Milan and other Italian cities clashed with police, while dockworkers blocked some ports in solidarity with Palestinians, saying they wanted to stop Italy from being used as a staging post for weapons bound for Israel.
The SWG poll, however, said a majority of Italians disapproved of the clashes with police and also the attempt to shut the ports.
The demonstrators want the right-wing government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to pressure Israel to halt its military campaign against the Palestinian terror group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The war started when Hamas led a devastating invasion of southern Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw terrorists abduct 251 people as hostages to Gaza.
Meloni’s government has been a steadfast supporter of Israel and refused this month to follow other G7 nations such as Britain, Canada, and France in recognizing Palestinian statehood.
Rome says recognition should come only after all Israeli hostages are freed and Hamas is excluded from any future government role. There are 48 hostages still in captivity, 20 of them believed still alive.
Last week, addressing the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused countries that have recognized Palestinian statehood of sending a message that “murdering Jews pays off,” a reference to the November 7 attack.
The SWG poll also found that a majority of those interviewed backed an international aid flotilla mission seeking to deliver supplies to Gaza. It includes Italian activists and lawmakers. Israel has vowed to stop the flotilla from reaching Gaza.
Italy’s foreign minister has proposed that the flotilla take the aid to Cyprus for eventual distribution in Gaza by the Roman Catholic Church. The flotilla rejected the suggestion, though Israel had backed the idea.
Antisemitism around the world has spiked since the start of the war.
A poll published earlier this month found that more than one in five British adults now hold entrenched antisemitic views, while an Anti-Defamation League survey in July showed that a quarter of people in the US believe that the recent string of attacks on Jews in the country was “understandable.”
A broader ADL survey published in January found that nearly half of all adults worldwide hold significant antisemitic views.