Italian Leaders Unite to Support Israel

As current threats develop in Israel, citizens of the Jewish State can expect support from Italian leaders.

Political leaders from the Italian Senate, along with representatives from civil society and faith communities, gathered in the Italian Senate building on Thursday to express their support for Israel in the midst of a new Gaza flotilla, a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state in September and other forms of delegitimization of the Jewish State.

“Our Western democracies will not prevail unless we re-embrace our Judeo-Christian heritage,” said Marcello Pera, former president of the Italian Senate, as he expressed the Italian sentiment well. “Our support for Israel should not be based on guilt, but rather on pride in our common roots and values.

“Defending Israel simply means defending our values and our way of life,” he concluded.

Pera was the first person to sign an open letter to the United Nations written by the European Coalition for Israel, which asks the secretary general to prevent a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian State at the UN General Assembly in September, and to promote direct negotiations between the Israeli government and the Palestinians.

Earlier in the week the open letter was also signed by the Chairman of Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament, MEP Gabriele Albertini, indicating that there is strong opposition to the current official EU policy, which most observers say is regarded as biased and pro-Palestinian.

In his keynote speech, Jacques Gauthier presented the conflicting legal claims to Jerusalem which belongs to the Jews, according to his 25-year research. Gauthier pointed out the critical role played by the Government of Italy after World War I in paving the way for the birth of the Jewish State.

Italy was one of the members of the Supreme Council of the Allied Powers which hosted the San Remo Conference in April, 1920. The historical conference incorporated the legal rights of the Jewish people to the land of Israel into international law. Today Italy is one of only a few EU-member states that has clearly stated that it will oppose a unilateral declaration at the UN in September.

The symposium, organized by European Coalition for Israel and Christians for Israel in partnership with Italian senator Lucio Malan, was part of an ongoing information campaign concerning Israel’s legal rights, in preparation for the UN General Assembly vote in September.

MEP Magdi Cristiano Allam noted in his speech that “a Palestinian state was proclaimed at the UN once before in the ’80s, but with very little effect.

“Proclamations do not change the realities on the ground,” he said, as he urged the EU-member states not to vote for Palestinian statehood at this time.

Conference host Malan asked those attending the conference “to defend Israel unless we want to give up our roots, our freedom and our democracy.”

Previous ECI conferences about Israel’s legal rights have been held in The Hague, Brussels and Berlin.