Israel–Italy relations are the foreign relations between the State of Israel and the Italian Republic. Italy recognized Israel on 8 February 1949, after the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel on 14 May 1948. Italy has an embassy in Tel Aviv, two consulate-generals in West Jerusalem and East Jerusalem, and 4 honorary consulates in Beersheba, Eilat, Haifa and Nazareth. The Italian ambassador in Israel since 2021 is Sergio Barbanti. Israel has an embassy in Rome and the current Israeli Ambassador is Dror Eydar. Both countries are members of the Union for the Mediterranean.
History
Jews in Italy
The pre-war Jewish population of Italy amounted to 58,500 (46,500 by Jewish religion and 12,000 converted or non-Jewish children of mixed marriages). It is estimated that about 10,000 Italian Jews were deported to Nazi concentration and extermination camps, of whom 7,700 were murdered in the Holocaust. The surviving community was able to maintain its distinctiveness throughout the following decades and continued to have a significant role in the fields of politics, literature, science and industry. Writers such as Giorgio Bassani, Natalia Ginzburg and Primo Levi were among the leading figures of the Italian culture in the post-war years. As of 2019, the estimated core Jewish population in Italy numbers around 45,000.
Italian migration to Israel
The size of the Italian Jewish community has faced a slight but continuous drop throughout the postwar decades, partly because of emigration to Israel or the United States and partly because of low birth rates, assimilation and intermarriage, especially in the small congregations of the North. Italians in Israel mostly grew thanks to immigration during the 20th century. Aliyah - the symbolic ascent to Israel - has come in waves. During the period of the British Mandate, there were legal and economic limitations on immigration that were removed with the independence of the State of Israel and the promulgation of the Law of Return. Many Italkím arrived after the Italian racial laws promulgated by Fascist Italy from 1938 to 1943 to enforce racial discrimination in Italy, directed against the Italian Jews, then immediately after the Second World War, and after the Six Day War of 1967. In the first ten years of the 2000s, immigration had a new wave. In 2012 there were about 15,000 Italian citizens established in Israel.
Cooperation in the fight against terrorism and antisemitism
Relations between Italy and Israel remain strong, with frequent diplomatic exchanges and a large volume of trade. The Israeli Government has followed with great attention the fight against international terrorism pursued by the Italian Government (also in the European arena: the decision of Riva del Garda to insert Hamas in the European list of organizations considered as terrorist). In 1986, terrorists attacked an Italian passenger liner, the fact is known as the Achille Lauro hijacking. Afterwards, Italy and Israel "recognizing the effective cooperation already existing between their respective countries", in the persons of the Minister of Police of the State of Israel and the Minister of the Interior of the Republic of Italy signed the Israel-Italy Agreement on the Struggle Against Terrorism, "Aware [...] of the need to realize in a more incisive way the coordination in the flow and analysis of information, and repression of international terrorism, the illicit trade in drugs and other forms of serious crime including organized crime." Israel was highly pleased with the agreement, the first in its kind with a major European power.
It has also been appreciated what the Italian Presidency has done in the framework of the United Nations on the Middle Eastern issues. Israel also welcomed the coherent and firm line of conduct, in contrasting the emergence of antisemitism in every possible form taken by the Italian government.
Cooperation in military and defense field
The military and defense relations between the Italian Army and the Israel Defense Forces are strong. It is demonstrated by the several exercises and conferences between the higher ranks of the armies that occurred in the last decades in the field of defense, air force, military strategy and cyber security. There are also bilateral agreements for the acquisition and exchanges of military weapons and instruments.
The Israel Air Force (IAF) and the Italian Air Force concluded an extensive, two-week joint exercise in Sardinia 2010. The exercise was aimed at strengthening IAF operational capabilities and training its aircraft in large, unfamiliar airspaces along with foreign aircraft.