Λευκάδα: στο δρόμο με τα αντισημιτικά συνθήματα

Αλγεινή εντύπωση προκαλεί το πλήθος αντισημιτικών και αντιεμβολιαστικών συνθημάτων που έχουν αναγραφεί κατά μήκος του δρόμου που συνδέει το χωριό Τσουκαλάδες με τον Άγιο Νικήτα. Ο συγκεκριμένος δρόμος είναι από τους πιο πολυσύχναστους του νησιού κάθε καλοκαίρι. Εκατοντάδες παραθεριστές κάνουν καθημερινά αυτή τη διαδρομή για να μεταβούν, μεταξύ άλλων, στη δημοφιλή παραλία Πευκούλια. Ο Δήμος Λευκάδας φαίνεται να αδιαφορεί προς το παρόν γι’αυτή την κατάσταση που δυσφημίζει το νησί, καθώς δεν έχει στείλει ακόμα συνεργείο για να σβήσει τα συνθήματα μίσους.   

Ήδη εντός του χωριού Τσουκαλάδες και σε περίφραξη νεκροταφείου έχει αναγραφεί με μπλε μπογιά η εξίσωση «Μασονία = Εβραιοσιωνισμός» δίπλα από το σύνθημα «Κάτω η Νέα Δικτατορία» των αντιεμβολιαστών.

Φωτογραφία: Against Antisemitism blog (Ιούλιος του 2021)

Καθοδόν προς την παραλία Πευκούλια και στην επιφάνεια του προστατευτικού τοιχίου, το οποίο έχει μήκος σχεδόν 2 χιλιόμετρα, έχουν αναγραφεί δεκάδες ευμεγέθη συνθήματα: «Φονιάδες των Λαών Ιζραηλίτες», «Fuck Off Izrael» και άλλα πολλά και τρομακτικά.

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Φωτογραφίες: Against Antisemitism blog (Ιούλιος του 2021)

Δεν πρόκειται δυστυχώς για νέο φαινόμενο σε αυτή την περιοχή. Το μπλογκ Epirus Beaches δημοσίευσε πριν λίγα χρόνια φωτογραφία με παρόμοια γκράφιτι –  «Viva Hezbollah», «Fuck Israel – USA» (τα δύο s έχουν αντικατασταθεί από τη σβάστικα). Ο Δήμος Λευκάδας έχει κάποιο σχέδιο για να αποτρέψει τη δράση των αντισημιτών και των αντιεμβολιαστών; 

Greek newspaper criticized for running cartoon that trivializes the Holocaust (once again)

The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS) denounced in a statement another attempt to diminish and exploit the Holocaust: 

The new cartoon published in “Efimerida ton Syntakton” on January 16, 2021, combines the Nazi sign with the cartoonist’s confection “Studies make you free”, thus equalizing the gate of Auschwitz with the gates of the universities and the prisoners in this horrific extermination camp with the students. It is a hideous and vulgar instrumentalization of the Holocaust for political purposes.

In any case, the newspaper’s expressed respect towards the victims of the Holocaust and its firm position against antisemitism cannot be used as excuses for the publication of such cartoons that insult both the memory of the victims and the survivors alike, by trivializing the place of their martyrdom.

KIS ANNOUNCEMENT ON A CARTOON TRIVIALIZING THE HOLOCAUST, January 18, 2021 [excerpt]

Background: New higher education bill targets lawlessness, standards (Apostolos Lakasas)

Dear @EFSYNTAKTON, time and time again you have a habit of publicising material that is deemed as trivialising the Holocaust, time and time again you are told that this equates to #antisemitism, but you keep on doing it time and time again! Why? What you do not understand? https://t.co/pSKt2EYjt6

— Constant K. (@lubenprolet) January 18, 2021

The same cartoonist, Kostas Grigoriadis, published in “Efimerida ton Syntakton” in July 2018 a similar cartoon depicting the entrance to the Auschwitz death camp with the message “the 12-hour [work day] sets you free,” to protest plans for a 12-hour work day in Austria. (more information)

Antisemitic targeting of Pfizer CEO in Greek national daily

Via Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS):

Daily “Makeleio”, known for frequently publishing incendiary anti-Semitic articles, on November 10, 2020, circulated with yet another anti-Semitic front-page title related to the announcement made by Albert Bourla, the CEO of the Pfizer pharmaceutical company, on the upcoming vaccine for covid. The front-page (as well as the teaser of the on-line Makeleio.gr)  is illustrated with the photo of the Nazi doctor Josef Mengele next to the photo of Dr. Bourla whose Jewish faith is used in the title to disseminate stereotypical propaganda, while in the surtitle of the front-page the term “poison” is used for the vaccine.

