Over the course of the last two decades, the question of race has come to the forefront of Italian politics. Inspired by waves of immigration from eastern Europe, the Balkans, the Middle East and Africa, it is most frequently associated with the anti-immigrant positions of right-wing Italian political parties, such as the Northern League, one of the main parties in Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's current governing coalition. Italy's leader is of course not exempt from this discourse, having made extremely bold statements such as expressing his opposition to a "multicultural Italy," and working hard to pass legislation and enact international agreements (most recently with Libya) attempting to limit illegal immigration.

The portrait of the country that emerges from this activity is clearly not flattering. Italy is increasingly regarded as paradigmatic of anti-immigrant and racist politics in Europe. As outspoken as rightists in Italy's government might be, however, this sentiment is not neccessarily generalized. As many Italians find themselves opposed to this kind of politics as are supposed to support it. Even Gianfranco Fini, the ex-leader of the now-defunct, neo-fascist National Alliance, (now a part of Berlusconi's People of Freedom party), has been increasingly cited as being uncomfortable with the rise in ethnic chauvinism  on Italy's right. Indeed, the picture is complex, made even more so by how commonplace pro-immigration, anti-racist street art is in the country.

The following pictures, of flyers and posters in Milan, give a good example of how decidedly heated, and undetermined, Italy's debate on race remains. As an Israeli-American Jew whose background is partially Italian (my father's family originally hails from Venice), I savor the ideological contradictions that these visual artifacts communicate about my ancestral (and literal) home.

Demonstration Advert, Garibaldi Station

Flyer, Monza

Advice to Immigrants, Via Padova

"No to Racism", Piazza Loreto

His English isn’t very good, but the guy sure knows how to communicate with dogs. Whenever he sees me taking Pixel out for a walk, Antonello turns into a magnet. Within seconds, Pixel is at his feet, wagging his tail, as though he and our doorman have known each other for years.

However, get on the subject of politics, and Antonello is a completely different beast. Spying my camera the other day, he asked if he could take a look. Not realizing it was still on, I handed it to him, displaying this campaign poster. “I am Lega Nord,” he said rather nervously.

Anti-immigration poster, Milan

One of Italy’s biggest rightist parties, and a member of the present governing coalition, the Lega Nord (Northern League, in English), is well-known for its anti-immigrant platform. “What interests you about this poster?” Not knowing how to put it, I replied “I’m Jewish. The refugee ship evokes memories.”

Antonello cleared his throat. Then, after a moment’s silence, he began to speak again. “You Jews are alright,” he stated, looking me right in the eye. “You people work hard, you study, you obviously have money. But these Africans and Muslims, they’re lazy and they’re poor. The come to Italy and cause lots of problems.”

I don’t know why I expected otherwise. By the time I figured out how to formulate a proper response in Italian, Antonello was gone, headed down the hallway towards Viale Andrea Dorea. If only I’d worked a little faster, to remind him that in Italy Jews aren’t foreigners, that we’ve been here for well over 2000 years.

It was one of the most curious ommissions I'd ever read. Citing an Italian analyst's contention that Silvio Berlusconi is a "non-ideological authoritarian", a respected British news source, well-known for its dislike of the Italian leader, seemed to miss the point, at exactly the same time that Berlusconi was at his most ideological. Following ten days of media frenzy over the collapse of Berlusconi's marriage to Veronica Lario, The Economist had chosen to overlook the Prime Minister's increasingly open xenohobia in favor of focusing on his rising popularity amongst Italians. Reiterating his criticisms of multiculturalism, supporting a Milanese politician's proposal to reserve seats on public transit for "Italians only" last week, Italy's richest man is turning out to be every bit as conventional in his dispositions as one might surmise.

