Last week in Florence, Italy, I watched a woman get physically attacked near an anti-Israel protest in front of my home.

On May 18, Italy participated in a nationwide general strike against military spending and in support of Gaza and the Hamas-backed flotilla. The numbers for the recent strike aren’t in yet, but at the last strike in October, more than two million Italians reportedly participated. Trains were blocked. Many schools were closed or unable to hold classes because of teacher and staff participation. One protest even featured a hang glider flying over Florence, an eerie echo of the Hamas militants who used paragliders to invade Israel and slaughter civilians at the Nova music festival.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni dismissed both strikes as politically motivated. But such massive collective actions have fueled the conflation of criticism of Israel with hostility toward Jews. And, as I noticed a few weeks ago when I woke up to more than 600 comments on social media–most wishing violent things would happen to me–many people have stopped saying it’s “Zionists” they have a problem with and are now saying what they meant all along: Jews. I had simply reposted an article from the Jerusalem Post that explored the rise in antisemitism in Italy. It didn’t have anything to do with Israel, but being Jewish was enough to get caught up in the deluge of hate.

But last week, as demonstrators crossed a bridge over the Arno River, familiar slogans filled the air: “Free, free Palestine,”........

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