23.11.2003 The Simon Wiesenthal Center is issuing a travel advisory urging „extreme caution” for travelers to Greece in wake of the government’s failure to take steps to curb growing antisemitic hate crimes and rhetoric.
Earlier this year, the Wiesenthal Center first alerted the Greek Prime Minister’s counsel, Ambassador Sotiropoulos, to the escalating situation. In an Athens meeting, the Center advised on what measures would be required to contain antisemitism in the Greek media. No was taken.BPI. At a recent 55-country OSCE meeting in Warsaw, Dr. Shimon Samuels, the Center’s Director for International Liaison, presented a report on antisemitic incidents in Greece (click here to read Twenty Months of Antisemitic Invective in Greece: March 2002 – October 2003). Separately, he met with Greek diplomats to impart upon them the gravity of the current climate. No change either in word or substance has occurred. On repeated occasions, the Wiesenthal Center appealed to Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis (pictured left) to take appropriate measures against these continued offenses. To date, nothing has been done. Therefore, the Center has no choice but to take this as official indifference and inhave led to: Desecrations of synagogues, cemeteries, and Holocaust memorials (Ioannina cemetery desecration pictured right) The unending barrage of antisemitic articles and political cartoons in the mainstream Greek media vilifying Jews and Israel in Nazi-like caricatures Comments made last week by prominent Greek composer and cultural icon Mikis Theodorakis, best know for his score of the 1964 film Zorba the Greek, who said, in the presence of the Greek Education and Cultural Ministers, that „They [the Jews] are fanatical and get their own way. Today it can be said that this tiny people find themselves at the root of evil, rather than of good” A recent art exhibition in an Athens gallery by a university professor of architecture that actually glorifies female suicide bombers! (photo of crocheted mock explosive suicide belt pictured right) We therefore ask you to join the Simon Wiesenthal Center in demanding by Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis to counter the anti-Jewish hate. Failing a dramatic change in attitude and policy, the current environment of hate and vilification can and will escalate and could also poison the environment leading up to the 2004 Olympic games. Therefore, until the situation dramatically changes, the Center’s travel advisory to Greece urging „extreme caution” will remain in effect indefinitely.
