greece 2009

 

The Jewish population of Greece is estimated at 5,000 out of a total population of 10 million. The main Jewish communities are in Athens, Thessaloniki and Larissa.

There was a revival of anti-Israelism in Greece with the onset of Israel’s Gaza operation and the level of antisemitic activity escalated. A total of 13 antisemitic incidents of vandalism and graffiti were recorded during 2009. Eight of them took place during Israel’s offensive in Gaza when graffiti reading “Israelites – Jews – Murderers” or similar slogans was recorded at the Jewish cemeteries of Athens, Drama and Ioannina, as well as at Holocaust monuments in Komotini, Drama and Larissa. The Ioannina cemetery was desecrated five times between January and July. In January there were also unsuccessful attempts to set fire to the synagogue of Veroia and to remove the Magen David from the door of the synagogue in Larissa. Politicians, popular Greek figures, senior clerics and local officials, as well as the mass media, resorted to antisemitic references in their harsh criticism of Israel during this period.

Many articles comparing Israel’s policies to those of Nazi Germany and Israelis and Jews to Nazis, often accompanied by cartoons, were published in the Greek media. In January, for example, Takis Fotopoulos, a journalist for the Athens daily Eleftherotypia, claimed that Israel’s campaign against Hamas was a brutal crime supported by a transnational elite that controlled the media (the US and the EU), as well as by Arab regimes such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. According to Takis, this "crime" was linked to the growing economic crisis caused by the globalized capitalist market economy, which in turn had been initiated by the transnational elite, local elites and privileged social groups. Takis believed that the only real solution to the crisis was the creation of a multicultural state in Palestine.

In July, the Metropolitan Bishop of Kalavryta Ambrosios posted antisemitic comments on his blogspot. They related to Josephus’ Jewish Wars, which was to be performed under Israeli director Amos Gitai during the Epidaurus theater festival. He referred to “the activity of the Israeli council,” which was “now extending its long hand to the ancient theatre of Epidaurus. Today we focus our attention on Jewish propaganda.”

Appearing in November on the Teleasty TV channel, owned by his party leader George Karatzaferis, MP Adonis Georgiades (LAOS − Popular Orthodox Rally; see ASW 2008 and below) inferred Jewish domination over the Greek economy when he stated that “all big banks belong to Jews.”

In May 2009, MP Elias Polatidis (LAOS) cast doubt on the uniqueness of the Holocaust when he submitted a question to the culture minister regarding the erection of the Holocaust monument in Athens (inaugurated in May 2010), asking why the state has not demonstrated similar sensitivity towards genocides of other groups of people.

On March 27, the five-member Athens Appeals Court, a second level court, found well-known Greek antisemite and Holocaust denier and former LAOS member Kostas Plevris not guilty of “incitement to racial hatred and violence against the Jews” for his 1,400 page racist and virulently antisemitic book Jews – The Whole Truth. A “cassation in favor of the law [antiracist Greek Law 927/1979]” (which does not revoke or annul the Appeals Court verdict, but is aimed at protecting the public interest by preventing a wrongful judgment from acquiring the status of res judicata and from constituting a precedent for adjudication of similar cases in the future), submitted by the Supreme Court (Arios Pagos) prosecutor in July was dismissed in April 2010.

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In the general elections of October 2009, the nationalist and xenophobic LAOS significantly increased its strength, gaining 5.63 percent of the vote (15 seats), compared to 3.8 percent (10 seats) in 2007. In the European Parliament elections of June 2009 LAOS (which is a part of the far right EFD [Europe of Freedom and Democracy] grouping) doubled its power from 4.1 percent in 2004 to 7.1 percent and from one to two MEPs.

 As of his election to the European Parliament in 2004 LAOS founder and head George Karatzaferis attempted to avoid making antisemitic statements; however, during Israel’s Cast Lead operation, he published a virulently antisemitic attack (see ASW 2008/9). In addition, on March 12 he accused then foreign minister Dora Bakoyannis and the then head of the opposition party PASOK George Papandreou of being manipulated by the “Americans” and alluded to America’s relationship to the Jews. He branded the AJC (American Jewish Committee) a “friend” of Papandreou and charged then Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak with giving the order to commit a genocide in Gaza.

Chrissi Avghi, which was behind many incidents of antisemitic vandalism and graffiti over the years, was the only Greek neo-Nazi party that ran for the European Parliament in June. Chrissi Avghi came in twelfth (out of 27 Greek parties), gaining only 0.46 percent of the vote.

January 27 was instituted by law in 2004 as the Memorial Day for Greek Jewish Martyrs and Heroes of the Holocaust. On January 27, 2009, commemoration ceremonies were held under the auspices of the local prefectures in Athens, Thessaloniki, Larissa and Volos, with the participation of government officials and local authorities.

In January, too, the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS) and the General Secretariat for Youth of the education ministry organized the presentation of Greek and English editions of the book Young People in the Maelstrom of Occupied Greece – the Persecution and the Holocaust of the Jewish People (1943–1944) (written by historians, edited by KIS and sponsored by the youth secretariat), in Athens (see also ASW 2008).

In June 2009, the Greek foreign affairs ministry, which held the presidency of the OSCE in 2009, organized an event in Athens to honor Greek Holocaust survivors. The ministry also published the book Greeks in Auschwitz-Birkenau by Photini Tomai, director of the historic and diplomatic archive of the Greek foreign ministry, which was presented during the event. Representatives of the OSCE, as well as Greek foreign minister Dora Bakoyannis, addressed participants and awarded Holocaust survivors with commemorative diplomas and plaques.

In Ioannina, an apolitical Movement of Citizens, aimed at promoting the Jewish heritage of the city and mobilizing the local population in the struggle against antisemitism was established in September (following the fifth attack against the Jewish cemetery in August). The movement, to which over 100 signed up on the first day it was publicized, was initiated by a group of non-Jewish locals. In December members organized a symbolic event, a “human-chain” around the surrounding wall of the cemetery, followed by a conference on the history of the Jews of Ioannina.