The national scorecard on government measures to counter antisemitism and promote Jewish life was presented on 22 November. The NOA Italy scorecard illustrates the current policy landscape in 10 areas: culture, education, hate crimes, hate speech, Holocaust remembrance, intercultural dialogue, media, religious freedom, security and sport. The research shows that there is still much that the Italian government can and must do to combat antisemitism.
The report highlighted the following key findings:
- The country holds strength in legislation addressing the most serious and growing forms of antisemitism, such as security laws, hate crimes and hate speech; however, it is weaker in implementing measures to prevent discrimination against Jewish individuals and communities.
- The highest-scoring policy area is religious freedom, with a longstanding policy framework in place despite a legislative landscape that is not fully defined; this is probably a reflection of the particular nature of Church-State relations in Italy.
- The next two policy areas receiving the highest scores are security and the memory of the Shoah. This shows that significant steps have been taken towards the country’s recognition of its responsibility towards Jewish citizens throughout history to date.
- The areas with the greatest opportunities for improvement and impact are education, culture, sports, intercultural dialogue, media and the monitoring of hate speech and hate crimes. These areas of political action are essential to strengthen society’s resilience to extremism and prevent the escalation of antisemitism.
- Coordination and communication are often identified as ‘weak points’ in the implementation of the Italian National Strategy for Combating antisemitism.
Katarina Von Schnurbein, European Commission Coordinator for Combating Antisemitism and Promoting Jewish Life, noted that “it is great to see this EU-funded project coming to fruition. The NOA scorecards help to identify strengths and weaknesses in preventing and combating anti-Semitism in 10 policy areas, from education to security and sports. This will enable targeted and specific actions to be taken”.
You can find the NOA Italy Report Card here in English, and here in Italian.
