A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, Oct. 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco

Amid a worsening climate of anti-Israel hostility and rising antisemitism across Italy, Jews and Israelis are increasingly finding themselves targeted in public spaces, with a wave of recent incidents underscoring growing concerns over their safety and freedom.

In one of the latest episodes in northern Italy, a group of Israeli tourists on vacation were subjected to an alleged barrage of antisemitic abuse before being expelled from a restaurant in Limone sul Garda, a town on the western shore of Lake Garda.

According to one member of the group, who recounted their experience in a Facebook group for travelers in northern Italy, the friends were dining at a local spot, Jacky’s restaurant, when a waiter launched into an antisemitic tirade after they asked for the Wi-Fi password.

“You are animals. You are child murderers,” one of the waiters reportedly told the group.

The restaurant owners not only failed to intervene but also called police on the Israeli group as the confrontation unfolded. However, the Israelis said the officers instead apologized to them, acknowledging what had happened before the group left the restaurant.

In another disturbing incident, a 60-year-old rabbi was brutally attacked in Milan on Wednesday while waiting for a bus in the city’s western neighborhood of Bande Nere by three men who have since been arrested.

According to local media reports, the three men — reportedly of Arab origin — physically attacked the rabbi after recognizing him at a bus stop, kicking and punching him before ripping off his hat, stomping on him, and spitting on him.

Shortly after the assault, the rabbi filed a complaint with police but did not seek medical attention.

Local police later arrested the three alleged attackers at a nearby subway station, bringing the immediate confrontation to an end as authorities continued investigating the assault.

Walker Meghnagi, president of the Jewish Community of Milan, denounced the attack, warning that its brutality reflected the growing concerns facing the city’s Jewish community.

“Something so violent has never happened before. I’m ashamed of what’s happening,” Meghnagi told the local newspaper Adnkronos. “Now it’s easy to say those three men were arrested by the police, but how long can they stay out there to make sure these things don’t happen again?”

Like most countries across Europe and the broader Western world, Italy has seen a rise in antisemitic incidents over the last three years, in the wake of the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Across the country, Jewish individuals have been facing a surge in hostility and targeted attacks, including vandalism of murals and businesses, as well as physical assaults. Community leaders have warned that such incidents are becoming more frequent amid tensions related to the war in Gaza.

Earlier this year, the Milan-based CDEC Foundation (Center of Contemporary Jewish Documentation) confirmed that antisemitic incidents in Italy almost reached four digits for the first time last year, spiking to record levels.

Of 1,492 reports submitted through official monitoring channels, the CDEC formally classified a record high 963 cases as antisemitic.

By comparison, there were 877 recorded incidents in 2024, preceded by 453 such outrages in 2023 and just 241 in 2022.

In a recent string of incidents, an unknown group of individuals distributed hundreds of pamphlets across Italy urging citizens to report the presence, tourism, and businesses of “Israelis and Zionists” in the country, prompting sharp condemnation from Italian political figures and Jewish community leaders.

According to local reports, the pamphlets appealed to members of the public to cooperate with the initiative, which calls for action against what its organizers describe as “Zionist neo-colonization” in Italy.

Most of last year’s incidents, 643, occurred online on digital platforms, while 320 involved physical acts such as graffiti, vandalism, and desecration of synagogues in addition to discrimination, threats, and assaults.

In May, for example, a restaurant in Naples ejected an Israeli family, telling them, “Zionists are not welcome here.” Months earlier, demonstrators at a January protest in Bologna vandalized a synagogue, painting “Justice for a free Gaza.”

Physical attacks have also occurred.

In November, a pro-Palestinian individual brutally attacked a group of Orthodox Jewish American tourists at Milan’s Central Station, allegedly chasing one of the victims, punching and kicking him, and striking him in the head with a blunt metal ring.

During the attack, the assailant reportedly shouted antisemitic insults and threats, including “dirty Jews” and “you kill children in Palestine, and I’ll kill you.”

In September, a Jewish couple was walking through Venice in traditional Orthodox clothing when three assailants confronted them, shouted “Free Palestine,” and attacked them, slapping both.

This incident followed another attack on a Jewish couple in Venice the month before, when a man and his pregnant wife were harassed near the city center by three unknown individuals.

The attackers approached the couple, shouting antisemitic insults and calling the husband a “dirty Jew,” while physically assaulting them by throwing water and spitting on them.

One of the assailants later set his dog on the couple in an attempt to intimidate them before the group stole their phones.