ROME – Rome’s mayor and provincial president shopped at
Jewish-owned stores after a trade union called for a boycott of Jewish
merchants to protest the Gaza Strip war.

Politicians across the spectrum condemned the boycott appeal by the
Flaica-CUB union, a small, independent leftist union in the retail
services and food sector, saying it was reminiscent of the Fascist era. 

The boycott call was announced in a flyer, and Flaica-CUB chief 
Giancarlo Desiderati told newspapers that a list of shops was being 
drawn up. He later backpedalled, telling reporters that the boycott was
only aimed at Israeli-made goods.

"It’s an idea that has an undeniable anti-Semitic flavor and that
recalls the darkest pages of our history," Nicola Zingaretti, Rome’s
provincial president, said after meeting Jewish shopkeepers Thursday in
the historic Ghetto neighborhood. Mayor Gianni Alemanno, joined by
Rome’s Jewish community president Riccardo Pacifici, bought two shirts
and a tie from a Jewish-owned clothing stores in another neighborhood,
and expressed "firm and intransigent condemnation" for the boycott
call. Alemanno recalled that such calls in the 1930s led to the
imposition of Fascist-era anti-Semitic laws in 1938.

Numerous other politicians and mainstream union leaders also
condemned the initiative, and Jewish leaders and shopkeepers expressed
shock and dismay. Pacifici said the Jewish community was considering
suing the union for instigating racial hatred.

The President of Lazio Region, where Rome is located, held a
solidarity meeting with Jewish leaders Friday. Piero Marrazzo stressed
that Israel’s security was at issue and that beyond being a political
group "Hamas is a terrorist organization" that attacks Israel. He said
the dream was that Israelis and Palestinians may one day live side by
side in two states, but "you don’t get there by boycotting Jewish-owned
shops."