Rome - In Italy the leader of a tiny retailer union's proposal to shun Jewish-owned shops to protest Israel's Gaza incursion has drawn wide condemnation, with Rome's mayor, a former prominent member of a neo-fascist party, taking the lead.

Mayor Gianni Alemanno on Thursday visited Rome's ancient Ghetto - where Jews were once segregated - and in a show solidarity, purchased a tie and several shirts from Jewish shopkeepers.

"It (the boycott) is a folly that takes us back to the past," Alemanno said, referring to the racist laws introduced by Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in 1938.

Alemanno a former youth leader of the defunct neo-fascist Italian Social Movement in the 1970s and 80s, later renounced his extremist past and is now a member of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's conservative coalition.

L'Avvenire, a newspaper published by Italy's Catholic bishops, on Friday also condemned any moves to boycott Jewish shops.

While Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip can be criticized, "one cannot blacklist persons or a community on the basis of their (religious) faith," the newspaper said Friday.

In an apparent attempt to placate the row, Giancarlo Desiderati, secretary of the Flaica-Unit Cub retailers' union, said his proposal had been misinterpreted and that he was only referring to a boycott of products imported from Israel.

Opinions in Italy have been divided over the crisis in Gaza, where Israel says its military offensive is necessary to stop the militant Islamist Hamas from using the enclave to launch rocket attacks against Israeli targets.

Members of Berlusconi's centre-right government have stressed Israel's right to defend itself while many on the centre-left have denounced the killing of scores of civilians. (dpa)