Nevertheless, its a forgivable error, especially for those who follow Italian politics, and can supply their own background information. In ever-greater numbers, Italy's voters are granting their controversial prime minister their support. How this could be the case, in a country in which over seven percent of the population is made up of immigrants, (and in which nearly ten percent of its GDP is created by them, as well) is subject to question. The obvious answer, of course, is that their rising visibility and importance to the country's economy is  stirring resentment at a time of decline, and the country's leadership is stirring the pot to deflect responsibility. As an editorial in the same edition of The Economist states, Italy's gross domestic product is supposed to shrink by 4.4 percent this fiscal year, and public debt will rise above 120% of Italy's GDP by 2011. If that's not a recipe for problems, little else is. And that's just scratching the surface.

"We are immigrants, not delinquents." Spanish language graffiti, Milan. Flying back to Milan from Tel Aviv last night, I was seated next to an Israeli software engineer, who told me that he thought Berlusconi's approach to Italy's "Muslim issue" was appropriate. "The Italians are faced with the same problem with Jihad as we are," he said. "One day, Europe will be dominated by these people, and something has to be done about it." Replying that my wife and I lived in a largely Arab immigrant neighborhood in the city, I argued that it was hard to see how Europe wasn't manufacturing many of these problems itself. Noting the presence of armed troops patrolling the streets here, driving camouflage Land Rovers through Arab areas in town, cradling loaded rifles in their arms, I said, "Whatever justification the security forces might feel it has to do so, at the same time its hard not to see such displays as provocative. "Bemet?" the engineer replied, in Hebrew. "They carry their weapons openly like that?"

Unsurprisingly, there is an air of familiarity to such exercises, one which Israelis know only too well. "Yes," I said in response. "The parallels are definitely there." In relaying this anecdote, I was reminded of a guy who used to frequent Old Jerusalem , my favorite Arab restaurant in San Francisco. Six foot two, with a consistently cleanly shaven head, whenever he'd put in an appearance, the fellow would inevitably waltz up to the counter and say to whoever was behind it in Hebrew with a big smile, "Nu, akol beseder?" (Everything okay here?) Not everyone who works there speaks Hebrew, with the exception of maybe one or two employees. I recall a friend remarking that this guy could "never get off patrol", even though he was "in San Francisco, not Nablus," on duty. I don't even know if the Palestinian owner of the restaurant assumed this was some kind of unconscious role replay. Mohamed was certainly accomodating enough. Besides, he'd grown up in Jordan.

Protest against inner city military deployment. Via Padova, Milan. "I love visiting Italy," said the software engineer, drawing me out of my memories. "The last time we vacationed there, we went to the Dolomites, and spent our time hiking in the mountains. You know, they speak another language up there? It sounds like a dialect of German. It makes sense, I guess. They are so close to Austria!" "Yes," I replied. "Italy is a much more linguistically diverse place than most people realize. Every morning I walk out of my apartment, I hear as much Arabic as I do Italian." Though I probably should have mentioned it at the time, I meant to tell the engineer that I hear Spanish, Tamil, and, quite frequently, Tagalog too. Indeed, the area of Milan where my wife and I now live is just about the most linguistically diverse place I've ever resided. One which, in its depth and complexity, could easily confound anyone raised on the idea that Italy is monocultural.

This is the first installment of a weekly column written from Europe

Ariel Toaff: Sloppy writer, contrite mensch, or total wuss?Today I stopped off to check out the Jew-news at JTA… and I discovered that the Blood Libel book I linked a few weeks back has been PULLED!

An interesting development, and it appears that in an unusual turn of events, this book has been pulled at the author’s request… which leads me to jump to three conclusions:

Either Ariel Toaff (the author) is an extremely sensitive man who doesn’t want to hurt anyone.

OR Toaff’s rabbi-dad asked him to pull the book for the sake of community calm.

OR Toaff had a little moment of “Oh shit! Maybe I fudged a little bit. Maybe I pushed the academic envelope a little too far…”

Which people do, you know… the academic process is so focused on building a convincing argument, it’s totally possible to lose sight of the trees while staring at a forest made of ancient texts. And if that’s the case, I forgive Toaff, especially in light of his quick willingness to pull the book instead of getting all riled up at the early response to his project. Many authors get immediately defensive when attacked.

