Jewish shops in Rome defaced with swastikas

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Jewish shops across Rome were vandalized and defaced with swastikas in an apparent neo-fascist attack linked to fighting in the Middle East, officials said Wednesday. Owners of about 20 shops in the center and outskirts of the Italian capital reached their workplace Tuesday morning to find door locks filled with glue, shutters nailed closed and swastikas defacing nearby walls, said Riccardo Pacifici, a spokesman for Rome's Jewish Community. Although not all the shops targeted were owned by Jews, the raid was apparently conducted in reaction to hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas, Pacifici said. Flyers signed by a group calling itself Armed Revolutionary Fascists were left at the shops denouncing "the Zionist economy" and including pro-Hizbullah slogans, Pacifici said.