Italian Jewish MP quitting politics, making aliya

BERLIN – The vice president of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the Italian Chamber of Deputies, Fiamma Nirenstein, on Thursday announced her decision to make aliya.

Nirenstein said she doesn’t plan to run again in the Italian elections and in addition to making aliya, will return to her career as a professional journalist.

“I am going back to journalism and to Israel,” said Nirenstein, adding that these were “the two best things” in her life Asked by the Italian newspaper Il Giornale about her plans, Nirenstein said: “I want to come back to Israel and also to apply for citizenship.”

She said she plans to make her application for citizenship on January 27 because it marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day. She noted that “everybody can see that unfortunately anti-Semitism is still growing worldwide, and Israel is the only warm homeland for the Jewish people.”

Nirenstein has had a distinguished career as a legislator and a deputy. She has gone to great lengths to combat terrorism in Europe, as well as anti- Semitism and racism. She has pursued legislation and queries with a view toward pushing the European Union and the Italian government to ban Hezbollah and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps within the EU’s territories. And she has advocated that the IRGC and Hezbollah be listed as terror groups on the EU list of outlawed terrorist entities.

During Operation Pillar of Defense in November, Nirenstein, who served as parliamentarian for Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party and was elected to office in 2008, spoke at a large pro-Israel demonstration in the heart of Rome.

She was born in 1945 in Florence, and is a prolific author of books and articles on the Jewish people, democracy, Israel and anti-Semitism.

Nirenstein told the Italian paper that she believes “that Israel is today the best country able to offer culture, sociality, democracy, morality; a country where people adopted a lifestyle simple and natural,” and where its people are united as a family in “their fight for survival, and in their great love for their country.”

Nirenstein serves as chairwoman of the International Council of Jewish Parliamentarians.

Pro-Israel advocates say her passionate activism has helped strengthen the alliance between the EU and Israel on core security and economic matters.

Nirenstein, who has been a frequent visitor to Israel, summed up her commitment to Zionism: ”Love for life in Israel is everywhere.”