Antisemitic hate incidents in Greece (August-December 2020)

Although the numbers of Greeks of Jewish religion is, according to the Greek Census, very low (5000, i.e. 0.05% of the Greek population) the incidents of anti-Semitic rhetoric and the recorded attacks against Jewish monuments or synagogues are disproportionately high. (Antisemitism in Greece today: Executive Summary, 2017)

August 13: The antisemitic slogan “Satanist Jews Out” was found at the Fallen Aviators Monument (Athens, Karaiskaki Square) along with Christogram crosses. [reported by the Against Antisemitism blog]

Fallen Aviators Monument, Athens. Photo credit: Rosa Roussou

September 21: A monument to the fighters of the Greek People’s Liberation Army in Thessaloniki, located near the White Tower, was desecrated with the graffiti “Commie Jews”. [reported by the blog communistsremembrance.wordpress.com]

October 5: “Neo-Nazis vandalized the external surrounding walls of the Jewish cemetery of Athens with the same slogans the Nazis used 80 years ago in order to deport millions of Jews from their homes and exterminate six million in the gas chambers, amongst whom 60.000 Greek Jews.” (from the KIS announcement for the antisemitic graffiti at the Jewish Cemetery of Athens)

October 10 & 11: The words “Death to Israel” were discovered at the Jewish cemetery of Thessaloniki, while four tombs were vandalized in the Jewish cemetery on Rhodes island in the southeast. The acts of vandalism come after the leader of Greece’s neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn and his inner circle were handed 13-year prison sentences on Wednesday. (AFP)

World Jewish Congress: Just days after leaders of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party in Greece were charged with leading a criminal group, multiple Jewish sites in the country were targeted and vandalized with antisemitic graffiti. It shows that even when major steps are taken against racism, the fight is on-going.

October 16: A graffiti saying “With Jews you lose” was sprayed onto a monument dedicated to the 50,000 Jews of Thessaloniki in northern Greece perished during the Holocaust. (AFP)

November 10 & 12: The Greek newspaper “Makeleio” whose publisher was convicted recently of anti-Semitic defamation warned its readers that Pfizer’s Jewish CEO will “stick the needle” into them while calling the pharmaceutical company’s prospective COVID-19 vaccine “poison.” A further article repeated the accusations against Bourla, with a screeching headline claiming that the “Greek Jew” had “trousered millions” on behalf of the “Israeli Council.” (JTA / The Algemeiner)

December 3: “A man wearing a cassock and holding an icon, sprayed a Christogram cross with the words “Jesus Christ Conquers” on the Holocaust monument of Larissa. He did the same on the outer wall of the Synagogue which is currently being restored. The incident was recorded on cctv street cameras which were examined after the President of the Jewish Community of Larissa informed the police and filed a lawsuit. The man was arrested the following day in the nearby area of Tempi. He was charged with damaging property and violating antiracism law.” [reported by the KIS]

December 28: The Holocaust Monument in the city of Drama, northern Greece, was vandalized. The perpetrators sprayed a black cross and broke the base of marble at the base of the monument. A similar graffiti appeared on the door of the old tobacco warehouse where, on March 3, 1943, the Bulgarian occupying forces arrested and imprisoned Greek Jews from Drama, before deportating them to Nazi extermination camps. [ekathimerini]

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”.

Footage shows Greek Nazis chanting ‘Sieg Heil’ & ‘Juden raus’

Screenshot via efsyn.gr

Via AthensLive News & The Editors Daily

A video footage from 2005 has emerged showing nearly the entire Golden Dawn leadership (Michaloliakos, Kassidiaris, Panagiotaros, Germenis, Matthaiopoulos and others) participating in a concert featuring Nazi salutes, the Nazi German war flag & the singing of the first verse of “Deutschland über alles.”

The slogans chanted from the crowd are the classic hate cries of the Hitler movement and are shouted in German: “Sieg Heil!” and “Juden raus!” (Jews out). They are raised in honour of two German Nazi performers, Michael Müller and Annett Müller. As the crowd shouts “Juden raus” Michael Müller interrupts them to say, in English: “Not only out. But exterminated.”

More information

The footage appears on Marsia Tzivara’s documentary “Burning from the Inside.”

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.”

Golden Dawn suggests Kosovo declaration of independence is a Judeo-American conspiracy

XYZ Contagion blog has reported that Golden Dawn, Greece’s Nazi party, proclaimed in July 2015 its solidarity with Serbian nationalists suggesting that Kosovo’s declaration of independence is a Judeo-American conspiracy.

«KOSOVO IS SERBIA! SOLIDARITY WITH SERBS, OUR BROTHERS! Declaration of Kosovo’s independence by one side, by Albanian Nationalist Government of Kosovo (UCK), has as consequence attack on national sovereignty of Serbia and violation on every meaning of international law, is a proof of direct involving of Judeo-American politics on the Balkans, but also a result of long lasting politics of ethnic ‘cleansing’ of Serbs which began by NATO bombing, 1999. By cynical awarding of ‘autonomous’ gang of Albanian killers, dealers of drug and white slaves (UCK), allegedly in the name of democracy, real face of world globalization process is being revealed. It reveals an intention to fragment the Balkans with the goal of creating dependent protectorates. Our fatherland is for a long time a target. In the plans of world ruler, Thrace, Macedonia and Chamurija are after Kosovo… As Greek nationalists, we are expressing support to our Serbian brothers, which has also been proved in the past. We are giving our solidarity to a common fight for national sovereignty and independence. GOLDEN DAWN, Greek nationalist party». English translation of the proclamation via https://archive.is/rTL5q

Investigations by journalists and activists over the years have revealed articles in the Golden Dawn magazine admiring Hitler, and found images of Golden Dawn members giving Nazi salutes.

