"In Jesus' time, there WERE no "Italians"."

From Wikipedia: "By the time of Emperor Augustus, the multi-ethnic territory of Italy was included in the Roman Italy (Italia) as the central unit of the Empire; Cisalpine Gaul, the Upper Po valley, for example, was appended in 42 BC."

So it seems that while Beck was not precise in his blaming Italians rather than Romans for the death of Christ (if he actually did so), he was not entirely wrong using that umbrella term.