La Russa visits the Mausoleum of Memory in Jerusalem: “Never again such bestial hatred”

JERUSALEM. He could have chosen another destination, Austria was among the options for a moment, instead he chose Israel. Ignazio La Russa wanted to give a strong symbolic imprint to his first institutional trip as president of the Senate. Therefore, a visit to Yed Vashem, the Holocaust memorial built on Mount Herzl overlooking Jerusalem, is of particular value. «It’s not the first time I’ve come here – recalls La Russa -, but every time I’ve symbolically knelt in this place of pain and remembrance, I have renewed the feeling of closeness to the Jewish people and the resolution to help ensure that never again will there be such bestial and inhuman hatred».

“A renewed feeling of pain and closeness”, underlines the president of the Senate, after wearing the kippah, the traditional Jewish headdress, to participate in a brief ceremony in the great Hall of Remembrance, where he placed a wreath of flowers and a stone , as is traditionally done on the graves of Jewish cemeteries. More than once, La Russa therefore places the accent on the “barbarism of the Shoa”, while he is accompanied on his visit to Yed Vashem by Ambassador Sergio Bardanti and by the president of the Jewish community of Milan, Walker Meghnagi. But more than words, he underlines, “gestures count, when you come to this place of remembrance and warning for the future”.

A sign of closeness that he was also able to express in the morning in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, where the House – including the opposition – gave him an applause that was not considered at all obvious, also given the recent controversy with the Italian Jewish communities for the celebration of La Russa on the social networks of the anniversary of the Italian Social Movement. The meeting with the president of the Knesset, Amir Ohana, was followed by one with premier Benjamin Netanyahu, who will be in Italy on Thursday and to whom he renewed “the importance of the strong bond between Italy and Israel”.

La Russa’s arrival in Jerusalem coincides with a particularly delicate moment for Netanyahu’s government, lashed by street protests against justice reform and the approval of a bill that provides for the death penalty for terrorism crimes . It is no coincidence, therefore, that in his meeting with the president of the Israeli parliament, La Russa underlined the Italian position, firmly opposed to «any terrorist force that threatens Israel’s freedom, existence and independence. Israel – she added – must be protected in her rights ».