Life is Beautiful: Aftermath

[Kame'a Media <media...>]

>From The Jerusalem Report (April 10. 2000)

(ROME):  Police in the northern Italian town of Storo
impounded an Auschwitz-themed Mardi Gras float,
blocking it from appearing in a second parade.  The
float, inspired by Roberto Benigni's Oscar-winning
movie "Life Is Beautiful, " featured concentration camp
inmates and Nazi Guards dancing together under a banner
showing clasped hands with white doves flying out of a
crematorium.  Storo's mayor, Pippo Scaglia, defended the
float, saying its message was "unequivocally an invitation
to peace."  That's not how it looked to Italian Jews or
veterans of the anti-fascist partisans.  "Not only does
the float offend Jewish sensibilities," protested
Chicca Falcone, president of the italy-Israel Assocoation,
"its stupidity and anti-Semitism offend all Italians."

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