The long-expected campaign for “liberation of the Holy Land” got under way today with dispatch by 30 bishops of a telegram to Premier Benito Mussolini urging him to crown the “unfailing victory of our army” by planting the Italian banner over the Holy Sepulchre.
The bishops, members of a clerical organization dedicated to active participation in Italy’s “Battle of Grain,” said that such an act would symbolize “the harmony between the civilized people of Imperial and Christian Rome.”
In an apparent attempt to further Italy’s aspirations to the Holy Land, the Rome newspaper Il Piccolo has published an article explaining King Victor Emmanuel’s “legitimate” right to the titles of King of Cyprus and King of Jerusalem. According to the article, the Italian king earns this right as a member of the House of Savoia, successor to the Kingdom of Naples. In 1277, it is pointed out, Marie of Antioch ceded the title of King of Jerusalem to Charles I of Angio, King of Naples.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
