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).

 

Greek Police arrest members of Nazi group “C18 Hellas”

Credit: The Jewish Community of Athens (athjcom.gr)

Greek Counter Terrorism Police arrested 11 suspected members of violent Nazi group “C18 Hellas” last week, during an operation in greater Athens and two provincial towns.

The suspects are allegedly members of the Greek branch of the extreme right wing group “Combat 18” also known as “C18”, which operates in various countries.

A 35-year-old gas station employee from Ioannina, northwestern Greece, is believed to have led the group, ekathimerini.com reports.

“C18” is responsible for bombing attacks against anarchist and migrant related targets and has ties with another violent Greek Nazi group named “Unaligned Meander Nationalists” (Greek abbreviation: AME). Many Greek news outlets failed to mention that both organisations have signed numerous desecrations of Jewish Monuments and Cemeteries in Greece:

• Oktober 2015: The entrance of the Jewish Cemetery in Nikaia (an area outside Athens) was vandalized with threatening graffiti featuring nazi symbols. “C18 Hellas” posted pictures of the vandalism online, claiming responsibility for the action.
• December 2014: AME members scrawled swastikas and threats on the wall of the Jewish Cemetery of Larissa, posting photos of their action online.
• Oktober 2014: AME left its signature on the Athens Holocaust Monument.
• Oktober 2012: Desecration of the Holocaust Memorial of the Jews of Rhodes. The monument is located in the Old City and the perpetrators painted with paint all six sides, while they painted the swastika, adding the initials AME.

The case (that led to the Greek police counter-terrorism unit acts) was filed after complaints by Greek Helsinki Monitor, based also on articles by XYZ Contagion blog.

#Greece: The case (that led to the Greek police counter-#terrorism unit acts) was filed after complaints by Greek Helsinki Monitor based also on articles by "Xyz Contagion" blog and concerning acts of #racism & violence by #Nazi #Combat18 & "Unconquered Meanderian Nationalists" https://t.co/nmdeeODsmD

— Vassilis Tsarnas (@VassilisTsarnas) March 8, 2018

For more information: Greece: Violent fringe Nazi groups dismantled, by Panayote Dimitras (14/3/2018, hopenothate.org.uk).

Holocaust memorial in Thessaloniki desecrated with “Golden Dawn” graffiti

Only days after the desecration with “Free Palestine” graffiti, the Thessaloniki Holocaust memorial was vandalized by Greek nazis with “Golden Dawn” graffiti (see photo of the new vandalism below).

Tens of thousands of Greeks protested today in Thessaloniki the use of the name “Macedonia” in a solution to a dispute between Greece and Republic of Macedonia.

The rally drew around 90,000 people, according to police estimates. It was attended by politicians, members of Greek diaspora groups and some hard-line clerics. MPs of the extreme-right Golden Dawn also joined the protest. (via)

Earlier today, Greek news outlet thestival.gr detected antisemitic leaflets at the White Tower square targeting the Mayor of Thessaloniki, Yiannis Boutaris, and calling him “a slave of the Jews”.

Far-right Golden Dawn MP calls Israel ‘eternal enemy’ of Greeks

Golden Dawn MP Christos Pappas wearing a nazi fez (tn: actually this “fez” was part of the uniform of the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar) and a T-Shirt calling for “Uprising For An Independant Palestine.” Via I Can’t Relax In Greece & Abravanel, the Blog

 

Via The Times of Israel

Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos called on the Justice Ministry to take action against a neo-Nazi lawmaker after he made anti-Israel comments in parliament.

Speaking during a debate in parliament on Monday, Christos Pappas, from the Golden Dawn party, called Israel an “eternal enemy of Greece and Orthodoxy,” a reference to Greece’s official church.

[…]

Kammenos has himself in the past been criticized for anti-Semitic comments, after claiming in 2014 that Greek Jews paid fewer taxes than other Greeks, but since taking up the position of defense minister has overseen increasingly warm ties with Israel.

