A Greek Jew denounces in a letter the rise of anti-Semitism, the climate of insecurity and attacks against Israelis in Greece.<\/p>\n
The Books’ Journal published a letter article by a prominent Greek Jew<\/strong> who chose to preserve his anonymity<\/strong>, expressing his deep concern about the rise of anti-Semitism<\/strong> in Greece and the sense of fear he claims is experienced by a significant part of the Jewish community.<\/p>\n The columnist cites findings of a survey by the Israelite Community of Athens<\/strong>, which were presented at the event for the Holocaust Remembrance Day<\/strong> last January. According to the data, 7 in 10 Greek Jews<\/strong> believe that there is a high or very high level of anti-Semitism<\/strong> in Greece, while nearly one in three<\/strong> say they feel anything from intense concern to fear.<\/p>\n He wonders whether the political and institutional actors involved in the events have grasped the seriousness of the findings. As he notes, the ongoing anti-Israel rhetoric<\/strong>, often presented as anti-Zionism<\/strong>, ends up in practice fuelling phenomena of anti-Semitism<\/strong> and reinforcing the sense of insecurity of Jewish citizens.<\/p>\n The columnist refers to incidents in recent years against Israeli visitors<\/strong>, noting that the government’s reaction has been belated. He makes particular reference to recent events in Piraeus<\/strong>, where protesters attempted to prevent passengers from disembarking from the Crown Iris<\/strong> cruise ship, citing behaviour bordering on anti-racist law<\/strong>.<\/p>\n At the same time, he criticizes both the government and the opposition political parties, claiming that they avoid clearly condemning such actions and limit themselves to reactions only when the incidents take on greater dimensions.<\/p>\n According to him, an apparent contradiction is created: on the one hand, Greece is strengthening its strategic cooperation<\/strong> with Israel and proceeds with defense agreements, while on the other hand, phenomena such as anti-Semitic slogans<\/strong>, obstruction of Israeli<\/b>tourists, attacks on businesses and hotels of Israeli interests, and a climate of vigilance among visitors from Israel.<\/p>\n The author warns that the situation could lead to more serious developments, citing incidents of violence in Sydney<\/strong> and London<\/strong>, where Jewish citizens<\/strong> were targeted. He concludes his text by expressing his anguish in a sentence that sums up his main message: “I don’t want to live in fear in my country<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n The entire letter article in Books’ Journal:<\/p>\n ARTICLE BY A GREEK JEW WHO CHOOSES NOT TO PUBLISH HIS NAME<\/p>\n The following article was written by a prominent Greek Jew (his details available to the magazine) who prefers to remain anonymous, for reasons you will understand when you read it. The Books<\/em>‘ <\/em>Journal<\/em>, which has a policy of not publishing anonymous texts, violates this principle because, otherwise, the author of the text could not speak. But as a society and as a state, we have to do something about fear.<\/p>\n At the Holocaust Remembrance Day event in January this year, some of the findings of a survey conducted by the Jewish Community of Athens among its members were presented. The survey showed that 7 out of 10 Greek Jews believe that there is a high and very high level of anti-Semitism in Greece, while almost one in three Greek Jews express a range from intense concern to fear about this situation.<\/p>\n As a Greek Jew, I wonder if any of the officials who flock to these events understood anything from this survey. If anyone was made aware of the fact that a third of their fellow Jews are deeply concerned and fearful by the proliferation of anti-Semitism in the country. If anyone understood that all the rampant sloganeering and creative anti-Israel activism by self-identified progressive leftists – but nothing more than selective fascists – masquerading as anti-Zionism and resulting in outright anti-Semitism, has caused feelings of insecurity in a democracy unacceptable to a minority of the country’s citizens.<\/p>\n Last year, we had to get almost to the end of the summer before the government issued condemnatory statements about violence against Israeli visitors in the ports of Greece, in downtown Athens and elsewhere. This year, the bullying started again from Piraeus, which became a theatre of actions bordering on the anti-racist law. But nothing moves, a little police to keep things from getting out of hand, but no one deals with the substance of these acts that with stupid and naive arguments of the type “….people who fought in Gaza are also on board the ship…” is a catchy way for the groupies to wake up early and be at the port at eight.<\/p>\n Well, I’m not talking about the other parties, as if they don’t condemn such actions, silence of the fishes, if there’s a big one we’ll say something then.<\/p>\n And we’re going along nicely. We are celebrating the depth of the strategic relationship with Israel and buying Israeli defence systems to protect the Aegean. Okay we can tolerate unacceptable slogans on the city walls, thugs preventing visitors from getting off the boats, something about attacks on businesses and hotels owned by Israeli interests, we can tolerate tourists from Israel speaking English to each other in the centre of Athens and looking behind them when they sit down to eat in restaurants and cafes.<\/p>\n The situation is getting very bad, it is certain that a serious incident is not far away, after all it has happened elsewhere, from graffiti and protests it started and turned into shootings in Sydney and knives in London. And lest anyone be fooled, Jews were the victims, Australian and British Jews.<\/p>\n I don’t want to live in fear in my country. <\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Greek Jew has written a letter denouncing the rise of anti-Semitism, the climate of insecurity and attacks against Israelis in Greece.Survey records fear and anxiety in the Jewish Community<\/h3>\n
Complaints of tolerance of incidents against Israelis<\/h3>\n
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