Fury as terrified Jewish father and his six-year-old son are 'attacked and called murderers' by enraged pro-Palestine crowd after stopping at Italian motorway service station
The man, who has not been named, and his son had stopped to use the facilities at the rest area while driving from Milan to their home in Paris after a holiday.
They were both wearing traditional Jewish kippahs and attracted the attention of people at the services near Lainate on the main Milan-Lagi motorway.
The father, who managed to capture the incident on video as he and his son were insulted and attacked, said they were both left 'terrified'.
In the clip which was later uploaded to social media, a group of people can be heard shouting in Italian 'Palestina Libera '(Free Palestine)' and 'Go back home'.
Others also shout in Italian 'Assassini' (murderers) while another adds: 'This isn't Gaza, here is Italy' and another can be heard shouting: 'You will go to hell sooner or later'.
The man's son, can clearly be seen in the clip, and he looks on with a scared look on his face as the crowd increased their hostility
At one point, the video appears to shake, as the man claims he is pushed to the floor and then kicked with the crowd demanding he delete the video.
Police eventually arrived after ten minutes and the man and his son were questioned about what happened.
The video was shared on several anti Semitic campaign groups, with one commentator writing:' This is how it started in the Netherlands when I was a boy in 1941. I'm seeing it happen all over again.'
In an interview with Italian media, the man, named only as Eli, 52, said:' We were on our way back from a trip to Lake Maggiore and I was with my youngest son, his sister and her husband, who is Italian.
'We were driving back to Milan and then I was going to carry on back to Paris where I live and manage a clothes store.
'I was heading towards the bathroom when one of the cashiers saw me and shouted Free Palestine' and it was him who sparked everything off.
'I gestured that I couldn't speak Italian but that he should stop, and I then started to film him and at that point others joined in.
'People were shouting 'killers' and 'genocide' and I was trying to protect my young son and then tried to walk us both to the bathroom.
'When we came up the stairs from the bathroom, there was a crowd there and they told me to delete the video and started pushing me.
The man – who managed to capture the incident on video as he says he and his son were insulted and attacked – said they were both left 'terrified'.
'At that point I lost sight of my son, and I thought I have to defend myself but I ended up on the ground.
'They were like animals kicking me. I couldn't see my son but fortunately a woman had taken him away and was looking after him in a corner. I saw wild animals.'
When asked if he had expected something like this he said: 'Frankly, yes because of the climate of hate in Europe but I didn't expect it in Italy, I thought it was a tolerant country.
'I'm still shocked, the police questioned me for two hours after it happened and they are still investigating, things like this are happening all too frequently now.
Later writing on X, Italy's deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini said:' What happened in the service area at Lainate is very serious.
'A father and his six-year-old son on holiday in Italy, attacked and insulted purely because they are Jewish, and called murderers.
'I had hoped that Jew baiting had ended with the death of Nazi fascism, it is unacceptable that in 2025 in our country it is still happening.'
A spokesperson for Milan police said: Officers were called to the service area on Sunday evening (27 July) and are investigating the incident.
'CCTV from the scene has been obtained and is being examined, and also cameras in the car parking area are being looked at as some suspects went in that direction.
'We will be looking to see if any of those caught on film can be identified.'
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