By Daniel Bettini

Copyright ynetnews

Reports of aggressive anti-Israel incidents in Europe are becoming increasingly frequent, and Italy has emerged as a major hotspot alongside Spain. On Tuesday, two incidents in Italian universities drew wide attention in the national press. The more serious episode occurred at the University of Pisa, where dozens of pro-Palestinian activists stormed a lecture by Professor Rino Casella, whom they had branded a “Zionist.” The group disrupted the class, waved Palestinian flags, and shouted insults at Israel and those cooperating with it. When one of Casella’s students tried to push the protesters out, he was assaulted. Casella, who had initially tried to endure the disruption in silence, stepped in and was also beaten after being threatened for several minutes. He was later taken to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with head injuries and bruises on his arm. “They came in, young men and women, basically fascists—you can call them that—and demanded I stop teaching,” Casella told Corriere della Sera. “One grabbed my microphone, another took the book I was holding, and threw it to the ground. Why? Because the book had a small American flag on it. He shouted that I was a ‘dirty imperialist.’” Casella said the students in class were terrified and began calling the police. He also phoned police but later asked them not to enter the classroom, fearing it would set a dangerous precedent inside the university. He recalled that when one of his students tried to seize a Palestinian flag from a protester, he was struck. “I intervened and was hit too. I took a strong punch to the face,” Casella said, adding it would take him a week to recover. He believes he was targeted because he criticized the university’s recent decision to cut all ties with Israel. Flyers circulated against him in recent days described him as a “Zionist.” Casella stressed that he is not Jewish, but simply refusing to denounce Israel was enough for activists to accuse him of “genocide.” “I don’t think what Israel is doing in Gaza amounts to genocide,” he said. “And I don’t think calling someone a Zionist is an insult.” The second incident occurred earlier Tuesday at the Polytechnic University of Turin, where Israeli Professor Pini Zorea of the Braude College of Engineering in Karmiel was invited to teach a course. Protesters disrupted his lecture, accusing him of supporting Israeli “apartheid” through facial recognition technology. Zorea, filmed during the incident, tried to respond calmly. The discussion shifted to military issues, and he acknowledged having served in the Israel Defense Forces years ago, describing the IDF as “the purest army in the world.” The remark sparked uproar, and he was accused of justifying violence. Zorea emphasized that his class had nothing to do with the war, insisting that the IDF operates “professionally and with restraint.” To chants of “Free Palestine,” he replied that he too wanted to see Palestine free—but “free of Hamas.” After learning of the exchange, the university rector, Stefano Cornietti, suspended Zorea. “As soon as I heard these unacceptable statements, I immediately ended the cooperation with the lecturer,” Cornietti said. “The Polytechnic has always strongly condemned all acts of violence in this war and protested against the ongoing slaughter of civilians in Gaza.” The twin incidents follow a decision by faculty at the University of Florence to delay the start of the academic year in solidarity with Palestinians and in protest against what they called “genocide by Israel.” Several Jewish faculty members expressed concern over the move. Just weeks earlier, a professor at the University of Palermo sparked outrage when he urged followers on Facebook to unfriend “all Jews you know, even the good ones—because they are the worst, collaborators.”