Read more

• The leader of the right-wing Independent Greeks Party, Panos Kammenos, is not the only Greek politician who has been accused of disseminating antisemitic rumors or trivializing the Holocaust. To mention but two examples: Dimitris Kammenos of the Independent Greeks Party was forced to resign after receiving ministerial post in September 2015 over an outcry about a series of anti-Semitic and homophobic tweets. Panagiotis Sgouridis, another Independent Greeks MP, abused the memory of the Holocaust in June 2015 by mentioning Gaza during a speech about the murdered Jews of Kavala and saying that “victims become bullies.”
• Syriza Party has called Israel’s Operation Protective Edge against Hamas in Gaza two years ago “a crime against humanity”. Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled met with Dimitris Papadimoulis, Syriza MEP and Vice-President of the European Parliament, in its headquarters in Brussels in February 2016. Syriza, a left-wing party that despite its past support for the Palestinians has sought to strengthen ties with Israel, has called Khaled in a statement issued after the meeting an “activist with a historical role in the Palestinian Resistance.”

Activist helping refugees blamed to be a spy working to destabilize Europe

Achilles Peklaris working in the Kibbutz Yotvata (Israel, June 2013). Photo by Maayan Ben-Yosef. Source: exodus2013.blogspot.com

Via Get The Trolls Out!

Greek pro-Nazi Hellenic National Socialist Found blog has reposted an article from the popular news website Zougla.gr claiming that Achilles M. Peklaris, a well-known activist supporting and helping refugees in Greece, is an agent trained by Mossad, the Israeli secret services, to destabilize Europe by encouraging the arrival of refugees. Zougla.gr has meanwhile removed the article.

An antisemitic statement from the article:

Achilles M. Peklaris is “coordinating”, even to the farthest end of Greece, the “mobilization” of “Islamists” whom right-wing idiots treat as “red rags” ignoring the “matador” who is behind them and on whose arm there is the “passport” of Mossad!

Read more.

Greece: Another antisemitic headline

Via Yannis Ikonomou

“GREEK PARLIAMENT TURNED INTO JEWISH SYNAGOGUE”

This is today’s headline on one of the many Nazi gutter newspapers in Greece. It refers to the hanging of a commemorative plaque in the Greek Parliament with the names of all Jewish Members of the Greek Parliament who perished in the Holocaust. All political parties attended the ceremony save for the Nazi Golden Party.

Related: Antisemitism in Greek newspaper: Ridiculous or dangerous? By Antonis Gazakis

Greek ultra-nationalist blogs target LGBT rights activist who also stands against antisemitism

On the aftermath of the approval of same-sex civil partnerships by the Greek Parliament, many ultra-nationalistic websites published violent diatribes against the LGBT Community in Greece and those who voted in favor of the bill.

One of these websites, antipliroforisi.blogspot.com, suggested in a recent blog post that the same-sex civil partnerships have been instigated by “the Zionists”. The author of the post, who signs as “Sigma”, particularly targets Aristeidis Paraskakis, LGBT rights activist who also stands against antisemitism, accusing him of being “a Jew” serving foreign interests.

The collage of photos included in this abusive and inciting post show the activist being part of the audience assisting at the plenary session for the approval of the afore mentioned law act, wearing a kippah or holding Rainbow and Israeli flags during a demonstration. The photos are accompanied by an inscription which states: “Aristeidis Paraskakis, the Jewish organizer of Gay Pride and obviously the Jews are secretly backing him.”

Sigma also targets all those who supported or voted for the same-sex partnerships. Sigma’s inciting remarks include “they’re all Greek-speaking Janissaries” and “we should get rid of them.”

Antipliroforisi blog runs a Facebook page with more than 3.300 likes. It regularly publishes posts implying that Jewish people control everything in the world or even denying the Shoah.

Golden Dawn party to take legal action against Greek Education Minister for “denial of historical acts of genocide”

Ekathimerini.com reports:

Education Minister Nikos Filis found himself isolated and under attack Tuesday after becoming entangled in the issue of the slaughter of tens of thousands of Black Sea, or Pontic, Greeks by Turks almost a century ago and arguing that it was a case of ethnic cleansing rather than genocide.

