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Italian authorities blocked an anonymous online effort that asked the public to report Israeli tourist sites, Italian Jews and businesses believed to have ties to Zionism, drawing condemnation from senior government officials and Jewish leaders who compared the move to Fascist-era persecution.
“I think we’re going back to the 1930s, to hunting Jews,” said Walker Meghnagi, president of the Jewish Community of Milan, after the Google form began circulating on social media and messaging platforms.
The questionnaire says it is aimed at “drawing up Zionist tourism,” procurement and what it describes as “Zionist neo-colonization” in Italy, according to reports. It asked users to identify Jews, Israelis and people believed to be connected to Zionism in hotels, rental properties, businesses and other public places.
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People take part in a crowd entitled “In the same boat” protesting the arrest and treatment of activists participating in the Global Sumud Flotilla in Milan, northern Italy, on May 21, 2026. (AFP via Getty Images)
“The online recording of the so-called ‘Zionist visit,’ rightly condemned by the president of the Jewish Community of Milan, Walker Meghnagi, is a counterintuitive step, which directly violates basic human rights and the constitutional principles on which our country was founded,” Italian Senate President Ignazio La Russa wrote in a statement, as translated into English.
“No type of listing of people based on their beliefs or their connection to Israel is acceptable or justifiable. Behind all of this is a deep anti-Semitism that must be unanimously, firmly, and decisively rejected,” he added. “We cannot stand still in the face of such serious facts that recall the ghosts of the past. To the Jewish community all my closeness is.”
This form was removed following the intervention of Gen. Pasquale Angelosanto, Italy’s national coordinator in the fight against the law, according to Italian and Israeli media reports.
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A view of participants in a May 21 demonstration of a crowd in Milan, northern Italy, with people gathered in a public square to show solidarity with imprisoned Global Sumud Flotilla activists. (AFP via Getty Images)
“This form is intended to record cases of Zionist visits, property purchases, and, in general, Zionist neo-colonization in Italy,” the questionnaire said.
It said the information collected would be shared with the Global Sumud Movement, an activist network that supports the flotilla’s efforts to reach the Gaza Strip, and would remain confidential. Respondents were asked to provide sources so that the reports could be verified and used to coordinate unspecified “programs”.
The Global Sumud Movement has denied issuing the form or knowing about it before the controversy erupted, according to The Jerusalem Post.
“Zionism is one of the things we are working on, but we are not hunting Jews, and we do not know anything about this questionnaire,” the group told the Italian newspaper Repubblica. “We didn’t post it and we hadn’t seen it before it was released online.”
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Seen on October 2, 2025, in Piazzale Loreto in Milan, Italy, protesters take part in a demonstration in support of the Global Sumud Flotilla after being blocked by the Israeli army on the Gaza Strip. (Alessandro Bremec/NurPhoto)
The agency said it learned about the questionnaire through news reports and reserves the right to take further action, including issuing an official statement.
According to La Repubblica, the latter parts of the form asked respondents to name places where Jewish or Israeli tourists had been seen and to indicate that local organizations or activist groups were already “in charge of the incident.”
Meghnagi warned that collecting and distributing such information could encourage extremists to target Jews and Israelis.
“What happened today shows that there are people who are not moderate out there, and if this kind of message is spread enough, you are sure that you will find someone who is willing to stand up for it,” he said. “For this reason, mapping where the Jews are is very bad.”
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Alessandro Morelli, Italy’s deputy secretary of state, tore up the form as “disgusting” and said those involved should not be punished.
