Di Maio rejects MP's anti-Semitic tweet

(ANSA) - Rome, January 22 - Deputy Premier Luigi Di Maio has distanced himself and his 5-Star Movement (M5S) from an anti-Semitic Tweet posted by a member of the movement, Senator Elio Lannutti, which cited the anti-Semitic czarist forgery "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion".
    "As deputy premier and political leader of the M5S, I distance myself, and with me the whole movement, from the considerations of Senator Elio Lannutti", Di Maio said, referring to the Tweet.
    Lannutti cited the Protocols, a pillar of anti-Semitic hatred for about a century, which purports to represent Jewish leaders plotting world dominion.
    It has long been recognized as a fabrication by the czarist secret police and was used in early 20th-century Russia and in Nazi Germany as a pretext to persecute Jews. In a Facebook post, Lannutti on Monday said he had "published a link on the Rothschild bankers, without any comment".
    "Since I had no intention of offending anyone, least of all the Jewish communities or others, I apologize if the link hurt" someone's feelings, he wrote.
    "Sharing a link doesn't mean sharing the content, from which I distance myself", he noted, stressing that "I am not, nor will I ever be anti-Semite".