Italy Blocks Gaza Flotilla-Linked Site Accused of Tracking Jewish and Israeli Tourists

Italian officials have taken down an anonymous online campaign that urged people to submit the whereabouts of Israeli visitors, Italian Jews and businesses alleged to have links to Zionism, prompting sharp backlash from top political figures and Jewish community leaders who likened the effort to persecution seen under fascism.

“I think we’re going back to the 1930s, to hunting Jews,” Walker Meghnagi, head of the Jewish Community of Milan, said after the Google form spread across social media channels and private messaging apps.

According to media reports, the questionnaire claimed its goal was to track “Zionist tourism,” real estate purchases and what it called “Zionist neo-colonization” in Italy. It invited users to flag Jews, Israelis and individuals presumed to have connections to Zionism in hotels, short-term rentals, shops, businesses and other public spaces.

Italian Senate President Ignazio La Russa denounced the online effort in a statement, calling the mapping of so-called “Zionist tourism” — which Meghnagi had publicly condemned — an “aberrant initiative” that violated basic human rights and the constitutional values underpinning Italy, according to an English translation.

“No form of cataloguing of persons on the basis of their religious belief or their connection with Israel is acceptable or justifiable,” La Russa said, adding that the initiative revealed “a profound anti-Semitism” that must be rejected “unanimously, firmly, and determinedly.” He warned that Italy could not stand by in the face of actions that “recall the ghosts of the past,” and expressed solidarity with the Jewish community.

The form was ultimately removed after Gen. Pasquale Angelosanto, Italy’s national coordinator for combating antisemitism, intervened, Italian and Israeli news outlets reported.

“This form is intended to record cases of Zionist tourism, property purchases, and, more generally, Zionist neo-colonization in Italy,” the questionnaire stated.

It said the information collected would be received by the Global Sumud Movement, an activist network associated with flotilla efforts to reach the Gaza Strip, and would remain confidential. Respondents were asked to provide sources so the reports could be verified and used to coordinate unspecified “initiatives.”

The Global Sumud Movement denied commissioning the form or knowing about it before the controversy erupted, according to The Jerusalem Post.

“Zionism is one of the issues we work on, but we do not hunt Jews, and we know nothing about this questionnaire,” the group told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica. “We did not commission it and had not even seen it before it was taken offline.”

The organization said it learned about the questionnaire through news reports and reserved the right to take further action, including issuing a formal statement.

According to La Repubblica, later sections of the form asked respondents to name locations where Jewish or Israeli visitors had been seen and to indicate whether local organizations or activist groups were already “managing the phenomenon.”

Meghnagi warned that collecting and circulating such information could encourage extremists to target Jews and Israelis.

“What is happening today shows that there are unbalanced individuals out there, and if this kind of message spreads widely enough, you are certain to find someone willing to act on it,” he said. “For this reason, mapping where Jews are is extremely serious.”

Alessandro Morelli, an Italian deputy secretary of state, ripped the form as “abhorrent” and said those responsible should not go unpunished.