Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Italy
Italy: its Jewish community, Israeli arms purchases, the post-2023 arms licence freeze, conditional recognition of Palestine and Gaza protests
About 27,300 Jews live in Italy, mainly in Rome, Milan, Turin, Florence and Livorno, according to the World Jewish Congress (WJC).[1] Italy is a major buyer of Israeli weapons and has supplied "Israel" with M-346 trainer jets.[2] The Italian government says that it has granted no new arms export licences for "Israel" since 7 October 2023.[3] In September 2025 Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said that Italy would recognise a Palestinian state only once all hostages were freed and Hamas was excluded from government.[4] On 3 October 2025 a general strike over the Israeli interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla brought more than two million people onto the streets, according to the CGIL union federation.[5]
Zionist movement
- Main article: Zionist movement Italy
Jewish community
The representative body of Italian Jewry is the Unione delle Comunità Ebraiche Italiane (UCEI), the WJC's Italian affiliate, based in Rome. Italian Jews include communities of Italian, Sephardi, Ashkenazi, Persian and Libyan origin. According to the WJC, after Libyan independence and especially after the Six-Day War in 1967 most Libyan Jews left either for "Israel" or for Italy, and they now make up most of the membership of Rome's Sephardi synagogues. The WJC lists Bnei Akiva and Hashomer Hatzair among the youth movements active in Italy.[1]
Chabad
- Main article: Chabad Lubavitch of Italy
Chabad in Italy grew from a mission to Milan that Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, sent in 1958, led for more than sixty years by Rabbi Gershon Mendel Garelik.[6] Chabad Italia lists centres in Bologna, Camaiore, Como, Florence, Milan, Rome, Trieste, Valenza, Venice and Verona; in Rome an official Chabad presence was set up in 1976 by Rabbi Itzchak Hazan, who at first worked with refugees from the Soviet Union.[7] In 2005 Jason Burke reported in The Observer that Chabad's Venice office handed out leaflets on "the integrity of the land of Israel", and that the movement's growth had caused tension with the city's small Jewish community.[8]
History
According to the WJC, Jews have lived on the Italian peninsula since about 200 BCE. In 1516 the Jews of Venice were confined to the first "ghetto". In 1938 the fascist government of Mussolini passed antisemitic racial laws. After the German occupation in 1943 the Germans deported 8,564 Jews from Italy, Italian-occupied France and the islands of Rhodes and Kos; more than 40,000 Jews survived the Holocaust in Italy. Pope John Paul II visited Rome's Great Synagogue in 1986. On 17 January 2016 Pope Francis also visited the synagogue, after laying a wreath in memory of a two-year-old boy killed in a 1982 terrorist attack on it.[1]
Israeli state and commercial ties
Diplomacy
The Israeli foreign ministry's 2011 list of missions records relations with Italy as recognised in January 1949, with "Israel" represented by its embassy in Rome.[9] The WJC describes the two countries as having "full diplomatic relations and generally good ties".[1]
Arms export licences
Defence Minister Guido Crosetto told the Senate on 14 March 2024 that "after 7 October no new authorisations were granted for arms exports to Israel" (translated from Italian). He said that licences approved before 7 October had mostly been used already and that the rest had been assessed case by case.[3] Reuters reported that Crosetto had acknowledged that exports under previously signed orders continued, and that in December 2023 alone Italy sent €1.3 million worth of arms to "Israel", three times the figure for December 2022.[10] On 25 October 2024 Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said: "We have not sent arms since 7 October 2023" (translated from Italian). He added that some contracts signed earlier had been halted after careful assessment.[11]
Recognition of Palestine
Reuters described Meloni's right-wing government as one of "Israel"'s strongest allies in the European Union. In September 2025 Italy did not join the United Kingdom, Canada and France, its fellow G7 members, in recognising Palestine. On 23 September 2025 Meloni said in New York: "I am not against the recognition of Palestine, but we should set ourselves the right priorities." She said that her government would put a motion to parliament making recognition conditional on the release of all hostages and the exclusion of Hamas from government, and that international pressure should be placed on Hamas rather than on "Israel".[4]
Gaza protests
On 3 October 2025 Italian unions held a general strike in protest at the Israeli interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which was trying to reach Gaza. The CGIL said that more than two million people marched in more than 100 cities, 300,000 of them in Rome, and that national participation in the strike was about 60%.[5]
Trade
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics reports that "Israel" imported goods worth $3,753.8 million from Italy in 2025 (2024: $3,449.7 million) and exported goods worth $1,285.5 million to it (2024: $1,183.6 million).[12]
Arms
According to SIPRI, Italy's purchases of Israeli weapons include:
- Griffin guided bombs for Tornado aircraft (ordered 1993), and OPHER and Lizard guided bombs (1997–2006)
- Litening and RecceLite targeting and reconnaissance pods for its AV-8B and AMX combat aircraft
- large numbers of Spike anti-tank missiles: 750 Spike-ER for A-129 helicopters (ordered 2010); 990 Spike-LR under a €121 million deal (2009), partly produced in Italy; 800 more in 2019; and 165 in 2022
- an Ofeq (OPTSAT-3000) surveillance satellite (a $182 million deal of 2012, delivered 2017)
- two EL/W-2085 airborne early-warning radars for G-550 aircraft (ordered 2012)
- I-3001 signals intelligence systems (ordered 2022).[2]
Italy has supplied "Israel" with 30 M-346 trainer jets under a $600 million deal of 2012, known in "Israel" as Lavi. It has also supplied 12 AW-119 training helicopters (ordered 2019) and 76mm naval guns for Israeli missile boats and Sa'ar-6 corvettes. In 1952 it supplied 30 second-hand Spitfires.[13]
