Monday, April 08, 2024
Elder of Ziyon
While the headline says this, the text does not seem to bear this out.
Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi, president of the Episcopal Conference of Italy and archbishop of Bologna, was interviewed - according to the article by Sky News, perhaps Sky News Arabia, although I couldn't find the article - and quoted him:
He is quoted as saying, “When we talk about genocide, it was a systematic extermination of the people of Israel, whose idea was unfortunately formulated and implemented by the Nazis" and then "What is happening in the Gaza Strip is a military operation that kills innocent people and children, which is something no one can accept.”
In response to a question about whether what is happening in Gaza can be defined as genocide, he responded, “We must, in any case, stop any action that causes many innocent victims."
It sounds to me like the reporter was trying to prompt the cardinal into making the comparison, and he didn't take the bait. But that didn't stop the reporter from putting his two statements together to imply that the cardinal was the one making the comparison, not the reporter him or herself.
This might be more a case of an unethical journalist than a religious figure saying something antisemitic. In October, Zuppi called Hamas "the worst enemy of the Palestinian people." Not that Zuppi is without blame - any decent person would immediately reject any hint of that comparison, especially one from a country that was a Nazi ally.
