Pro-Hamas resistance? One square, two stories
The presence, at the April 25 demonstration, of pro-Hamas slogans in support of terrorism sounds almost ridiculous on a day like this, where the concept of Resistance is brought closer to that of barbarism and violence. The Brigade and Hamas: one square, two stories
This morning I was at Porta San Paolo. I was there as a member of the Jewish Community of Rome to remember, on Liberation Day, the participation in the war against Nazi-fascism of the Jewish Brigade, the military unit formed during the Second World War by Jewish volunteers residing in Mandatory Palestine and part of the British Army .
Already in December 1940 the Ministry of Italian Africa noted the birth in Palestine of a unit composed exclusively of Jewish volunteers, to be employed in the Near East outside the territory, to avoid friction with the Arab element present.
The British had established it as distinct from the Palestine Special Defense Force, already created some time ago with Arabs and Jews in equal parts and with security tasks.
On 31 January 1943 the Tripoli Times, newspaper of the British VIII Army, reported the liberation of Tripoli by reporting the news of the first religious service celebrated in the city's synagogue, by Brigadier General Frederick Kisch, former member of the Jewish Agency, together to Major Rabinowitz, Field Rabbi of the Armed Forces of the Middle East. The troops, welcomed by the Chief Rabbi of Tripoli Aldo Lattes, were led by Major CJ O'Shaughnessy.
Although the presence of auxiliary companies made up of Jews in the British army is attested, it was necessary to wait until 31 October 1944 to have three fully equipped battalions constituted as the Jewish Brigade, still part of the British army, ready to leave Burg el Arab, in the current United Arab Emirates, for Italy. Here they landed on November 5th in Taranto, to then continue towards Fiuggi, commanded by General Ernest Frank Benjamin, representing the spirit of freedom and victory against the Nazi-fascist dictatorship. There were numerous battles in which they took part and the memory of their fallen is kept in the Piangipane cemetery, in the province of Ravenna.
Ironically, Italy had already welcomed the Grand Mufti Amīn al-Ḥusaynī, the most important personality of the Arab and Muslim world, who arrived in Rome in October 1941 fleeing from Palestine for having declared open war on England and to the Jews. A £25,000 bounty had been issued on him. Italy and Germany hosted him as a useful pawn for the conquest of the Near East and North Africa and for the plans of Jewish extermination.
Today, the same story recurred in that square in Rome. On one side the flags of the Jewish Brigade and on the other, separated by a police cordon, the Palestinian ones praising Hamas.
The presence of slogans in support of terrorism sounds almost ridiculous on a day like this, where the concept of Resistance is brought closer to that of barbarism and violence. Unless the message is to resume what Hussein had promised to do through Hitler, declining it in the destruction of Israel as a Jewish state. If someone had told it on April 25, 1945, the real partisans wouldn't have known whether to cry or laugh.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/resistenza-pro-hamas-una-piazza-due-storie/ on Fri, 26 Apr 2024 06:07:17 +0000.