A recent survey by XYZ Contagion revealed the active involvement of Golden Dawn members in the Srebrenica massacre (July 1995).

This research presents for the first time evidence, documents, testimonies, and visual evidence that shows that “Greek Golden Dawn members, fascists and others were present during the whole week of the atrocities in Srebrenica. They were present exactly at the places, fields, warehouses and football fields, at the time that mass executions of detained Bosnian Muslims were taking place, during the digging of mass graves where the men and boys had been taken […]. They had a very close relationship to elite paramilitary mercenaries of the Serb-Bosnian army. According to evidence of the International Court of Justice, they were also photographing the prisoners who were about to be executed and the executions themselves”. Stratis Bournazos: The Srebrenica massacre and the role of the Greek volunteers: a revealing investigation by XYZ Contagion on Golden Dawn members involvement (June 2015)

The nazi gang is boasting for the participation of its members in the war in Bosnia by the side of the Serb national-cleansers. At the frontpage of “Chrysi Avgi” newspaper, no. 110, 1995: “Greek patriots are fighting in the battlefronts of Bosnia by the side of the Serbs. Amongst them members of Chrysi Avgi”. Text & frontpage via http://antinazi.gr/image/web/p39eg.htm

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.

Jew-hatred inside the European Parliament

XYZ Contagion, a Greek investigating journalism blog, reported that earlier this month three Golden Dawn MEPs produced a video with antisemitic and anti-immigrant remarks and then published it on YouTube. The video was allegedly shot in a studio of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. The three Golden Dawn MEPs are: Lampros Fountoulis, Eleftherios Synadinos and Georgios Epitideios.

Especially E. Synadinos suggested that Angela Merkel and other European “powerful leaders” obey to a plan for “global domination and uniformisation” and referred to the antisemitic forgery “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”. He then accused these leaders of doing nothing to stop “the Americans” and “the Zionists” from executing their “plans” against the European nations. L. Fountoulis agreed with E. Synadinos and defended the necessity of Greece’s cultural integrity. He also suggested that all decisions made by the European foreign ministers are not really democratic but they are “imposed” by “the most powerful”. Finally, G. Epitideios endorsed the conspiracy theories of his colleagues.

Back in 2012, Golden Dawn MP Ilias Kasidiaris read out in Greek parliament a passage from “The Protocols”. There was absolutely no reaction to this among the members of parliament.

Holocaust-denier, Golden Dawn supporter, working for Greek state media agency, to face tribunal over provocative tweets

Ekathimerini.com reports (2.10.2015):

The General Secretariat of Information and Communication said on Friday that an employee who posted messages on his Twitter account hailing neofascist Golden Dawn and criticizing the mother of leftist rapper Pavlos Fyssas, who was killed by a member of GD, was to face a disciplinary council.

The council is to decide on whether the employee, Petros Kormikiaris, should be dismissed from his post for posting a series of incendiary messages on Twitter that fueled widespread outrage on the social media network.

[…]

Lifo.gr collected many of his racist and antisemitic comments from his Twitter account. One of them reads: “I strongly question the historical reality of the holocaust [sic]. The contemporary state of Israel proves my point. NO MORE FASCISM IN MANKIND” – Petros Kormikiaris (@PKormikiaris) September 26, 2015

“We welcome the great victory of GoldenDawn. We embrace the leader Nikos Michaloliakos.” Petros Kormikiaris, 21/09/2015. Screenshot & English translation by Damian Mac Con Uladh: https://twitter.com/damomac/status/649903911948697600

Nazi Salutes in the Greek Parliament

On December 30^th, 2014, the Greek daily newspaper Ta Nea published a photo showing two extreme right Golden Dawn MPs, Nikos Michaloliakos and Christos Pappas, giving a nazi salute after the announcement of the third and unsuccessful ballot result for the election of the President of the Hellenic Republic.

Via Panayote Dimitras (facebook)

Past September, the Greek newspaper I Kathimerini released a video apparently showing Christos Pappas teaching two children how to give the Nazi salute and chant “Heil Hitler.”

According to recent opinion polls, Golden Dawn remains the third most popular party in Greece.

Blog Against Antisemitism-Ενάντια στον Αντισημιτισμό

Greek antiracist website reposts article with antisemitic undertones

Source: grassrootreuter.wordpress.com

The Greek antiracist website “Expel Racism” reposted an article about a former Golden Dawn MP that contained antisemitic undertones. The article, which initially appeared in the neo-nazi newspaper “Stoxos” and since then became semi-viral, was reposted without any editing by the antiracist website.

Update, 28/12:

For further information, read the following blog posts:

1. The New Antisemite: Greece: Antiracist website posts antisemitic article (28.12.2014).
2. Michalis Daskalakis-Giontis: Αντιρατσιστική ιστοσελίδα αναδημοσιεύει ναζιστικό δημοσίευμα (26.12.2014).
3. Abravanel: Οι έλληνες αντισημίτες αντιφασίστες (27.12.2014).