Online project aimed at monitoring Israeli tourists and Jewish businesses and properties in Italy draws outrage and calls for police investigation.By World Israel News StaffAn anonymous online questionnaire asking people to report Israeli and Jewish visitors, businesses and property activity in Italy has triggered accusations of antisemitic profiling and calls for prosecutors to identify those responsible.The form, which circulated through messaging groups before being removed, described its purpose as creating a “mapping of Zionist tourism in Italy.”Users were asked to submit details about hotels, resorts, vacation properties, commercial businesses, real-estate transactions and events allegedly connected to Israelis or “Zionists.” It also requested information about local organizations and people considered reliable sources.According to copies reported by Italian media, the questionnaire sought to determine whether activity in a particular area involved the “decompression tourism of Zionist soldiers,” property purchases, institutional connections or other forms of alleged Israeli presence.The form’s introduction said it was intended to document “tourism, property purchases and, more generally, Zionist neo-colonization in Italy.”It claimed the information would remain confidential and would be provided to the Global Sumud Movement to help “coordinate possible initiatives.”Representatives of the Italian branch of the Global Sumud Movement denied any connection to the questionnaire.“We are not carrying out any hunt for Jews and we know nothing about this questionnaire,” the movement said, according to Italian media. Its representatives said they had neither commissioned nor reviewed the form before it disappeared.The identity of the questionnaire’s creator remained unknown. Democratic Party Sen. Simona Malpezzi said Google had removed the link but argued that investigators still needed to determine whether crimes had been committed.The form attempted to distinguish its proposed activity from profiling based on religion or nationality, describing the project instead as one of “identification.”Jewish leaders and politicians rejected that explanation, saying the information requested could be used to locate and intimidate people because they were Jewish or Israeli.Walker Meghnagi, president of Milan’s Jewish community, compared the initiative to the registration and targeting of Jews in Europe before the Holocaust.“I think we are returning to the 1930s, to the hunt for the Jew,” Meghnagi said. “Mapping where the Jews are is extremely serious.”Meghnagi warned that even an anonymous campaign originating online could create a danger in the physical world if personal information reached someone prepared to act violently.“What is happening today demonstrates that unstable people exist,” he said, arguing that widely circulating such information made it likely that “one unstable person” would eventually respond.The Milan Jewish community forwarded material connected to the questionnaire to the relevant authorities and called for judicial intervention. Meghnagi said the initiative could also result in Italian Jews being reported while traveling inside their own country.“If an Italian goes on vacation in Italy, it is absurd that he should be reported,” he said.Alessandro Morelli, an undersecretary in Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government, called the questionnaire “aberrant” and said he was prepared to file a complaint against unidentified persons.Morelli said the episode reflected a “horrible climate that recalls the dark times of Nazi-Fascism” and called for a unanimous political condemnation of what he described as a racist initiative.The controversy also drew criticism from figures on the Italian left.Malpezzi, a Democratic Party member of the Senate commission combating intolerance, racism and antisemitism, said the campaign could not be defended as opposition to the Israeli government.“It is not an act of political protest; it is a registry,” she said.“There is no legitimate criticism of a government that passes through the registration of people based on nationality or presumed religion,” Malpezzi added. “Those who fill out those forms are building an instrument of intimidation against individual citizens.”Democratic Party Sen. Graziano Delrio similarly described the questionnaire as a system for creating “proscription lists.”“We are returning to that extremely dangerous climate that preceded the racial laws,” Delrio said, referring to the anti-Jewish legislation introduced under Benito Mussolini’s Fascist regime in 1938.Sinistra per Israele, a group associated with former Democratic Party lawmaker Emanuele Fiano, called the project an organized collection of information with a “discriminatory and intimidating nature.”The organization said criticism of Israel and allegations concerning specific misconduct were legitimate but should be directed through legal and governmental channels. Collecting information about Israeli visitors, Jewish citizens, property owners and businesses, it argued, instead promoted the idea of a hidden Israeli colonization project.The group asked Italy’s data-protection authority and law-enforcement agencies to examine the questionnaire.The episode comes amid a sharp rise in documented antisemitism in Italy. The Milan-based Center of Contemporary Jewish Documentation recorded 963 antisemitic incidents in 2025, up from 877 in 2024 and 453 in 2023. Nearly two-thirds of the incidents recorded last year occurred online.The post Antisemitic Jew-‘mapping’ project sparks uproar in Italy appeared first on World Israel News.