Napolitano wins lawsuit against Sallusti and donates compensation to Museum of Judaism

President Emeritus and life senator Giorgio Napolitano has won a defamation lawsuit against Alessandro Sallusti, editor of Il Giornale, and has decided to donate to the National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah (MEIS) in Ferrara the 30,000-euro compensation that the Civil Court of Rome imposed as a monetary penalty on the journalist. The museum was chosen as the recipient of the donation because it is “a place of memory of the historical Jewish presence in Italy, of testimony to racial persecution and the Shoah, and of promotion of dialogue and civil coexistence among different cultures, religions and traditions,” Napolitano’s spokesman reports.

The Court of Rome, reads a note from Giorgio Napolitano’s staff, “affirmed that in the headlines and articles reported Sallusti repeatedly refers to Senator Napolitano using, in addition to suggestive, allusive and insinuating expressions and juxtapositions, terms such as plots, coup, conspiracy, high treason that go beyond the limit of expressive continence and propriety and result in an attack on the person and dignity of the former Head of State that integrates the extremes of defamation and, specifically, given the medium used, of libel in the press.”

“We express our deepest gratitude to President Emeritus Giorgio Napolitano, who has recognized the role of the MEIS as a place of testimony and dissemination of the historical Jewish presence in Italy, of remembrance of racial persecution and the Shoah, and of promotion of dialogue and civil coexistence between different cultures, religions and traditions,” say MEIS President Dario Disegni and museum director Amedeo Spagnoletto. “We feel an even stronger and firmer sense of responsibility for the mission that the Italian state has entrusted to the MEIS, which tells the story of each of us and celebrates the richness of diversity and dialogue.”

The National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah - MEIS in Ferrara was established by Law No. 91 of April 17, 2003, later amended by Law No. 296 of December 27, 2006, “as a testimony to the events that have characterized the bimillennial Jewish presence in Italy.” The law recognizes and enhances the exceptional continuity of a rich, uninterrupted, but to most unknown path, in which Jews have brought to the history and fabric of the country their own traditions and a fundamental cultural contribution, between periods of coexistence and fruitful interactions, and others of discrimination and persecution, such as closure in ghettos and the tragedy of the Shoah. The museum also aims to be a laboratory of ideas and reflections open to all, stimulating debate about Judaism and the value of dialogue between cultures.

Photo: the facade of the MEIS in Ferrara. Credit

Napolitano wins lawsuit against Sallusti and donates compensation to Museum of Judaism

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