Italy expels imam for calling for Jews to die `one by one`

Rome: Italy said Tuesday it is expelling a Moroccan imam caught on video inciting violence against Jews during Israel`s offensive against Hamas militants in Gaza.

The imam was filmed during a Friday sermon in a mosque near Venice last month calling for Jews to be killed "one by one", according to the Middle East Media Research Institute (Memri), which published the video on its website. Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said he had ordered the expulsion of Raoudi Aldelbar "for seriously disturbing public order, being a danger to national security and for religious discrimination," after experts carried out a thorough examination of the footage. Aldelbar, an imam in the town of San Dona di Piave in northern Italy, appeared in the video to launch into a diatribe against the Jews, in which he said: "Oh Allah, bring upon them that which will make us happy. Count them one by one, and kill them one by one." Alfano said the speech was "unacceptable" as it was "of clear anti-Semitic tone, containing explicit incitements to violence and religious hate". Anti-Semitic graffiti was scrawled across walls in several areas of Rome last month in protest at Israel`s deadly offensive against Gaza.