Pietro Bondetti, the mayor of Varallo in the Piedmont region of Italy, which is in the Valsesia valley, received a strange package in the mail: a bullet and a threat.

In recent years, Israeli families have been settling the lush, verdant valley nestled at the foot of the Alps with help from the Baita Association, an organization that assists Israeli families hoping to escape the harsh realities of war in the Middle East to integrate into Italian society. But the ugliness of Jew hatred, which has spread rapidly across the globe in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack, infiltrated even this quiet, scenic part of the world.

The yellow envelope contained a .40 caliber Smith & Wesson bullet and a letter that purported to be from the Anti-Zionist Movement. Headlined “F— Israel,” the letter threatened the mayor that the movement would come after the town if something wasn’t done to remove the Jewish families.

“Whoever receives this gift is a supporter of the colonizers, who pretend to establish Israeli colonies in territories belonging to others, and Mayor Pietro Bondetti and all the mayors of the Valsesia who support the project,” the letter read.

“Stop the expansion and settlement of the colonists. If necessary, we will not allow the transfer of other Nazi Zionist scum,” the letter warned.

“This is the only warning before we start shooting,” the letter concluded ominously.

Since Oct. 7, such threatening letters have been sent to various Jewish communities.

“It is surprising that something like this could happen here, because Valsesia has always been a tolerant area. In all these years, we have never witnessed episodes of antisemitism,” said Olga Dolburt, the Russian-born president of the Baita Association who had served in Italy for four years as a representative of Israel’s Foreign Ministry.

“When the war became unbearable, we decided to move,” she said, explaining her move to the Valsesia valley in 2024. The community has expanded to include about 50 Israeli families thus far. “What Israel does in Lebanon and Gaza inevitably affects our daily lives. And the perception of Israelis around the world has become very difficult to manage. Being Israeli outside of Israel today is complicated, and for that reason many of us make great efforts to stay away from politics.”

The Italian newspaper La Stampa reported on the incident, saying that the mayor received a phone call of support from the official residence of the president of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, as well as from the former mayor of Varallo.

“This is a very serious and unexpected act,” Bondetti said. He filed a complaint with the police, who immediately launched a probe into the incident.

Bondetti said that there had never been any issues with the Israeli residents of the town until this incident.

“The arrival of Israeli families is a very positive thing for our area,” he said. “Those who chose to live in the Valsesia valley bought and renovated abandoned homes and brought life back to parts of the town that had been increasingly deserted.”

“The children attend our schools, and, personally, I have never noticed any tension or problem,” he said, adding that he feels “great bitterness and concern over what has happened.”

Ugo Luzzati, project manager of the Baita Association, said he had never received threats before.

“This is undoubtedly a very disturbing and also absurd letter in its content, since for Zionist Israelis leaving Israel would be considered an act of betrayal, and they would not move anywhere else, certainly not to Valsesia,” he told La Stampa.

“What drives these families to come here and choose Varallo is the search for a place where they can live without tension, without political pressure and without the bloody wars of the Middle East,” he added. The families who have moved in are “people who integrate into the community and most of them are not even religious.”