The Greek Jewry’s outrage was expressed with the following announcement of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS), which was followed by the immediate reaction of the General Secretary for Religious Affairs, Mr George Kalantzis, who issued the statement below: [Read both statements in English here]

• Greek Helsinki Monitor has filed a criminal complaint to the Prosecutor concerning the antisemitic headline in Makeleio newspaper.

• A Greek court in October 2020 convicted the Makeleio newspaper over an antisemitic article targeting Minos Moissis, the former President of the Jewish Community of Athens.

Latest antisemitic incidents in Greece

September 8: At least four banners featuring antisemitic signs were displayed by violent protesters against the Macedonia name deal in the northern Greek port city of Thessaloniki (h/t Leon Saltiel). They read “Talmud, Qabballah, the Enemy of the Humanity”, “Against New World Order (with a red line erasing the Star of David), “Here Greece, Here Orthodoxy. Death to Zionism” and “Rothschild, your end is coming”.

“Rothschild, your end ist coming”: One of the antisemitic banners displayed in Thessaloniki. More signs at antisemitism.org.il

Late August: Antisemitic graffiti was sprayed on the wall of a house located in a central street of Sparta. The inscription reads “Death to the Jews” (Θάνατος στους Εβραίους), skalalakonias blog has reported.

Late August: The Ioannina section of leftist “Popular Unity” party opposed in a press release the twinning agreement between the city of Ioannina (northern Greece) and the city of Kiryat Ono calling Israel a “terrorist state”.

August 31: Hate graffiti, propaganda material and several christian symbols were found outside the construction site of a state-funded mosque in Athens, lifo.gr has reported. Some of the flyers posted outside the construction site are clearly antisemitic: “Out with the Freemasons and the Jews” and “All bank are controlled by Zionists,” they read.

August 30: An antisemitic sticker referring to the “Jews and money” stereotype with the slur “Jew dog” was found near the Byzantine Museum of Thessaloniki. The sticker was posted by followers of “Father Cleomenis,” a man who dresses as a monk and posts videos of himself on social media vandalizing monuments, most recently the Holocaust memorial in the Central Greece city of Larissa (h/t Racist Crime Watch).

 

Greece: Leftist newspaper publishes cartoons demonizing Israel

efsyn.gr

Via Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece

Wednesday, 25 April 2018

Two sketches by Michalis Kountouris, with strong messages of demonisation of Israel and unacceptable parallelism with the Holocaust, were published in the “Efimerida Syntakton” (EFSYN. – “Editors’ Journal”) on 10th and 11th April 2018. The sketches were commented on with the following article entitled “Bloody Handprints” – published in the issue of the EFSYN of 16.4.18 – by the journalist and General Secretary of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece, Victor Is. Eliezer.

The sketches also stirred a reaction from Israel’s Ambassador to Greece, Ms. Irit Ben-Abba (letter to the EFSYN 11/4/2018), and journalist Dimitris Psarras (through his article “We do not Forget the Holocaust” EFSYN  16/4/2018).

• Victor Is. Eliezer: “Bloody Handprints” EFIMERIDA SYNTAKTON  16/4/2018

Yom Hashoah. Holocaust Day, 11th April 2018. The Jews mourn for their 6,000,000 fellow Jews who were unjustly and brutally killed in the gas chambers of the Nazi camps! On the same day, in Greece, the “EFSYN”, known for its merciless struggle against anti-Semitism and neo-Nazism, hosted a sketch in which an Israeli soldier leaves the prints of his bloodied hands on the Wailing Wall, next to many other bloody handprints of other people who apparently prayed before him. You know, all the Jews have visited the Wailing Wall, many of us pray and touch the Wall that is what is left of the Temple of Solomon. The bloody handprints, according to the cartoonist, could be the bloody handprints of every Jew who has visited the Wailing Wall!  One day earlier, another sketch (by the same cartoonist) appeared in the newspaper, where the Gaza Strip was identified with a prisoner of Nazi concentration camps.

