Come lunch time, the streets of the Jewish quarter seem to be too narrow for the crowd of tourists looking for a place to eat kosher cuisine. Americans, Germans, French. It’s “everything as always” in the Rome ghetto. Many repeat that there is no fear, at least not more than two days ago. And the level of security, the day following the Iranian attack on Israel, according to residents, has not changed, “it has always been at maximum”. «Here it is a happy island» explains Benedetto Sacerdoti, representative for Italy of the Hostages’ Families Forum. This is because it is the “most heavily guarded place following St. Peter’s, probably thanks to the work of the police.” And for this reason no one feels afraid in the streets of the portico of Ottavia.
Noah, an Israeli tourist on holiday in Rome, doesn’t think the same way. He says he doesn’t feel safe in the capital, “but not even in Milan”, also due to “the demonstrations for Palestine”, he says. A reason that led her not to go to the Colosseum following seeing the route of Saturday’s procession which included a passage near the Flavian Amphitheatre. Addressing the topic, the president of the Union of Young Jews of Italy (Ugei), Luca Spizzichino, speaks of “a resurgence of anti-Semitism which has manifested itself starting from the universities since 7 October”. “I know it seems strange but right now I would be less afraid in Tel Aviv”, continues Noah who in Italy feels she is treated as “guilty” because “the world is not on Israel’s side”. After the Iranian attack she admits to being even more scared, “I didn’t leave the hotel both because I wanted to stay in touch with my family and because I was afraid of being a target.” On Saturday evening the young Israeli’s thoughts were turned to her loved ones. Her concern for her relatives and friends, also shared by the Romans in the ghetto. “We spent a sleepless night,” says a trader who remained in contact with her sister for several hours while she was in the bunker.
A man sitting at a table in a restaurant, with a kippah on his head, recounts the story of a friend of his in Jerusalem who documented at least “thirty explosions” around the city. But the anxiety is only for them, for those who live in Israel. “Here we are not afraid,” they reiterate. For Spizzichino, Iran’s response was pre-announced, “but we didn’t know how, when and where they would attack”, he highlights. For him, like for many others, there was no fear of a new October 7th, «but a new chapter is opening that you don’t know how it will evolve. These are not militias like Hezbollah, Hamas or the Houthis. It is a state with a real army”, adds the president of Ugei.
And if the alert has been at its highest in the Jewish ghetto for some time, it is increasing in the rest of the city. Just yesterday morning, the day following the Iranian response to Israel, a 30-minute march was planned at Villa Borghese organized by the Hostages’ Families Forum. “At 7 they warned us that for security reasons we might no longer do it”, explains the Italian representative of the association, Sacerdoti, worried regarding the fact that there are still people in the hands of Hamas following six months. For this reason, to ask for the release of the hostages, those who were supposed to be the participants in the march – including relatives and friends of the kidnapped people – made a video during a flashmob in the Jewish quarter.
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2024-04-16 01:16:06
