That doesn't surprise me at all. There has been a regular stream of anti-Semitic statements coming from a number of sources in Italy, especially the country's right. In this, it parallels what is easily, in my view, one of the most racist environments I can remember in Italy. This sentiment parallels the attacks on immigrants, Muslims, and Afro-Italians. That there would not be anti-Semitism at such a time would, in my view, be strange.
I'm not a supporter of boycotts. I've written about it before, specifically, in my most recent book, Israel vs. Utopia, where I review the debate about imposing a boycott at Rainbow Grocery, in San Francisco, in the early '00s. My opinions are very similar to those of Doug. Nonetheless I find the discourse interesting, especially in terms of how it changes in different national contexts. In America, you have one thing. In Italy, you have several things.
The boycott advocacy in Milan, in terms of what I personally encountered, was oftentimes led by the local Palestinian immigrant community, as well as anti-capitalist activists. I didn't encounter explicit anti-Jewish sentiment in these circles either. That's not entirely surprising, as we all tended to find the local Italians the most prejudiced of anyone we knew. It's the north, Berlusconistan, as we used to joke. All par for the course.
Best, Joel
On Jul 22, 2010, at 7:35 PM, James Heartfield wrote:
> Joel writes: "Israel's largest trading partner, if I am correct, is the EU, or to be more precise, European Union member states. European boycotts of Israeli products pose a larger threat than US boycotts of Israeli products. In Italy, two national supermarket chains decided to stop carrying goods made in the settlements, in May. It was a significant victory for Italian anti-occupation activists."
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> But Italy's boycott campaign also took some unexpected turns. Giancarlo Desiderati, spokesman for the trade union Flaica-Cub, has explicitly called for a boycott of Jewish businesses in Rome. A leaflet issued by his union informed Romans that anything they purchase in Jewish-owned shops will be 'tainted by blood'. Desiderati said that his union was drawing up a list of Jewish shops, 'though it might be better to publish a list of streets in which a majority of the shops are Jewish and ask people to avoid those streets when shopping' (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5474090.ece)
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