A leader of Italian Jews last week accused municipal authorities of “selective enforcement” after an unauthorized mural honoring Oct. 7 survivors was painted over in Milan.

Walker Meghnagi, president of the Jewish Community of Milan, called the erasure a “disturbing and scandalous selectiveness” in a statement, citing dozens of examples of anti-Israel graffiti that have been allowed to remain for months.

JNS reached out to the Milan municipality’s media department but received no reply by press time.

“In Milan, antisemitism is out of control: Memory erased. They’ve whitewashed a wall, not the truth. The institutions must say which side they’re on. With those who remember or those who erase,” Meghnagi wrote.

Italian street artist aleXsandro Palombo created the mural commemorating the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacres in Israel, depicting the abduction of Israeli couple Noa Argamani and Avinatan Or from the Nova music festival.

Palombo unveiled the work on the third anniversary of the attacks, on an exterior wall adjacent to Milan’s Galleria d’Arte Moderna on Via Palestro, which is a municipally owned and operated museum.

The black-and-white mural depicted Argamani being carried away on a motorcycle by Hamas terrorists, desperately extending her arm toward Or, whom another terrorist was leading away on foot. A large empty space separated the couple, emphasizing their forced separation and Argamani’s unsuccessful attempt to reach her boyfriend.

“Those who want to erase the mural want to erase October 7, just as others had attempted to erase the Holocaust. First they deny. Then they minimize. Then they erase,” Meghnagi added.