Paolo Naso, a professor of political science at the La Sapienza University in Rome and a good friend to many in the American Waldensian Society, and Brunetto Salvarani, a professor of theology of mission and dialogue at the Catholic Theological Faculty of Emilia Romagna, recently sent an open letter to the president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI), Noemi Di Segni. Their letter was intended as a response to a recent speech of President Di Segni. The fact that it was even written is a sign of the strong ecumenical and interfaith relationships that Italian Waldensians, Italian Catholics, and Italian Jews enjoy.
Dear President Noemi Di Segni,
The recent attacks against Iran, intended to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons, have refocused international attention to a new, dramatic chapter in Middle Eastern geopolitics and simultaneously distracted public opinion from the situation in Gaza. It’s in this context that we would like to respond to your speech in which you addressed a series of important political, historical and even theological issues that deserve to be explored. We appreciate the thoughtfulness and intellectual honesty with which you address the situation in Gaza that has “a widespread wear and tear for Israel and the Palestinian people, as well as for Jewish communities around the world and also, in some ways, for European and Western democracies.” In this letter, we’d like to offer some reflections on some of what you said, in a spirit of frank and open dialogue.
First, we wonder if you are somehow missing the sense of urgency behind the appeals to the government of Israel to stop its military actions against the civilian population of Gaza and then to negotiate with Hamas for the release of the hostages they still hold captive. We say that Israel first needs to stop its military actions and only then negotiate with Hamas not because we find that order somehow morally righteous but because there is a logic that dictates the resolution of conflicts. We know that you understand that the Palestinian people are truly exhausted by the fighting and that Israel’s efforts to block the delivery of food aid by the Red Cross and other independent agencies constitute a war crime against civilians.
Even though it is clear that Hamas has acted in ways that cannot be described as anything other than terrorist, how can anyone justify Israel’s continuing attacks against Palestinian civilians? In your speech, you expressed concern for “the irresponsible use of such terms as genocide and apartheid, which have precise meanings in history.” You are certainly right to call on those who use those words to respect their origins and therefore not use them in an ideological and aggressive way. In the same way, we agree with you that words such as Zionism should not be used as if they were synonymous with persecution and revenge. That said, the fact that we don’t use the word “genocide” to describe Israel’s actions against the Palestinian people does not absolve the government of Israel from its moral culpability for conducting a military action that, by explicit statement of some of its government ministers, can only end with the deportation of the Palestinians from Gaza.
How can we say all this more simply? Words are weapons, of course, and that’s generally not good. Nevertheless, in the light of what we see, we do not believe that the importance of using these words correctly is more important than the hurt and suffering that prompt their use.
Now, we want to raise a new point. You stated in your speech that the people of Gaza are “under the control of Hamas terrorists” but you also said they are “incapable of taking a stand against terrorism and choosing a leadership capable of guaranteeing the true rights of the Palestinians.” Our perception is simpler and more prosaic. We believe that the Palestinian population of Gaza are at the mercy of events that they are unable to control and that their only concern today is to survive to tomorrow, and, to do that, to scrounge the minimum amount of food and water necessary to survive and to figure out where they can hide to avoid the bombings. In 2006, the Palestinians in Gaza voted (by a margin of 44% for Hamas against 41% for Al Fatah) for Hamas. As everyone knows, a civil war in Gaza followed, which was won by Hamas. What we don’t know is to what extent Hamas was then supported by Israel, which was seeking to weaken the leadership of the Palestinian National Authority and the PLO. What we do know is that Hamas over time consolidated an authoritarian, violent, and theocratic regime that diverted a large share of humanitarian aid intended for people of Gaza to its military infrastructure. Almost twenty years have passed since then and we obviously can’t blame the Palestinians, who were subject all those years to Hamas’ authoritarian rule, for not knowing how to select their leaders.
You said in your speech that Jewish communities around the world are living under threat, sometimes subjected to hate speech that evokes extermination, and that, shocked by a wave of anti-Semitism and racial hatred that has not been seen since the Holocaust, Jews the world over are suffering limitations on professing their faith.
As much as we agree with your statements about the spread of anti-Semitism, we cannot ignore that no less hateful words are currently circulating against Palestinians, as well as Muslims, and that a virulent Islamophobia is spreading that associates all of Islam and all Muslims with terrorism, violence against women, anti-Semitism, and everything else that denies human rights and the fundamental principles of democratic coexistence. Denouncing anti-Semitism without judging equally Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian and racist hate speech heard risks being an unbalanced attitude that ends up fueling more hatred and violence.
In this regard, you said you believe that the “demonization of Israel only generates widespread hatred and undermines the good that has matured for decades in Jewish-Christian relationships in Italy.” While that certainly seems true to us, we wonder whether you don’t believe that similar considerations should be made for the Palestinians and that the preventive arrests and the substantial blocking of food aid by the Israeli military deserve an equally clear judgment?
In your speech, you distance yourself from “those who announce plans to empty Gaza of its natural inhabitants” as well as from those who “attack people and property in the villages of the West Bank.” You note that “incitement to violence is a violation of Jewish morality.” These words do honor to you and to the Jewish community that you represent. Unfortunately, your perspective is not shared by a significant share of those who uncritically support the State of Israel.
Madam President, we agree that are right when you deplore the choice – of some, perhaps too many – “to defend only one people – the Palestinians – and not also the Israelis.” We cannot follow you, however, when you refer to the “international bodies” – such as the United Nations and the International Court of Justice – that you list together with the “terrorist organizations that have arbitrarily governed Gaza for decades, indoctrinating children and planning a new extermination.” Israel is a member of the “international bodies” you refer to, and we do not understand how they can be delegitimized simply because they criticize the state of Israel.
Finally, Madam President, we agree with your statement that “the vision of ‘two peoples and two states’ still represents a morally obligatory goal for both Israel and Palestine. This is also our thought, and has always been so.
Perhaps it is from this shared conviction that we can revive the dialogue between Italian civil society and the Italian Jewish community. What should our goal be? It should be to revitalize that dream that “has faded in these exhausting months” but, as you say, remains the only hope for a “disarmed and disarming” peace, as the new bishop of Rome Leo XIV puts it.
For this reason, dear Madam President, we are ready and eager to participate in initiatives that can lead to justice and peace for two peoples, for security for the State of Israel, for the development of a viable Palestinian state, and for the defense of human rights, wherever they are denied and vilified. As David Grossman recently wrote in a beautiful interview with Repubblica (May 22, 2025): “We have the duty to give children the tools to overcome the paralysis that we are experiencing. Hatred has many agents: the more the war goes on, the more they grow. In such a bad situation, hoping is an act of protest. We cannot leave reality in the hands of those who hate or of those who passively witness what happens.”
With warmest regards and best wishes for your leadership,
Paul Naso
Brunetto Salvarani
