The Italian region of Tuscany has adopted the IHRA working definition on antisemitism.
The Italy- Israel Association of Livorno was able to mobilize mayors, parliamentarians, regional and municipal councillors of the region to this end.
In Guardistallo, in the hills between Pisa and Livorno, an “IHRA Administrators” meeting took place celebrating the adoption of the Tuscany Region, and many municipalities, to the definition.
Participants included the town’s mayor, Sandro Ceccarelli, the regional councillors who proposed the motion on the IHRA, Elisa Tozzi and Vittorio Fantozzi, three national deputies (Andrea Romano, Manfredi Potenti, Giovanni Donzelli) Carla Guastalla national vice-president of Adei and Alex Zarfati president of the Jewish Community of Rome.
According to Celeste Vichi, President of the Italy- Israel Association,: “There are three important principles in our work on this issue: the first is that the IHRA defintion must be adopted,by local political communities, in order to the gradually extended higher up, regionally, nationally and internationally.
The second is that we want the endorsements to be across the board, not limited to one political side: in the region we are very proud to have achieved unanimity on the IHRA motion.
The third, which is perhaps the most crucial, is that it is not enough to adhere to the pure and simple definition, which states something quite obvious, namely that antisemitism is hatred of Jews. One must also accept the subsequent principles by which the IHRA has fleshed out its definition, such as the one whereby it is also antisemitic to deny the Jewish people the right to their national self-determination, that is, to the existence of their state; or it is to compare the self-defense policies of the state of Israel to Nazism, as Israel’s enemies often do today.”