In any case, I’ll be interested to see if the book is released in a new format.

Blood Libel: Pass the Matzah!Today the Jerusalem Post turns our attention to a new book by an Israeli Historian... a book about BLOOD LIBEL!

Blood libels against the Jews were a common form of anti-Semitism during the Middle Ages, though there is no ritual involving human blood in Jewish law or custom. Though the first recorded instance was in the writings of Apion, who claimed that the Jews sacrificed Greek victims in the Temple, there are no existent records of the blood libel against the Jews from that period until the legend surrounding William of Norwich in the 12th century, first recorded in the Peterborough Chronicle, but the libel afterward became an increasingly common accusation. In many cases, anti-Semitic blood libels served as the basis for a blood libel cult, in which the alleged victim of human sacrifice was worshipped as a Christian martyr, but the claim has pre-Christian origins. Many Jews were killed as a result of false blood libels, which continued into the 20th century, with the Beilis Trial in Russia and the Kielce pogrom in Poland, and the persistence of blood libel stories in the Arab world.

But most of you already knew that, and blood libel is old news (although there are still cases today).  So why is this new news? 

Because Ariel Toaff's book, Bloody Passovers: The Jews of Europe and Ritual Murders, suggests something crazy.  It claims that some super-fundamentalist Jews actually DID carry out human sacrifices!!!  No shit! 

Toaff refers to kabbalistic descriptions of the therapeutic uses of blood and asserts that "a black market flourished on both sides of the Alps, with Jewish merchants selling human blood, complete with rabbinic certification of the product - kosher blood.

Yow-zA!

Of course, however horrible this is, it creates an obvious need for some serious Jewish vampire literature.  Anyone want to co-write a Hassidic goth-thriller with me?

Berlusconi: Publicly bitch slapped by his wife. Ouch.I don’t know if you guys have been following the whole scandal involving Israeli President Moshe Katsav, but it’s getting pretty hard to ignore. Apparently he’s been ordered to leave the Presidential residence, and forty Knesset members are trying to get impeachment proceedings started on the grounds that he forcibly undressed and assaulted women who worked for him.

Looks like he won’t be lonely in jail, because former Israeli Justice Minister, Haim Ramon, is being charged with kissing a young soldier against her will. The trials for both cases probably won’t be for awhile, but it’s pretty sad to see that the guy whose job it is to make nice and look pretty can’t keep his hands off his secretaries. And the guy who’s supposed to be a moral authority kisses young girls at random. So gross.

Sometimes I wish I lived in Italy, because in Italy, if you’re Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and you make inappropriate comments about other women around your wife, she bitches you out in a open letter published on the front page of a major daily newspaper.

Moshe Katsav: Is it me, or is he looking down that woman's shirt?A little except from the Washington Post article linked above: "In an act of venting pent-up exasperation, Berlusconi's wife, Veronica Lario, took him to task in a letter on the front page of a major daily newspaper for openly ogling and commenting on starlets, and demanded a public apology for the 'damage to my dignity.'" Several hours later, she got one.

"Dear Veronica, here is my apology," wrote Berlusconi, 70, a man not easily humbled, blaming on pride his earlier failure to ask forgiveness. "I was reluctant in private, because I am playful but also proud. Challenged in public, the temptation to give in is strong. And I can't resist."

Lario, 50, a former actress, was objecting specifically to remarks the flamboyant media tycoon reportedly made to female admirers last week as he greeted a showbiz crowd at an Italian television awards ceremony. The remarks were, as quoted in her letter: "I'd follow you anywhere" and "If I weren't already married, I'd marry you.""

It’s funny to me that Lario seems to have bigger balls than Berlusconi. Mostly I just think it’s awesome. It wouldn’t work in the case of any of the women bringing charges against Katsav or Ramon, but it’s still a great strategy. You want to objectify me? Won’t be so fun when I splash on the front page of the Post, asshole!