The Treaty of Lisbon is the corroboration of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” (update 29/6)

The last statements of mr.Karatzaferis trigerred in me the need to write another post on the sinister role of the Jew Simitis and why he wanted the Lisbon Treaty. Given the record of last time when I tried to be sarcastic, (and how the whole far-right greek blogosphere exploded by my revelations on PASOK being a jewish party), I decided to let go. So for this time I simply dedicate to you the latest piece of oratory of the president of LAOS mr.Karatzaferis who has faced criticism on his views often deemed antisemitic and extreme-right.

PASOK, the great Jewish political party

I must admit that the recent political upheaval in the greek socialist party, PASOK, has disturbed me deeply. Former prime-minister K.Simitis faces the current leader of PASOK Y.Papandreou in a power struggle that is harmful to our great Jewish political party. Both are great Jews who have worked hard for the demise of our arch-enemies, the proud heirs of the El, the Greeks and it is difficult to take sides. In any case the bloody antisemites should see that the rumors that, us jews, stick together are false and we too indulge in civil wars unfortunately.

Here are some excerpts that talk about the jewish origins of these politicians. They come from sites, blogs and newspapers where journalists and the common people of Greece get to express themselves and discuss freely on the great Jewish leaders of PASOK.

Confused, who are we supposed to destroy?

Confused, please help me out here; here are two excerpts from different sources:

Q: You said some Ottoman documents depicted the Arab national movement as a tool in the hands of foreign powers used to weaken the Ottoman state. What about the Turkish national movements such as the Young Turks and the Committee of Union and Progress? How were they depicted?

A: The Committee of Union and Progress was based on the Young Turks movement. Thessaloniki (modern day Greece) was known for its population of Jews who migrated from Spain and fled religious persecution in Europe in the late 19th century. Some argue that the migration of the Jews from Europe to the Ottoman state was plotted by the Jews and the Europeans under the pretence of religious persecution in order to sabotage the Ottoman state. However, I believe that the Jews encouraged nationalism amongst the Turks and were behind the establishment of the Young Turks and the Young Arab Society [Al Fatat] at the same time that was based in London.

http://www.aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=3&id=11591

Αξίζει να αναφερθεί ότι αμέσως μετά την Αλωση της Πόλης, οι Τούρκοι επιδόθηκαν στον αφελληνισμό της, καταφεύγοντας, μεταξύ των άλλων και στο μέτρο του εποικισμού. (the Turks began to wipe out the greek character of the city and resorted to colonizing it)

Είναι ιστορικά τεκμηριωμένο, ότι αμέσως μετά την άλωση του 1453, ο σουλτάνος Μωάμεθ ο Β’, διέταξε τον εποικισμό της Κωνσταντινουπόλεως και για τον σκοπό αυτό μεταφέρθηκαν εκατοντάδες οικογένειες εβραίων από την περιοχή της Θεσσαλονίκης. (hundreds of families of Jews were moved from Thessaloniki to Constantinople) Επ’ αυτού ο άγγλος τουρκολόγος Lowry, αναφέρει ότι ολόκληρος ο εβραϊκός πληθυσμός της Θεσσαλονίκης, μεταφέρθηκε και εγκαταστάθηκε, οριστικά, με την υπόδειξη των τουρκικών αρχών, στην πρωτεύουσα της Οθωμανικής πλέον Αυτοκρατορίας, συγκροτώντας μάλιστα ιδιαίτερη συνοικία (Cemaat). Επίσης δεν είναι καθόλου τυχαίο το γεγονός, ότι ο Μωάμεθ είχε υπουργοποιήσει τους εβραίους Χακίμ και Γιακούμπ, μέλη της ανθελληνικής ομάδας «Γκαρέμπια»*.

/I won’t provide a link but it is available

The unchallenged perpetuation of stupidity

Reader Discretion is advised - extreme mambo jumbo conspiracy theories following.