[…]

Read more

Greek Communist Party calls Israel a “state-killer”

Demonstrators protesting “the imperialist attack on Syria” in Athens. Screenshot via inter.kke.gr

The Greek Communist Party (KKE) organized a rally in central Athens to protest the US-led airstrikes against Syria on Saturday. The protesters chanted anti-U.S., anti-Nato and anti-EU slogans and even set an American flag on fire right in front of the American Embassy.

The Greek Communist Party issued a statement in which it blasted the SYRIZA-ANEL coalition government for “implicating” Greece “deeper in this massacre, on the account of the Greek capital, that is claiming its participation in the distribution of the loot and of the market shares.” It also accused the Greek government of cooperating militarily “with states-killers such as Israel.”

Communist Party chief Dimitris Koutsoumbas has accused Israel of engaging in “genocide” against Palestinians.

“Despite the problems facing our people, we must not underestimate the fact that a genocide is taking place in our neighborhood. Innocent children, women, families are being killed,” Koutsoumbas said during a meeting with former Greek President Karolos Papoulias in Athens four years ago.

 

 

Greek Jews call for the abolition of the “burning of the Judas”

The ‘burning of the Judas’ in the village of Tolo, on the Peloponnese peninsula (Easter 2018). Screenshot via YouTube.

Announcement by the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece

During the Easter holidays, various customs take place in our country. One of these is the “burning of the effigy of Judas”, which takes place in some areas of the country. This custom perpetuates stereotyped perceptions against the Jews. It is significant that the custom has almost been eliminated in the rest of Europe.

In the past, we, the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece, have repeatedly proceeded with representations to competent bodies in order to stop the custom in our country. The fact that the Church of Greece, with its Synodic Circulars of 1891, 1910 and 1918, demanded that “these customs are expressly forbidden” is of particular significance.

We believe that this custom not only offends the Greek Jewish community but also affects every effort towards the understanding and respect of common values ​​that characterise Judaism and Christianity. We hope that everyone will eventually contribute to the abolition of this custom that does not serve the spirit of love and reconciliation which is conveyed during the days of Easter.

Athens, 11 April  2018

Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece

Η λωρίδα πάνω στο συρματόπλεγμα

Σκίτσο του Μιχάλη Κουντούρη στην “Εφημερίδα των Συντακτών”

Στην Ελλάδα της ασυδοσίας του λόγου, δημοσιεύτηκε και πάλι σκίτσο που συνδέει την κατάσταση στη Λωρίδα της Γάζας με τη σημειολογία του Άουσβιτς (Εφημερίδα των Συντακτών, 10/4/2018). Προσθέτοντας ανάμεσα στα συρματοπλέγματα του στρατοπέδου συγκέντρωσης/εξόντωσης ένα κομματάκι γης και τέσσερις λέξεις, ο σκιτσογράφος έδωσε νέα ώθηση στον ιστορικό ρεβιζιονισμό της Αριστεράς. Θλιβερή και απαράδεκτη αγραμματοσύνη, λίγες μέρες πριν την Yom HaShoah.

Protesters display antisemitic signs outside parliament in Athens

Hundreds of thousands of Greeks rallied outside parliament in Athens on Sunday to protest against the use of the term Macedonia in any settlement the government pursues with the ex-Yugoslav Republic to end a decades-old name row, Reuters reports.

A sea of people waved blue and white Greek flags. A photographer captured protesters outside parliament holding a banner promoting antisemitism and conspiracy theories. The banner reads “Against New World Order” and features the Star of David and a Freemason symbol in prohibition signs.

Photo credits: Dimitris Kleanthis / Source: Athens Voice

Antisemitic banner displayed in Larissa

Supporters of Artemis Sorras, a convicted embezzler, notorious antisemite and conspiracy theorist, rallied last week in the streets of Larissa, capital and largest city of the Thessaly region, displaying a huge antisemitic banner. The banner reads: The Convention of Greeks [the organization founded by Sorras] opposes fascism, Zionist ideology and anything being against Greek values.

Here is footage from the rally including the antisemitic banner: