Netanyahu’s Roman holiday turns sour as Italian Jewish community makes him unwelcome

Israel’s Prime Minister sought a safe space for a luxury weekend. He was slammed in synagogue, minimised by PM Giorgia Meloni and came home empty-handed, apart from the shopping.

The Rome Jewish community, which is predominantly conservative and supportive of Israel’s right-wing governments, initially gave Netanyahu a warm welcome. Its president, Ruth Dureghello, said Diaspora Jews “do not have the privilege to express dissent” toward Israel.

She called on the Italian government to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, echoing Netanyahu’s pre-trip interview with La Repubblica, the traditionally progressive Rome-based Italian newspaper currently run by a conservative Jewish editor with sympathies for the Likud.

But when Noemi Di Segni, the Italian-Israeli president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, representing 21 communities across the country, took the floor, the atmosphere in the synagogue turned sour.

Alluding to settler violence in Huwara on February 26, she said: "The spreading of hatred against one's neighbours - be they secular, leftists, Arab Israelis or Palestinians [and]… The behaviour of those who incite violence against [them] cannot be described as proudly Jewish or Israeli.”

The following day, Israeli ex-pats in Italy staged a demonstration in central Rome against Netanyahu. Although just short of the 300 organisers expected, it raised awareness among weekend shoppers and was widely reported in local media.

People chanted, “While the country is on fire, Sara is having her hair done,” an allusion to the ”close encounter” between Netanyahu’s wife and protestors outside her Tel Aviv hair salon, along with cries of "Democracy," "Bibi resign" and "Shame!"