Ο ελληνικός λαός είναι δυσκολοκυβέρνητος και γι’ αυτό πρέπει να τον πλήξουμε βαθιά στις πολιτισμικές του ρίζες. Τότε ίσως συνετισθεί. Εννοώ, δηλαδή, να πλήξουμε τη γλώσσα, τη θρησκεία, τα πνευματικά και ιστορικά του αποθέματα, ώστε να εξουδετερώσουμε κάθε δυνατότητά του να αναπτυχθεί, να διακριθεί, να επικρατήσει, για να μη μας παρενοχλεί στα Βαλκάνια, να μη μας παρενοχλεί στην Ανατολική Μεσόγειο, στη Μέση Ανατολή, σε όλη αυτή τη νευραλγική περιοχή μεγάλης στρατηγικής σημασίας για μας, για την πολιτική των ΗΠΑ
Χένρυ Κίσσινγκερ

The Greek people are difficult to govern and for this reason we must attack it’s cultural roots. Maybe then they’re going to come to their senses. I mean, we should aim to destroy their language, their religion, their cultural and historical reserves, so that we can neutralize their ability to develop, to distinguish, to dominate, to seize to harass us in the Balcans, to seize to harass us in the Eastern Mediterranean, in the Middle East, this whole neuralgic region of great strategic importance to us, to the US policy.
Henry Kissinger

Chams, Czechs and Jews

A guy runs into an ancient Hitler in a bar in Argentina. He asks him what his plans are for the future.

“This time,” he says, “we’ll kill all the Jews, and three circus clowns.”

“Why three circus clowns?,” the guy asks.

“See,” Hitler says to the bartender. “ Nobody gives a damn about the Jews!”

 

What really gets me sometimes is the fact that I cannot open the TV without having to endure some idiocy on jews, despite our infinitesimally small number in Greece. A good example is a recent symposium on the fate of the moslim population of albanian descent that lived in the area of north-west Greece, called Chams/Çamë.

Jews and the Twin Towers by tuki8eblom

I would be ungrateful if I didn’t admit that through this site I’ve had the chance to be wonderfully surprised by many people who seem to have the sheer recklessness to go against the mainstream views here in Greece. One of these people is touki8eblom, affectionately known as touki.

On this particular occasion the article that grasped my attention was a small but well documented essay on the widely spread myth that jews, (or Mossad, the israeli Secret Service), were responsible for 9/11. The rumor has it that 2-3-4-5.000 jews working in the World Trade Center were “alerted” and failed to show up that day for work; ergo jews knew about it or even organised it.

The Greek Justice (?)

Books questioning the Shoah or downright racist are free to circulate and enjoy a high popularity even in mainstream bookshops. This includes books that are proven literary forgeries like the infamous “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” that do not only circulate freely but are fiercely defended by the totality of the greek publishers and society.

So when well known nazi-admirer and TV figure Mr.Plevris published a book called “Jews, the whole truth” where he openly expressed his admiration for Hitler there was no shock. But what really distinguished him was not only his questioning of the Shoah but his open support for the extermination of the jews which, as far as he was concerned, it should have been more effective. Or else to put it in his own words:
“unfortunately the Nazis chose to move the Jews away from Europe, when in my opinion, they should have killed them, because this is the behavior towards those who desire world domination.”

P. 742: ‘That’s what Jews want. It’s the only thing they understand: an execution squad within 24 hours’
P. 269: ‘Every Greek, every person who is aware of the subversion carried out by Jewish Zionism, should act on his own as an individual and mobilize himself against Jews. Initially he needs to do the following:…
…Wherever intervention by Jews is noted he should foil it by denouncing it and then take whatever action is necessary.
P. 778: ‘The only way Jews can find salvation is for them to stop dreaming of ruling the world… Otherwise their annihilation will be complete and for all. At most a few thousand will remain and they will snip their little willies and wait for their Jehovah’.
P. 852: ‘Hitler was blamed for something that did not actually take place. Later the history of humanity will blame him for not ridding Europe of the Jews, though he could have… My dear Jews, I do not ask you to suffer all the things that your holy books tell you that we should suffer from you… You are criminals because that is what your religion has taught you to be. You are murderers because crime is instilled in you from an early age. Therefore we others have the right to deal with you. And that is what we will do’.

