Boycott initiatives against Israel by Western progressives are no novelty. Italy’s leftist intelligentsia is no different in this respect. From open endorsements of the ‘selfie yacht’ mission to ‘break the siege of Gaza’ to calls for the rejection of Israel-produced medicines, and the campaign to exclude two actors from the Venice Film Festival for their support of Israel in its war against Hamas, the instances of virtue-signalling are almost endless. But what a Palermo university professor did earlier this week took the anti-Israel activism to the next level.
“Let’s start making our Jewish friends feel alone; let’s unfriend them on Facebook,” Luca Nivarra, professor of law at the at the University of Palermo proposed.
Nivarra’s shocking post on Facebook literally referenced a “Palestinian Holocaust,” telling his followers that the gesture of removing their Jewish friends from among their followers could be “a signal, however modest,” and stressed the unfriending should include all Jewish acquaintances, “even the ‘good ones’ who declare themselves disgusted by what the Israeli government and the IDF are doing.”
Nivarra, who by the way in 2017 was arrested by the Guardia di Finanza, the Italian law enforcement authority dealing with financial crime, on charges of embezzlement and forgery according to Corriere della Sera, also said in his diatribe on social media that “they,” supposedly all (Italian) Jews, “lie, and with their lies, they help cover up the horror: it’s a small, tiny thing, but we’re starting to make them feel alone, face to face with the monstrosity to which they are complicit.”
The rector of Palermo University, Massimo Midari, immediately distanced himself from Nivarra, stating that “His proposal risks fuelling the very dynamics he claims to want to counter. On complex issues such as the conflict in the Middle East, the path forward must be one of dialogue and critical debate, not isolation and what approaches ideological censorship.”
But the university has in fact been wishy-washy over the Israel-Hamas war, adopting the stance of condemning ‘both sides,’ with the University’s Senate and Board of Directors approving several motions on the conflict in Palestine, “condemning both the brutal and senseless attack by Hamas on October 7th and Israel’s subsequent military action in Gaza.”
Midari did add, however, that “Nivarra’s appeal” is far from the university’s principles, stating that it is “a dangerous initiative.”
Italian minister in charge of higher education, Anna Maria Bernini said the rector’s statement is a “clear and necessary distancing from unacceptable statements.” Bernini nailed down that the professor’s statements offend “not only the Jewish people but all those who recognize the values of respect and civil coexistence.”
Of course, as all terrorism apologists on the Left, Nivarra has since also claimed his post was not antisemitic, arguing, again, typically for progressives, that criticizing “Israelis”cannot be equated with antisemitism. And, as an ultimate argument, the professor even cited to Corriere della Sera his membership in the (since mercifully defunct) Italian Communist Party “since the 1970’s” as proof that he cannot be an antisemite…
The anti-Israel convictions of the law professor should not come as a surprise to anyone even vaguely familiar with the nature of the Italian Left. The progressives in Dante’s country have shamefully and unequivocally sided with the ayatollahs in Israel’s existential war with Iran, and leftist activists went as far as to attempt to intimidate conservative outlets unwilling to condemn the ‘genocide’ in Gaza.
One Response
Luca Nivarra is a disgraceful person. We in the West have only two options: support Israel and Western civilization; or support the barbarian islamization of the world. At all costs, the political ideology of islam must be destroyed.