Political interference
UN voting
Italy voted in favour of the September 2025 General Assembly resolution endorsing the New York Declaration on a two-state solution.[14]
Ehud Barak emails
The following items come from the two leaked mailboxes of the former Israeli prime minister and defence minister Ehud Barak (ehbarak1@gmail.com and ehud.barak@hyperion-eb.com, 2007–2016). They were hacked and leaked by Handala, a group that Distributed Denial of Secrets describes as "believed to have ties to Iranian intelligence", and were published by Distributed Denial of Secrets in August 2025. The emails carry no cryptographic signatures, and Distributed Denial of Secrets warns that material from such hack-and-leak operations may have been altered.[15]
- On 14 March 2014 Barak sent Yakov Tesis, project director at Renova Management AG, a proposal for a Four Seasons hotel and residential project at Piazza Verdi in Rome. He wrote that its "origins is in the need of the Italian Government, following the 2008 crisis, to shed out State Owned assets to the tune of some €6.5B". He said that the project needed €80 million in equity and about €170 million in debt, and that it came through Y&S, a Hong Kong advisory firm owned by David Zisser, the son of Motti Zisser.[16] Two days later Barak sent Tesis descriptions of "Italian companies in distress". He wrote that an NDA would be needed, "and probably a short letter/ agreement re compensation for the middlemen", and proposed a meeting in Rome on 27 March.[17] On 25 March Avi Pazner sent Barak details of a lunch in Rome on 27 March at the office of Prof. Giancarlo Valori, president of La Centrale Finanziaria Generale. Barak forwarded them to Tesis, saying that he would "inform the Italians and the Ambassador".[18]
- On 26 September 2013 Barak was forwarded a Ynet article, "Ex-Italian MP marks 1st Sukkot in Israel", about Fiamma Nirenstein. The article said that Nirenstein, a former member of parliament for Silvio Berlusconi's party, had emigrated to "Israel" and was living in Jerusalem's Gilo neighbourhood; it called her "one of the most outspoken activists in the war against anti-Semitism and anti-Israel propaganda". Barak replied in Hebrew that she was a relative of a family he knew from Kibbutz Mishmar HaSharon.[19]
- In June 2015 the office of Boris Collardi of Bank Julius Baer arranged for him to meet Barak in Rome on 30 June at the Hotel Eden, where the Baraks were staying.[20]
Jeffrey Epstein
Documents released by the US Department of Justice in the Jeffrey Epstein files include the following.
- On 19 March 2014 Nili Priell Barak, wife of Ehud Barak, sent Jeffrey Epstein the couple's travel plans, which included "March 27th-April 2 - Rome and south Italy".[21]
See also
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 World Jewish Congress, Community in Italy worldjewishcongress.org, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Arms Transfers Database SIPRI, trade register for Israel as supplier, 1950–2025, data generated 20 October 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 askanews, Crosetto: dopo il 7 ottobre l'Italia ha sospeso l'export di armi a Israele askanews, 14 March 2024, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Italy to recognise Palestine only if Hamas excluded, all hostages freed Reuters, 23 September 2025, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 ANSA English Desk, More than 2 million people in 100 demos says CGIL ANSA, 3 October 2025, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ "Pioneer Chabad Emissary Rabbi Gershon Mendel Garelik, 88", Lubavitch.com (Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters), 14 February 2021.
- ↑ "About Chabad Italia", Chabad Italia, accessed 23 October 2026.
- ↑ Jason Burke, "Jews split by a messianic message", The Observer, 18 September 2005.
- ↑ Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Diplomatic Missions Abroad: Status of relations mfa.gov.il, archived 5 August 2011.
- ↑ Who are Israel's main weapons suppliers and who has halted exports? Reuters, 9 May 2024, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ askanews, M.O., Tajani: embargo armi a Israele? Non ne mandiamo dal 7 ottobre askanews, 25 October 2024, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Foreign Trade Statistics Monthly, Table D1: Trade Countries – Imports and Exports CBS, December 2025 issue (library copy).
- ↑ Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Arms Transfers Database SIPRI, trade register for Israel as recipient, 1950–2025, data generated 20 October 2026.
- ↑ United Nations General Assembly, Recorded vote on A/80/L.1/Rev.1: Endorsement of the New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, 12 September 2025 (copy hosted by Al-Quds Al-Arabi).
- ↑ Distributed Denial of Secrets, Ehud Barak emails, 27 August 2025, with download at data.ddosecrets.org, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Email from Ehud Barak to Yakov Tesis, "Rome, Piazza Verdi, Four Seasons + Residential Project", 14 March 2014, file
ehbarak1@gmail.com/Sent!11/1 (397).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 25 October 2026. - ↑ Email from Ehud Barak to Yakov Tesis, "Italian companies in distress", 16 March 2014, file
ehbarak1@gmail.com/Sent!11/1 (369).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 25 October 2026. - ↑ Emails between Avi Pazner, Ehud Barak and Yakov Tesis, "RE: Italy", 25 March 2014, file
ehbarak1@gmail.com/Inbox!37/1 (77).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 25 October 2026. - ↑ Emails between rlbrog and Ehud Barak, "Re: Ex-Italian MP marks 1st Sukkot in Israel", 26 September 2013, file
ehbarak1@gmail.com/Sent!14/1 (205).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 25 October 2026. - ↑ Emails between Bank Julius Baer, Nili Priell Barak and Ehud Barak, "Re: Rome", 22 June 2015, file
ehbarak1@gmail.com/Sent!4/1 (47).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 25 October 2026. - ↑ Emails between Nili Priell Barak and Jeffrey Epstein, "Re: travel plans", 19–20 March 2014, EFTA00986337, US Department of Justice, Epstein Files release, Data Set 9, copy at tommycarstensen.com/epstein, accessed 25 October 2026.