Phrases like this forced a group of greek christians and greek jews to file a complaint against him for advocating racist violence. A law suit which was accepted as legitimate by an Athens Appeals Judicial Council because “The appellant’s argument that his writings are an expression of opinion is unfounded because in fact he is inciting the readership, especially the Greek one, to mobilize against Jews (that is to hate, discriminate against, or use violence against them), whom the appellant characterizes indiscriminately as subhuman, deserving extinction, enemies of the Greek people and of Europe in general, praising at the same time the Nazis and SS’s criminal actions against the Jews.”

One thing that Greek Jewry and the Human Rights Organizations did not certainly expect was how the trial turned into a true farce. A court openly anti-jewish which was not only sympathetic to the defendant but downright hostile towards the witnesses for the prosecution. A court which rejected all greek jewish witnesses as not having legal interest in the case, as if it concerned some uncertain entity and not people in blood and flesh! A court who’s Prosecutor was so favorable to Plevris that he arrived to declare as “scientific work” his book! Even when this scandal came to light through a newspaper article, a complete silence roared deafeningly since no political party, public figure or academic rose to protest agaist the state of the Greek Justice.

What follows is the english translation of the bulletin by the Greek Helsinki Monitor, a greek NGO for human rights, which was actively involved in the law suit. Among else it includes selected excerpts from the trial which document the prejudice of the judges who arrived to defend themselves the defendant instead of letting his lawyers!

Link to the AntiNazi Initiative which covers broadly the trial: http://www.antinazi.gr/ (english and greek)

Link to Greek Helsinki Monitor: http://cm.greekhelsinki.gr/

In particular: Greece: Trial of Kostas Plevris and “Eleftheros Kosmos” for anti-Semitism on 5 September
Greece: On an anti-Jewish trial in Athens (commemoration of Kristallnacht) (english)

Also in greek one can read more extensive reports by GHM:

Δίκη Πλεύρη - Ελεύθερου Κόσμου για αντισημιτισμό στις 5-9 - Εκπρόσωπος ΛΑΟΣ στηρίζει Πλεύρη
Ενημέρωση και ανασκευή ανακριβειών για δίκη Πλεύρη - «Ελεύθερου Κόσμου» για αντισημιτισμό στις 5-9
Τρεις δίκες ακροδεξιού «Ελεύθερου Κόσμου» για αντισημιτικά και αντι-τσιγγάνικα κείμενα
Ψέματα Άδωνι Γεωργιάδη για βιβλίο Κώστα Πλεύρη και αντισημιτισμό
69η Ημέρα Μνήμης της «Νύχτας Κρυστάλλων» και αντιεβραϊκή δίκη στην Αθήνα

Link to DeviousDiva who hosted an article on the International Day Against Fascism and Anti-Semitism and also hosts the bulletin by the GHM: http://deviousdiva.com/2007/11/09/remember

Link to touki8eblom’s blog’s who at the bottom of the page has a cartoon which depicts my view perfectly: http://tuki8eblom.blogspot.com

It is noteworthy, though it hardly appears surprising, the fact that the populist, antisemitic party of LAOS appeared closely linked to this book. LAOS deputy Adonis Georgiadis openly praised the book in various TV shows while the son of Plevris was also elected as a deputy for the LAOS party, though later LAOS tried to disassociate itself from the “dangerous” Plevris. For the record the team of liberal journalists of IOS Press have dealt extensively with both Plevris book and it’s links to LAOS; for more info try clicking (in greek):

Ο Αδωνις Γεωργιάδης και το βιβλίο του Πλεύρη
Το κρυφτούλι του κ. Καρατζαφέρη
Ο ΛΑΟΣ και ο ναζισμός του κ. Πλεύρη

UPDATE: Link to Jungle-Report, a greek-language blog posting about this: http://jungle-report.blogspot.com/2007/11/blog-post_09.html

More…

Bigotry in Greece and World, a survey

In Jaywalker’s blog I happened to run on a post he did on a university study on bigotry; the post was so interesting that I decided to steal his find and post about it also here - no hard feelings I hope. :)

Vani K Borooah from the University of Ulster and John Mangan from the University of Queensland were the key authors in this rather interesting study. The study included 23 countries from the so called Western World; practically Europe, USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. The key question was:

“Would you like to have a person from this group as your neighbour?”

