Police in Turin, Italy, are investigating a high school teacher who threatened in a Facebook post to massacre Jews and go “target shooting” against African immigrants.
Police searched the home of Renato Pallavidini on Jan. 6 and seized computers, a flash drive and CDs. He could be charged with racial hatred. Five years ago, Pallavidini was penalized for Holocaust denial.
The Italian media reported that on Dec. 29, Pallavidini posted a picture of Hitler and Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini shaking hands, with a post reading, “Warning to dirty bastard Jews who control us from the land of s—- and fags called California. If you remove this picture, I will go to the synagogue very near to my house, with my pistol, and gun down some parasite Jews.”
He also reportedly published a post on Dec. 23 asking who would join him in “target shooting” against African immigrant street vendors near his home.
It was the latest in a series of anti-Semitic and racist incidents in Italy over the past two months, ranging from the murder of immigrant vendors in Florence to a cyber attack on a Italian Jewish community’s Facebook page.
“This is the umpteenth case in recent weeks of a resurgence of anti-Semitism, and more generally speaking, intolerance, in Italian society, that in particular takes advantage of the Web and blogs to disseminate messages of hate,” wrote Giacomo Kahn, editor of the Jewish monthly Shalom. — jta