Tweet infuriates FdI –

A real social storm has hit the University of Bologna professor Monica Dall’Asta, professor of History of Film Theories at Dams, for having written on social media, and in particular on X, that “there is no evidence of mass rapes by Hamas”. From that post, in fact, a series of reports to the University and to the Rector of Bologna, Giovanni Molari, were born by social users who sent screenshots of the professor’s sentences to the University’s top management, whose removal from the University is now being requested by the center-right. “A person like that cannot teach anything to anyone – attacks the FdI vice-minister Galeazzo Bignami – and we don’t care if they think they can go unpunished because they are left-wing. At home, them and their repugnant anti-Semitism. Out of the University”.

Dall’Asta has often spoken out in support of the Palestinian people and against the bombing of Gaza by the Netanyahu government, both on social media and in public, also speaking out in favor of an academic boycott of Israeli universities. “I have never denied that atrocities were committed. But the story of mass rapes is a propaganda construct. Like that of the beheaded children,” the professor claims in another tweet. And to the accusations of anti-Semitism, she replies: “I almost only quote Jewish authors, in class I always explain Nazi cinema with Walter Benjamin.” Activist Elisa Garfagna also sent an open letter to rector Molari. The professor replies that hers are “personal opinions” and to those who also accuse her of being “unfit to teach,” she responds by announcing her intention to protect herself, including through legal means.

The FdI group leader in the Region, Marta Evangelisti, considers those statements “extremely serious” and asks that “the University, after appropriate verification and if the facts are proven, take appropriate measures against the professor who, with her statements, would only fuel hatred against the Jewish community and the Israeli people”. Also for the Fratelli d’Italia group in the Municipality of Bologna, Dall’Asta’s words are “violent and denialist, even more irreconcilable with the role of professor” of the Alma Mater, which “cannot include among its professors anyone with anti-Semitic sentiments”. The professor therefore “should resign her position, because you cannot teach students hatred and denial towards the Israeli people”. “We expect unequivocal words from the mayor, the PD and the Civic Coalition, who in the past have prevaricated but who today can no longer hide”, conclude the FdI representatives.