The 5 groups were: of a different race, muslims, jews, immigrants or foreign workers and homosexuals. The study didn’t only concentrate on this question but went on to analyse how bigotry was distributed between groups, how it related to the country in question, to political beliefs, unhapiness and other indices.

The results were unsettling both for the Western World and Greece. Copying the findings of the study:

The highest proportion of bigoted persons (bigotry count ratio) was in Northern Ireland and Greece - where, respectively, 44 and 43 percent of respondents did not want persons from at least one of the five groups as their neighbours – and the lowest proportion of bigoted persons was in Sweden (13 percent), Iceland (18 percent), Canada (22 percent), and Denmark (22 percent).

The value of the bigotry gap ratio – the mean, percentage amount by which the bigotry scores of all the persons was above the bigotry line (z=1) – was also highest for Greece (51 percent) and Northern Ireland (50 percent): not only did these countries have a high proportion of bigoted persons, bigots in these countries were, on average, more bigoted than in countries.

Greece scored second worse for people from a different race, universally worse for muslims, second worse for jews (with Spain being surprisingly first), 4th worse for immigrants and 4th worse for homosexuals. The troubling fact was that, while countries usually had some groups that they disliked in particular, Greece scored high in bigotry in all 5 groups; practicaly sharing a first place with Northern Ireland if we take into account all indices. Practically almost 1 out of 2 people in Greece would not like as a neighbour, at least, one of the aforementioned groups, (43.2% to be exact). Also the greek population of bigots is the most bigotted one on the whole western world.

Even after controlling for personal characteristics, the likelihood of a person being bigoted depended on the country in which he/she lived. With Northern Ireland as the residual country, and after controlling for personal characteristics, persons who lived in Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Sweden, and the USA were less likely to be bigoted (and strongly bigoted) – and persons who lived in Greece were more likely to be bigoted (and strongly bigoted) – than those living in Northern Ireland. The country effect for the other countries was not significantly different from zero.

What I didn’t expect for Greece was such a high degree of homophobia, equally high with the very catholic Italy and Ireland. I didn’t also expect such a high percentage for muslims but I imagine that the equation muslim=turk still works against muslim acceptance. At least immigrants were the most accepted from all groups, though still the rate of rejection was extremely high. As far as jews are concerned there weren’t any surprises with Greece being twice as judeophobic, as the media of the Western World. Interestingly enough, this was also the group were Greece differed more from the western media, scoring 97% more.

To tell the truth I feel that real percentages must be higher. The question was fairly straight-forward and at least some people must have dodged answering in a negative way against some groups, as not to appear racist. I doubt that this is the case in Greece as people still do not actually think that racist behaviors are socially unacceptable - I’m trying this moment to back this sensation with some tangible data.

Anyway still quite disturbing and as far as jewish presence is concerned verifies what we’ve been saying insofar. I’m even more troubled if I think that the paper didn’t included Roma; I tremble when I think what the percentages would be in that case. :(

Again thanks to Jaywalker for finding about this interesting survey.

Burning jews, niggers and gipsies

Wishing to keep the holiday spirit rolling, I thought that it would be interesting hearing about this. Easter in the christian orthodox tradition has always a far greater weight than Christmas and it’s celebrations are always solemn in churches and joyous in the countryside.

