The episode of Report broadcast on Sunday 3 November sparked a strong reaction in the Italian Jewish community and in those who see public service as a bastion of truth and transparency. The SetteOTTO association, led by president Stefano Parisi, expressed its concerns in an open letter addressed to Rai, underlining how the representation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict appeared “seriously distorted”. The proposed narrative raises fundamental questions about the role of public information, in a historical moment in which anti-Semitism is growing and silence risks further fueling this phenomenon.
But who is September October? It is an organization created with the aim of countering anti-Semitism, denialism and disinformation about Israel. The name commemorates the tragic day of October 7, 2023, the date on which Hamas and Islamic Jihad attacked Israel, causing a massacre of civilians. In response to that event, the association was established to raise public awareness and promote accurate and complete information, supporting the memory of the victims and opposing narratives that could reduce or distort the seriousness of such events.
In reconstructing the consequences of that attack, Report placed emphasis on the response to Hamas by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which launched a large-scale campaign in the Gaza Strip, with serious consequences for civilians. However, the investigation went further, suggesting that over the last twenty years Israel has become the point of reference for the international far right. Gaza, according to the RAI program, would be transformed into a “laboratory” for the Israeli defense and cybersecurity industries, which would test new weapons and advanced technologies in the field, subsequently exported to other countries, including Italy.
What has been seriously missing, SetteOTTO reports indignantly, is the recognition of the atrocities suffered by the Israeli victims, in particular the women, who were brutalised. “Omit this violence – comments Parisi – it means erasing their suffering, ignoring a chapter of pain that cannot be buried under a partial narrative. It is a choice that transforms the public service into a sounding board for propaganda.”
The association is deeply troubled by what it considers a “silent complicity” in a context of increasingly widespread and visible anti-Semitism. “From 7 October 2023 – recalls Parisi – we have seen a 400% increase in anti-Semitic incidents. It is an alarming phenomenon, which exploded the very day following the attack against defenseless Jewish citizens. Ignoring their suffering not only fuels hatred, but represents a real risk to social cohesion. Silence, in this case, is much more than an omission: it is a contribution to the same intolerance that the public service should fight”. Rai, which in the past played a central role in remembering the Shoah and raising awareness of the tragedy of anti-Semitism, now risks wasting years of commitment with an editorial choice that omits facts of crucial importance.
Stefano Parisi, however, does not limit himself to expressing disdain. In view of the World Day against Violence against Women, which will be celebrated on November 25th, it proposes a reparative gesture to Rai: the broadcast of the documentary “Screams Before Silence”, produced by Sheryl Sandberg, a work that collects the testimonies of women kidnapped and abused during conflicts in the Middle East. “There is no politics, there are no opinions – explains Parisi – only the voices of those who have personally experienced atrocities that no public narrative can afford to ignore.” Broadcasting the documentary, according to SetteOTTO, would not only be a gesture of compensation towards the victims, but an act of courage in the defense of truth and information.
With this appeal, the association addresses the main institutional figures, starting with Senator Liliana Segre and the vice-presidents of the Extraordinary Commission for combating intolerance, racism, anti-Semitism and incitement to hatred and violence: Senator Ester Mieli and Senator Francesco Verducci. The open letter is also addressed to the President and Vice Presidents of the Rai Supervisory Commission, Senator Barbara Floridia, Honorable Maria Elena Boschi and Honorable Augusta Mottaruli.
SetteOTTO thus expresses full confidence in the sensitivity and commitment of these institutions. The signatory, Parisi, concludes with a heartfelt exhortation: “Rai must return to being the bastion of memory and justice, offering the public a sincere story, without shadows or omissions”.
The indignation expressed in the document goes beyond the reaction to a controversial episode: it is a call for collective responsibility. The association urges the public service to carry out its duty, doing justice to the victims and contributing to the construction of an aware and inclusive society, in which information does not bow to indifference, but celebrates the value of memory and truth.
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