Italy's Senate Speaker Ignazio La
Russa on Monday expressed his "closeness to the Jewish people"
after visiting Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial centre in
Jerusalem.
"Every time I have symbolically knelt in this place of pain and
remembrance, I have renewed the feeling of closeness to the
Jewish people and my intention to help ensure that there will
never again be such bestial hatred," La Russa wrote in the Book
of Remembrance at the end of his visit.
Earlier Italy's second-highest ranking State official rekindled
the Eternal Flame in the Hall of Remembrance in memory of the
six million Jews killed during the Holocaust.
He also visited the Children's Memorial, a tribute specifically
to the approximately 1.5 million Jewish children who lost their
lives.
Later in the day La Russa visited the Knesset, Israel's
parliament, that said the reception he received was compensation
for the "many small difficulties" during his political career.
"The welcome I received in your Parliament, the joint applause
not only from the majority but also from the opposition, makes
up for the many small difficulties one may have in one's
political life," La Russa told the Jewish community of Italian
origin in Jerusalem.
"My outright condemnation of the Racial Laws goes back a long
way, and ever since I have been in politics the defense of the
existence, integrity and independence of Israel has been a
cornerstone of the political line of the parties to which I have
belonged," the Senate Speaker added.
The Racial Laws imposed by Italy's Fascist government in 1938
introduced racial discrimination and segregation, particularly
for Jews.
La Russa began his political career in the Movimento Sociale
Italiano (MSI), a party formed in 1946 by supporters of the late
Fascist leader Benito Mussolini, and is now a top exponent of
right-wing Fratelli d'Italia led by Premier Giorgia Meloni.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