Appearing on a late night TV show on Star on Monday, Filis defended previous comments he had made about the killings, arguing that he still believed they were a case of ethnic cleansing even though Greece has officially recognized it as genocide since 1994, designating May 19 an annual day of remembrance.

[…]

The other opposition parties also criticized the minister’s comments, with Golden Dawn claiming it will take legal action against Filis under an anti-racism law passed in September 2014, which criminalizes denial of historical acts of genocide, including that of the Black Sea Greeks, and leaves offenders facing up to three years in jail.

Greece 2015: The Nazis and Holocaust deniers of Golden Dawn party are presenting themselves as the defenders of persecuted minorities.

Greece: Members of far-right and antisemitic “Team Epsilon” group arrested in Kalamata

The statue of Constantine Palaiologos after the bomb attack, last Friday (source: apela.gr). The vandals sprayed the “Team Epsilon” logo behind the statue. The symbol is known as the Delphic Epsilon.

Media outlets (tovima.gr & greekreporter.com) reported today that Greek police officers arrested five members of the “Team Epsilon” (Greek: Ομάδα Έψιλον) far-right group for two low-power bomb attacks against the Bank of Greece in Kalamata and the statue of Byzantine Emperor Constantine Palaiologos in Mystras, both in the region of Peloponnese. The authorities also uncovered the group’s hideout, which was full of explosives, in Kalamata. According to the police, the “Team Epsilon” was preparing for a large-scale quadruple attack against central buildings in Kalamata.

Athensvoice.gr reported that the members of “Team Epsilon” have published on their website violent diatribes against the Greek political system, “the Jews” and “the Zion-Nazis” (they suggest in their texts that even Nazism is a creation of Zionism), but also against the Orthodox Church and “the Free Masons”, while they glorify the “purity” and the “independence” of the Greek nation.

Larissa: After the desecration, the boast / Νέα πρόκληση των «Ανένταχτων Μαιάνδριων Εθνικιστών»

The Coordination Forum for Countering Antisemitism reported that the Greek anti-Semitic organization “Unaligned Meander Nationalists” (Greek abbreviation: AME) posted a picture of four Neonazis in front of the vandalized entrance of the Jewish Cemetery of Larissa (see photo below). These are probably the four persons who scrawled swastikas and threats on the cemetery wall of the Cemetery past December. The organization AME congratulates the „autonomous / unaligned fighters from Larissa“ and quotes an antisemitic saying from the theoretician of anarchy Michael Bakounin. AME, which declares to be a hardcore radical and nationalistic organization and separates itself from “moderate nationalists” of Golden Dawn, has signed the desecration of the Holocaust Monument in the island of Rhodes in October 2012 and the desecration of the Holocaust Monument in Athens in October 2014.

Read also: Greece: Vandals desecrated the Jewish Cemetery of Larissa

Η νεοναζιστική ομάδα «Ανένταχτοι Μαιάνδριοι Εθνικιστές» ανάρτησε στις 18 Ιανουαρίου φωτογραφία που απεικονίζει τέσσερις κουκουλοφόρους να ποζάρουν έξω από τη βεβηλωμένη με ναζιστικά συνθήματα και σύμβολα είσοδο του Εβραϊκού Νεκροταφείου της Λάρισας. Πρόκειται πιθανότατα για τους «Larissa Skins», τους δράστες της βεβήλωσης του περασμένου Δεκεμβρίου. Οι Α. Μ. Ε. συγχαίρουν τους «αυτόνομους / ανένταχτους συναγωνιστές» τους για τη βεβήλωση αυτή, παραθέτοντας μάλιστα και μια ρήση αντισημιτικού χαρακτήρα του Ρώσου θεωρητικού του αναρχισμού, Μιχαήλ Μπακούνιν. Οι Α. Μ. Ε. ευθύνονται, μεταξύ άλλων, για την πρόσφατη βεβήλωση του Μνημείου του Ολοκαυτώματος της Αθήνας.