ROME: The Palestinian Embassy in Rome and Italian politicians have condemned the leader of a far-right party who, while campaigning for this month’s general election, vowed to keep his promise to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and to move the Italian Embassy there.
Matteo Salvini, who heads the Northern League — a nationalist, anti-immigrant party — is running in the Sept. 25 election as part of a center-right coalition with Forza Italia and Fratelli d’Italia.
According to the latest polls, the coalition may win a majority in the election, which was called after Mario Draghi resigned as prime minister at the end of July.
Salvini told state broadcaster Rai Uno: “I gave my word. I am fully committed to helping the Israeli population. How nice it would be if Italy were the first European country to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.”
He added: “A democracy like Israel has the right to defend itself from any threat to its existence and freedom.”
Salvini’s remarks were condemned by the Palestinian Embassy in Rome, which on Thursday said it “regrets that a fundamental issue as the status of Jerusalem has been misused during the current electoral campaign. Consensus cannot be gathered by preaching illegality.”
The embassy added: “It is known that East Jerusalem, occupied militarily by Israel since 1967 along with the rest of the West Bank and Gaza, is the legitimate capital of Palestine.”
It said Israel’s illegal annexation of East Jerusalem has been “duly condemned by the UN, also thanks to the vote of Italy.”
It added: “Considering the political, economic, cultural, social and religious importance of East Jerusalem to our people, it is clear that without East Jerusalem there cannot be a State of Palestine, and that without a State of Palestine there cannot be peace.
“Italy has never had doubts about this, as its positions within the United Nations and the European Union demonstrate.”
Salvini’s position was condemned by Italian politicians. He “is wrong to continue to sow the policy of hatred and resentment by talking about Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” Luigi de Magistris, former mayor of Naples, told Arab News.
“The Palestinian people can no longer be oppressed in violation of international law and UN resolutions.”
MP Piero Fassino, who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Chamber of Deputies — the lower house of Parliament — told Italian news agency ANSA: “Salvini should at once stop with his propaganda, which leads to nothing and is counterproductive.”
