Rome – Antisemitic graffiti appeared on a wall in Rome one week after the derby that took place as part of the Italian Cup. The blue paint read: “death to the Jews” and other injurious slogans. The writing was found in the Parioli neighborhood in the morning, and local sanitation employees (AMA) began working to erase the slogans. A few days prior to this event, a number of other slogans had appeared in the Olympic stadium and in the Flaminio and Monteverde areas, where five special Decoro teams were employed by AMA.
“The slogans that appeared on walls across town, coinciding with the Rome-Lazio Derby, are an extremely serious, scandalous, and insulting matter, targeting the Jewish community and its history. This surely is not fitting for Rome and its residents,” read an announcement by the Mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno. “I am sharing my utmost sympathy with Rome’s Jewish community, while I also hope that the security forces will quickly discover who carried out these acts of stupidity and hatred, which have nothing to do with the love of sports,” concluded the mayor.
“Not only did these events target the Jewish community, with whom I am sharing my utmost sympathy and that of the regional institutions, but the entire city of Rome was targeted by these incidents,” said the Governor of the Lazio, Nicola Zingaretti. “I believe we cannot ignore this phenomenon at all, since it is a symptom of a disease that is evidently spreading in our society. We must do whatever we can to stop it at its infancy, by clearly condemning its every manifestation, and working together with impressionable groups, especially the youth.”
