Once again, on April 25, 2026, in Milan, numerous Zionist activists supporting the Jewish Brigade, supported by activists from Forza Italia and +Europa, took to the streets in a provocative manner, waving Israeli, US, Iranian, and Sha Palavi flags, with photographs of Trump and Netanyahu. Tensions in the streets have been high in recent years; this year, with the ongoing war in Lebanon, the imperialist aggression against Iran, the ongoing massacres in Gaza, and the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank by the Israeli army and neo-colonialists, they exploded in a confrontation between the anti-fascist demonstrators and the Zionists, which blocked the march for several hours.
Naturally, accusations of anti-Semitism immediately flew against the anti-fascist demonstrators, without taking into account that many Jewish anti-fascist militants were present in the march, carrying their banners.
But what exactly was the Jewish Brigade during the partisan resistance in Italy between 1943 and April 25, 1945?
Let's proceed in order: the partisan resistance against the Nazi occupation and against Republican fascism began after the armistice of September 8, 1943, which led to the harsh Nazi occupation of much of Italy. The fight against the Nazi occupation began at Porta San Paolo in Rome. Due to the lack of a coherent plan for the defense of the capital and a coordinated military resistance to the German occupation, as well as the simultaneous cowardly flight from Rome to Brindisi of King Vittorio Emanuele III of Savoy, along with his court, the head of the government, and the military leadership, the city was quickly conquered by Nazi German troops, opposed in vain and disorganized by the disbanded troops of the Royal Army and armed civilians, leaving approximately 1,000 dead on the battlefield.
Another striking moment of resistance to the Nazi occupation was the popular uprising in Naples. The "Four Days of Naples" were the first mass armed response to the Nazi occupation.
The popular uprising, between September 27 and 30, 1943, succeeded in liberating the city of Naples, the first city liberated by the people in arms.
In Nazi-occupied Italy, subsequently co-governed by the fascist republicans of Salò, partisan brigades were formed, initially composed of former soldiers from the disbanded royal army and many young people who had gone into hiding to escape forced recruitment by the fascist republican militias.
The partisan brigades were armed formations composed of volunteer anti-fascists of both sexes, who operated from the autumn of 1943 until the late spring of 1945.
The CLN (National Liberation Committee, an umbrella organization for the anti-fascist parties) was the governing body of the partisan brigades. The main partisan groups coordinated by the CNL and the CVL (Volunteer Corps for Freedom) were: those organized by the Italian Communist Party (the Garibaldi Brigades, GAP, and SAP); those of communists not part of the PCI (Bandiera Rossa); those of the Action Party (Giustizia e Libertà); those of the Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity (Matteotti); the anarchist groups (Lucetti, Bruzzi-Malatesta, and others); the autonomous groups promoted by Alpine officers who later joined the Christian Democrats (Fiamme Verdi); those autonomous and linked to the DC and PdA (Osoppo); those of the Badoglians and Monarchists (Azzurre); and the liberal and monarchist groups led by Edgardo Sogno. More than 700,000 people took part in the partisan brigades. The Jewish Brigade was not among the partisan brigades.
The Jewish Infantry Brigade Group (Jewish Brigade) was established on September 20, 1944, after lengthy negotiations between the Jewish authorities in Palestine and Winston Churchill's British government, which administered those territories under the mandate received from the League of Nations. Its members included Jews from the territories that would become modern-day Israel (many were soldiers already part of the Palestine Regiment formed in 1941 when the seemingly unstoppable German advance of Rommel's Afrika Korps in North Africa forced the British to mobilize all available forces). The Jews of the Land of Israel were joined by Jews from other countries then under British control (Canada, the Union of South Africa, and Australia), who would later be joined by other Jewish soldiers of Polish and Soviet nationality. Canadian Brigadier General Ernest Frank Benjamin was appointed to command the brigade.
After a period of training, mostly in Egypt, the soldiers of the Jewish Infantry Brigade Group were sent to Italy on October 31, 1944, to participate in the war. They landed in Taranto.
The Jewish Brigade was an independent military corps of the British Army, meaning it was not incorporated into pre-existing units, but rather incorporated into X Corps of the British Eighth Army. It had its own flag and emblem and was composed of approximately 5,000 Jewish soldiers. The Brigade fought for less than two months, from March 3, 1945, in the Tuscan-Romagna Apennines: in the province of Ravenna, in Rimini, Forlì, and Faenza, also participating in the breakthrough of the Gothic Line on the Senio River front. The toll of 54 days of fighting was 51 dead. Therefore, the Jewish Brigade was never part of the Italian anti-fascist partisan resistance, but was a Zionist armed unit within the British Army.
After the war, the Jewish Brigade was tasked with rounding up Jewish Holocaust survivors and taking them by sea to the "land of the fathers." Returning to Palestine in 1946, the Jewish Infantry Brigade Group was disbanded and its soldiers returned to the Haganah.
After the proclamation of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948, and the subsequent withdrawal of British troops, the Haganah gave way to a new military apparatus: the Israel Defense Forces. Jewish Brigade Brigadier Mordechai Markleff was appointed Chief of Staff of the newly formed national army. In the 1950s, Aaron Remez, also a veteran of the Jewish Brigade, became the second commander in chief of the Israeli Air Force. In Israel, thirty-five of the Brigade veterans who fought on Italian soil later became generals. The military experience gained by the men of the Jewish Brigade proved extremely formative and decisive in the outcome of the war that led to the establishment of the State of Israel.
This is not to underestimate the role Jews played in the partisan struggle in Italy. More than a thousand Jews fought in various partisan formations, and fought as partisans among partisans. One thousand Jewish partisan fighters represents a high percentage, considering that in the 1940s, the number of Italian Jews stood at around 50,000. It is important to emphasize that the Jewish Brigade was not a partisan corps, but a military corps of the British Army, which also fought in Italy for 54 days, which after the Second World War helped refugees emigrate to Palestine, and that its members adhered to Zionist ideology.
Supporters of the Jewish Brigade have been participating in the April 25th celebrations for twenty years. Thanks to the Friends of Israel Association (ADI), the Jewish Brigade began participating in the April 25 demonstrations in 2004, protesting the presence of Palestinian flags. The presence of the Jewish Brigade insignia, carried in the procession by bellicose Zionist groups, is sadly tied to current political events and has nothing to do with the memory of the partisan resistance. It is clear that this is a political propaganda ploy to accredit Israel and the Zionist movement as part of the anti-fascist resistance, with the stated intent of excluding the participation of pro-Palestinian demonstrators who link the partisan liberation struggle to the Palestinian resistance. This framework is seen as a way of branding all those who support the Palestinian resistance as anti-Semitic and therefore comparable to fascist criminals.
Historical revisionism serves to manipulate current events, with the complicity of almost all Italian political parties, which have unflinchingly credited the Jewish Brigade among the formations that fought in the anti-fascist resistance.
Renato Franzitta ,
Fonti
Beckman, The Jewish Brigade: An Army With Two Masters, 1944-45, Sarpedon Publishers, 1999;
Samuele Rocca and Luca Stefano Cristini, The Jewish Brigade and the Jewish Units in the British Army during World War II, Soldiershop Publishing, 2012;
Sam Rocca, The Jewish Brigade Group and the Jewish Units in the British Army in World War II, Soldiershop Publishing, 2013
https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/wp-content/uploads/maggio-2026_compressed.pdf
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Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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