Italian authorities have shut down an anonymous online initiative that sought to collect information on the whereabouts of Israeli tourists and Italian Jews, a move that has drawn sharp criticism from government officials and Jewish leaders who likened it to historical persecution.
The online questionnaire, which was circulated on social media and messaging platforms, aimed to "map Zionist tourism," property acquisitions, and what it described as "Zionist neo-colonization" within Italy. It prompted users to report sightings of individuals identified as Jewish, Israeli, or connected to Zionism in hotels, rental properties, and public spaces.
Walker Meghnagi, president of the Jewish Community of Milan, expressed his dismay, stating, "I think we’re going back to the 1930s, to hunting Jews." He warned that the collection and dissemination of such information could incite extremists to target Jewish and Israeli individuals.
Italian Senate President Ignazio La Russa condemned the initiative as an "aberrant" violation of fundamental human rights and constitutional principles. "No form of cataloguing of persons on the basis of their religious belief or their connection with Israel is acceptable or justifiable. Behind all this lies a profound anti-Semitism that must be unanimously, firmly, and determinedly rejected," La Russa said in a statement, emphasizing the need to reject such actions that evoke past atrocities and expressing solidarity with the Jewish community.
The form was deactivated after intervention from Gen. Pasquale Angelosanto, Italy's national coordinator for the fight against antisemitism, according to reports from Italian and Israeli media.
The questionnaire indicated that the collected data would be shared with the Global Sumud Movement, an activist network associated with flotilla efforts aimed at reaching the Gaza Strip. The stated intention was to use the information for coordinating unspecified "initiatives."
However, the Global Sumud Movement has denied commissioning the form or having prior knowledge of it before the controversy emerged. A spokesperson told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, "Zionism is one of the issues we work on, but we do not hunt Jews, and we know nothing about this questionnaire. We did not commission it and had not even seen it before it was taken offline."
The organization stated it learned about the questionnaire through media reports and reserved the right to pursue further actions, including issuing a formal statement.
Alessandro Morelli, an Italian deputy secretary of state, described the form as "abhorrent" and called for the perpetrators to be held accountable. The closure of the online effort came as demonstrations related to the Gaza Flotilla have taken place in Milan.