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| Rome Jews to sue leftist union |
| Boycott of Israeli goods seen as instigating racial hatred |
(ANSA) - Rome, January 9 - The Rome Jewish Community
announced on Friday that it intended to sue a far left trade
union over its call for a boycott of Israeli goods.
The president of the capital's Jewish community, Renzo
Pacifici, said the Flaica CUB union would be cited for
violation of the so-called Mancino Law against instigation of
racial hatred.
Pacifici made his announcement after a meeting with Piero
Marrazzo, president of the region of Lazio of which Rome is
capital; the head of the union of Italian Jewish Communities
(UCEI), Renzo Gattegna; and Rome's chief rabbi Riccardo Di
Segni.
Marrazzo, a member of the center-left Democratic party,
agreed that action should be taken against the union while
Gattegna branded the boycott initiative as ''a mad attempt at
discrimination'' and stressed that even Italy's leading trade
unions - CGIL, CISL and UIL - had condemned the move...>>>
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Rome ,Jews to sue leftist union
| Rome Jews to sue leftist union |
| Boycott of Israeli goods seen as instigating racial hatred |
(ANSA) - Rome, January 9 - The Rome Jewish Community
announced on Friday that it intended to sue a far left trade
union over its call for a boycott of Israeli goods.
The president of the capital's Jewish community, Renzo
Pacifici, said the Flaica CUB union would be cited for
violation of the so-called Mancino Law against instigation of
racial hatred.
Pacifici made his announcement after a meeting with Piero
Marrazzo, president of the region of Lazio of which Rome is
capital; the head of the union of Italian Jewish Communities
(UCEI), Renzo Gattegna; and Rome's chief rabbi Riccardo Di
Segni.
Marrazzo, a member of the center-left Democratic party,
agreed that action should be taken against the union while
Gattegna branded the boycott initiative as ''a mad attempt at
discrimination'' and stressed that even Italy's leading trade
unions - CGIL, CISL and UIL - had condemned the move.
The leftist union, which represents workers in Rome's
retail services and food sector, has denied that it called
for a boycott of Jewish retailers and claims that it's
initiative was only aimed at products made in Israel.
The union justified the boycott by saying it was a means
to deny Israel funds to buy more weapons to be used against
the Palestinians.
According to the union, it has become the target of a
media lynching campaign in order to draw attention away from
the plight of Palestinians in Gaza.
The boycott has also been criticised by the daily of the
Italian Bishops Conference (CEI), Avvenire, which wrote on
Friday that ''while one can be critical of a military action,
one cannot penalise someone just because they adhere to a
certain faith or community''.
Defining the boycott as a protest against Israel, the
bishops' daily observed, ''reflects a grave prejudice which
is the basis of all anti-Semitic actions''.
The proposed consumer boycott for the beginning sparked
outrage among politicians on both the right and left in the
Italian capital who saw it as targeting the city's Jewish
community.
The boycott proposal has already been firmly condemned by
Rome's right-wing Mayor Gianni Alemanno who said that ''the
people who came up with this horrible idea are not new to
such initiatives, which are a throwback to similar ones in
the mid-1930s which set the stage for (Fascist) Italy's
(anti-Jewish) racial laws''.
Alemanno underscored his backing for the Jewish community
on Thursday when went with Pacifici to shop at Jewish stores
in central Rome.
The mayor's support of the city's Jewish community
sparked protests by elements on the far right which on Friday
hung several makeshift banners in Rome which called the
one-time neofascist youth leader as a ''Zionist butcher''.
The banners also attacked Pacifici and called for
''victory for Hamas,'' the Islamist movement Israel has
mounted an offensive against in the Gaza Strip, which has now
entered its third week. |
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Evvidia News 09 Jan 2009 21.21.58 in News World
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