Police surround attendees with a “Jewish Brigade” banner during a march marking Italy’s liberation from Nazism in Milan, Italy, April 25, 2026. (Emanuele Roberto De Carli/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

(JTA) — Pro-Palestinian activists, some reportedly shouting antisemitic invective, forced Jewish groups out of a procession celebrating Italy’s Liberation Day from Nazism and fascism in Milan over the weekend.

About 100 protesters on Saturday blocked a group commemorating the Jewish Brigade, a unit of 5,000 Jews from British Mandate Palestine who volunteered to fight against the Germans in Italy during World War II.

The protests led to a two-hour stalemate before police escorted the Jewish Brigade out of the march, according to the Italian newspaper la Repubblica. The event marked the 81st anniversary of the end of Italy’s Nazi occupation and fascist collaborationist regime led by Benito Mussolini.

The Jewish Brigade was marching together with left-wing Jewish groups and Iranian and Ukrainian dissidents. The demonstrators who intercepted their path chanted “Zionists out of Milan,” and said in a megaphone that Jewish Brigade members were “the ones bombing the people of Gaza” and had “no right to be at the procession.”

The Jewish groups carried the banner of the Jewish Brigade, which shows a yellow Star of David over vertical blue and white stripes. Italian outlets reported that some Iranian dissidents also carried Israeli flags.

Multiple Jewish participants said they heard shouts about “soap bars,” an allusion to the unproven rumor that the Nazis produced soap from the human remains of concentration camp victims.

Daniela Ovadia, a Jewish participant, said on Facebook that she joined the parade “behind the banner of scouts of the Jewish left, grandchildren of the camps and partisans.” She said that a protester called her daughter one of the “missing bars of soap.”

Emanuele Fiano, the son of a Holocaust survivor who leads the pro-peace organization Left for Israel, said he also heard shouts about “soap bars.” He said that he marched with groups carrying a banner that said “Left for Israel, Two Peoples, Two States.”

“Since Left for Israel has a banner with the Star of David, they felt, in the name of their own version of freedom, that these people couldn’t march,” Fiano told la Repubblica.

“Jews were an active part of the liberation of Italy, and today they were taken hostage by people who prohibited them from participating in a peaceful demonstration,” said Walker Meghnagi, the president of Milan’s Jewish community.

The National Association Partisans of Italy, founded by members of the Italian resistance against the fascist regime, claimed that Jewish attendees provoked the blockade by allowing Israeli flags.

ANPI president Gianfranco Pagliarulo said that Israeli flags were “inappropriate” at the celebration. “There was a commitment, I was told, from the Jewish community not to carry Israeli flags for obvious reasons, given the situation,” said Pagliarulo. “This didn’t happen, and this very unfortunate situation has arisen.”

Meghnagi responded that there was no ban on Israeli flags and that Jewish groups respected the rules of the event.

Milan’s mayor Beppe Sala took the side of the ANPI, telling il Giornale that “the mistake was participating with Israeli flags.”

Italy, like many European countries, has seen a surge of outrage over Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and an outpouring of sympathy with the Palestinians.

A growing segment of the public has also indicated that anger with Israel justifies violence against Jews. About 15% of Italians consider physical attacks on Jewish people to be “entirely or fairly justifiable,” according to a survey in September by the Italian research institute SWG. About a fifth of respondents said it was reasonable to attack professors who expressed pro-Israel views or for businesses to reject Israeli customers.

Georgia Meloni, Italy’s right-wing prime minister, condemned the protests against the Jewish Brigade along with attacks on people carrying Ukrainian flags at Liberation Day events in Rome and Bologna. “If these are the ones who claim to defend freedom and democracy, I’d say we have a problem,” Meloni said on X.

Meanwhile, the firestorm between Milan’s Jewish community and the ANPI continues. Meghnagi has accused the ANPI of “inciting antisemitism,” and the president of Milan’s ANPI branch, Primo Minelli, has threatened to sue for defamation.

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