One of the characteristic celebrations is the “Burning of Judas” which is also presented as the “Burning of the Jew” and at least in one place as the “Burning of the Nigger”. In the last days of Easter a stuffed doll in humanlike dimensions is being prepared, stuffed with inflammable material and often with fireworks. It is hanged, in some places shot upon and ultimately burned. All this is accompanied by insults, curses but also great joy from the children. In the past it was also a chance for an occasional outburst of the population as various ethnographic and literary sources tell us; the mob set fire to a house or two in the local jewish neighbourhood but usually it was reduced to stone throwing - almost never human casualties were noted but an occasional beating of a jew found nearby, wasn’t completely rare. Of course all these happened where jewish communities were present; lacking jews the “Burning of the Jew/Judas” took a more folkloristic turn with absolutely no physical violence involved and this is the form we find it today.

For details on how it is done and photos one can visit the Akanthou in Cyprus page, a page from Crete containing also anti-jewish carols, pages from Hydra and again from Crete. In the same page one can read the carols that small children sang in Volos cursing jews.

A source from the end of the 19^th century tells us about the Burning of the Jew in a village in the greek Asia Minor:

It remains alive in my memory this custom from home, the burning of the jew.. [...] I waited with anxiety this day. [...] We thought and felt some kind of delight because we were taking revenge [...] Friday night before Easter we would light up the fire and then throw the jew and he would be set ablaze and all the kids would yell like victors after a triumph with something wild together. [...] The fire would become enormous, the flames would reach high and light ,the beach and the boats in see would see from far away the flames and would know than in Petroumi the christians burn the jew. That day jews would hide in their homes and didn’t dare set foot outside. They kept the children inside and didn’t even go to their shops. The children had such a fury, such hatred that searched a jew to burn him alive”.

Centre of Asia Minor studies, Oral Tradition Archive, Karia

This kind of physical violence, which disrupted the public order and the fact that this custom has pagan roots led the Holy Synod of the Greek Orthodox Church to condemn it unequivocally in encyclicals in 1891, 1910 and 1918. In these official papers it is condemned and repeated that this tradition: “…incites religious hatred and fosters fanatism.”; also it repeated that: “the observance of these traditions is going against the basis and foundations of our faith”. Although these encyclicals were never revoked, modern religious leaders have failed to repeat these concepts and even attended such events, indirectly approving them. On the other hand, persons like the spokesperson of the Holy Synod have recalled them in a recent article and claimed that they remain valid examples of the good nature of the Greek Church. Other local religious leaders like the former Metropolite of Alexandroupolis Anthimos, (who isn’t characterised by feelings of love towards greek jews), have issued similar encyclicals as recently as 2005. In his, independently of his other racist declarations, excellent circular he asks the communities of Chilis and Amphitritis: “Does the burning of Judas, which is wrongfully maintained in your communities, have anything to do with the Resurrected Jesus Christ which we will celebrate in a few days? [...] For this I ask you and I urge you and I beseech these two communities of Chilis and Amphitritis to stop this unhistorical, uncivilised and unchristian custom. [...] The Holy Synod of Greece has condemned with encyclicals in 1891, 1910 and in 1918 this atrocious custom.”

Of course later he also states why, in my humble opinion, really gets him mad:
“It is an insult to the holy Epitaph since it includes the immaculate body of the God of love, to forsake it during the procession and stay back to set fire to Judas! ” (exclamation marks follow faithfully the ones in the original).

The antisemitic character of this custom was obvious also to the Catholic Church which in the mixed orthodox-catholic island of Syros forced it’s abolition. We read: “this custom generated anti-Semitic feelings among the Catholics and was therefore abolished by Jesuit monks, despite public reactions”.

It isn’t only opinion of the Greek Orthodox Church that this is a custom that promotes hatred, but also of the scientific community. Professor of Modern Greek Language at the University of Thessaloniki F.Abatzopoulou, concurs that the “Burning of Judas” is the “most familiar and widespread manifestation of traditional anti-Semitism in Greece.” Korombokis and Kotinis also state that in Thessaloniki the custom was linked with traditional hatred towards jews based on religious grounds.

A special reference should also be made in the case of Dalmedico Abba who was the delegate of the jewish community in the ottoman held Chania in Crete. Member of the local Assembly in 1875 he proposed and apparently managed to approve the abolition of the “Burning of Judas” though there are doubts if eventually this decision was implemented. In any case it serves as an example of jewish opposition to the custom and it’s obvious antisemitic character through time.

So, in theory we have a situation where the Greek Church, despite local support to this custom, has officially taken a strong stance against it, the scientific community which also talks against it, the local Jewish Community which has protested against it, we are aware of the antisemitic feeling that creates since it’s well documented in literature and folklore and also Human Rights groups like the Greek Helsinki Monitor, each year protest against it. So where is the problem? The problem is that it still continues today since nobody actually wants to actively move against it. Even worse, it gets promoted officially by the Greek State through it’s National Tourism Organization. In it’s site there are several references, (here, here and here) when describing easter customs in various parts of Greece, showing it’s a widespread phenomenon. Unfortunately even some members of the Greek Church chose intentionally to ignore what the same Church has admitted; an example is the Metropolite of the greek island of Hydra. In 2005 the Central Jewish Board sent a letter to the Metropolite asking him to pronounce on this custom on the island of Hydra. Instead the office of the mayor responded, (!), that this custom was “connected with the greek War of Independence” without of course explaining how these two things are connected. The Central Board was not satisfied with this explanation and responded to the mayor; as far as I know it was also repeated this year.

To an extent it is possible to say that how, greek institutions and greek society, deal with this matter it is indicative of how the phenomenon of anti-Semitism and hate speech are treated in Greece. Although it is clear that the phenomenon is linked with antisemitic manifestations, although official sources like the Church of Greece have condemned it, although nobody denies that even today there are racist outbursts during the burning, although there are numerous documented incidents, it is still regarded as a matter of foreign interference! How is this? Even among known members of the greek blogosphere or among the known neo-Nazi groups like Crissi Avgi and LAOS the whole matter only appears when the State Department accuses Greece of anti-Semitism and lists the “Burning of Judas­/Jew” as one of it’s manifestations. The protests of the greek jewish community simply don’t register! Nobody gives a damn about them; only when the americans make a generic statement, which even they don’t really pay attention, the greek society decides to talk about it! And I think it’s indicative the fact that the government member that is called to comment is the vice-minister of Defence as if we were talking about a foreign state and not about insults to greek citizens!

Anyway to complete the picture we need to state that the “guest of honour” during the easter celebrations isn’t only played by jews. In a twisted deviation of the custom in the village of Gastouni the jew is substituted by a black man and the whole ceremony is called literally “The Burning of the Nigger”. In other pages we also learn that the Roma are accused of forging the nails that were used to crucify Jesus, (no one remembers that there were no Roma in Palestine for centuries so it was physically impossible for them to do it). The oral tradition goes that this is the reason which do not settle in any land, a punishment for their presumed involvement.

I’d like to end this small post with a small discovery I made. One of the sites which lists all of the traditional customs for Easter and relative songs, that are often an open incitation against jews and roma, is this one. To my great surprise I found out that it is the site of the Regional Directorship of the Primary Education in Thessaly, (the organization that coordinates elementary schools in the greek region of Thessaly). The page is listed as a page which includes recommended material for Easter celebrations inside the schools. It contains things that are already known but it is simply amazing and disgusting that they are officially proposed to be taught at small children! Some of the things that the greek educational system considers that need to be taught in all schools, re-enacted in schools plays and be sang by children from 6 to 12 years old, include the following:

1)Of course the Burning of Judas/Jew with relative details.

2)The Easter carols which says:
“Σήμερον μαύρος ουρανός, σήμερον μαύρη μέρα, “Today black sky, today black day
σήμερα κόσμος θλίβουνται και τα βουνά λυπούνται, today the people grieve and mountains grieve
σήμερα βάλανε βουλή οι άνομοι Εβραίοι, today the wicked Jews decided
οι άνομοι και τα σκυλιά κ‘ οι τρισκαταραμένοι, the wicked dogs and the threefold cursed
για να σταυρώσουν το Χριστό, τον πάντων βασιλέα to crucify Christ, the king of all

3)The carols that accompany the Burning of Judas/Jew; they testify how these two figures are interchangeable to the public opinion, (the poem is in rimes so difficult to translate):
“Ράτσα, κεράτσα lady, milady
δώσ‘ μια κληματσίδα give me some vine wood
να κάψουμε τον Οβριγιό to burn the Jew
πόχει πολλή κασσίδα, that has a lot of filth
Οβριγιός φορεί φτερό the Jew wears a feather
στο κεφάλι τ‘ το ξερό…” on his mulish head…

4) In Easter, jars are broken “to the joy of Christ and ridicule of the Jews”.

5) Among the traditional customs it mentions that on Good Friday “no craftsman touched a nail because the gipsy nailed with nails Christ”.

It is completely unacceptable that small children learn how and why to hate Jews and Roma. It is simply appalling that these traditions are passed upon small children in the form of songs and there isn’t even recommended that the hatred towards jews should be minimized. It is simply frustrating and disappointing to see that the hatred towards jews, even at the form of traditions which are by the admission of the Church antisemitic, is passed from the elders to the younger with the blessing of the Greek State and the educational system which fails miserably even to understand that what it does is contrary to it’s mission or even to common decency. Maybe this is an exception? Evidently not since the Parents and Guardians Association of the 3^rd Elementary school of Alimos has a site containing the same carols.

I’d like to expressly state that in no way I think that people who participate are raging racists who yearn to burn jews and since they can’t, they limit themselves to dolls. I’m sure that most of them consciously do not understand that what they do is wrong. The problem here is that the Greek State and generally people like the mayor of Hydra do know the racist nature of it, but still they choose not to act against it. This isn’t simply a case of jews being oversensitive; it is the Greek Church herself who has condemned it as an act against the christian faith and modern religious leaders describe it as atrocious.

Each time I think of anti-Semitism in Greece I think that the situation is hopeless. Not because the situation is so desperately violent, (even though each year that passes it becomes significantly worse), but because nobody seems to care. The same institutions that are supposed to work towards diminishing the hatred, are the ones who work actively to propagate it! When in school the textbooks often have antisemitic references or completely ignore jews and the Holocaust, when school actively perpetuates racist traditions and songs, when the school teachers are often completely ignorant on racism issues, when the system fails to pursue a policy of integration and often schools end up as the privileged place of nationalistic actions, how can we ever hope in a change? A quote says that “A pessimist is only a well informed optimist” - I think it fits perfectly in this case.

(Belated) Happy Easter to all…

PS. The greek Helsinki Monitor, a human rights group, recently protested on the Burning of Judas. Some facts which I state here derived from that report and I’d like to thank them – read about it here -> http://deviousdiva.com/2007/04/13/burning-judas/

Martin Luther King

Recently a comment by Donna reminded me of a famous speech which was attributed to Martin Luther King . In that speech Dr.King allegedly attacks anti-zionists as being in fact anti-semites. I searched a bit to see if it’s true and I’ve found that: “The idea accurately portrays the opinion of Dr. King, but the speech as quoted is a forgery” as BoycottWatch refers.

This is what Dr.King actually said and what has been confirmed as authentic:

King was, however, quoted by Dr. Seymour Martin Lipset, who is currently the Hazel Professor of Public Policy of George Mason University and a professor at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. The noted sociologist and political analyst wrote the article “The Socialism of Fools: The Left, the Jews and Israel” which was published in the December, 1969 (page 24) edition of Encounter magazine, and was reprinted in other publications.

The article states: “Shortly before he was assassinated, Martin Luther King, Jr., was in Boston on a fund-raising mission, and I had the good fortune to attend a dinner which was given for him in Cambridge…One of the young men present happened to make some remark against the Zionists. Dr. King snapped at him and said, “Don’t talk like that! When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking anti-Semitism!”

 

I’m not here to debate on whether in fact anti-zionism is another name for antisemitism, or it is simply used to avoid legitimate political criticism to Israel. Although I have to remind that the term “antisemite” was invented in the late 19th century when “antijew” or “jew hater” became politically undesirable terms and one wished to cloak his hate under more scientific terms. Anyway I just wanted to give the opinion of one who definitely can’t be accused of being controlled by the almighty World Domination jewish lobby! :D

Love photos

Panayote Dimitra’s from the most excellent Greek Helsinki Monitor, (link to be found under Misc on your right), sent me some photos on racism in Greece which carried so much love inside them so I thought it was a waste not to share them! :D

He also posted them as a reply in a post of mine dealing with my first encounter with racism, kindly published by DeviousDiva - check this one out, too.

Death to jews!

The only good Turk is a dead Turk

And this a hiphop song that circulates in schools and is promoted by the xenofobic party LAOS. It contains anti-albanian, anti-pakistani, anti-immigrant and generally anti- stuff. I’m gonna post the english translation that Craig supplied, he’s an english teacher in Greece and confirmed that many kids are familiar with this song. :(

“Good morning Greece
F**k Albania.
We gave them food
and a Greek education
All the Albanian kids take up school places
and the Greek kids can’t get into college
They shouldn’t stay

Theodorakis on the Old Testament

Mikis Theodorakis, the famous greek composer, emblematic figure of the greek Left and resistance fighter during the 7yr military regime did it again. The other day during a ceremony for the presentation of a new work he began a phillipic against those who dare to talk against the Archibissop of Greece, Christodoulos. “In Greece we have two institutions, he said, the President of the Democracy and the head of the Greek Church, whoever dares to talk about them should rinse his mouth first!” I remind that Christodoulos is accused of being racist, politically oriented and supporter of far right groups.

But then he went on to his favorite target, the jews wanting to rule the world. He suggested that: the Old Testament should be removed from the schools because it is written than Israel shall overpower and exterminate his enemies. We can’t say these things today. Look at what is happening in the Middle East with the help of Bush and the help of Rice.

Theodorakis in the past had described jews as being “the root of evil” and controlling the world’s economy, banks and mass media. He had also said that they control the world music industry plus the usual stuff about jews having a superiority complex and wanting to control the world. I repeat these things just for the casual reader who might thing that the guy wanted to be politically correct. He again made his favorite mess of jews, Israel, religion and antiamericanism while never ever showing any awareness of how deeply insulting his words are.

Typical of the greek paradox nobody rose to challenge these new views of Theodorakis. There was only a moderate criticism on the fact that he decided to support the Archibissop which has risen into a protagonist of the greek political life in a negative manner. Even more when the Archibissop is accused of supporting the dictatorship during and aftwerwards, while at the same time Theodorakis was exiled because of the regime!

Because of the objective value of his work and his anti-dictatorship fight Theodorakis is venerated in Greece; he was even the greek candidate for the Nobel prize for Peace. I can understand that and I feel he might have been worthy of it in the past. But for the past years he has made one huge mistake after the other and now I can’t find a reason why he shouldn’t even join the xenophobic LAOS party, (he has shown that he doesn’t have problem with changing parties in the past).

Thanks to Panayote Dimitras for pointing to the actual newspaper article which I am attaching here -> original article in greek.

How I learned what malakas means

I’m grateful to DeviousDiva for publishing another small story of mine even though some words were a bit not nice. ;)

Again thanks and if you want to read it visit -> http://deviousdiva.com/2007/03/27/guest-blogger-3

UPDATE,13th of April. Posting also here the complete article:

Malakas (Greek: nom. μαλάκας, voc. and acc. μαλάκα, μαλακισμένε, fem. μαλάκω, μαλακισμένη) is a slang word, whose literal translation is wanker but the register of the term varies widely between its America/British English usage and its Greek usage. A more appropriate rendering covers a much broader spectrum of applications, including both English equivalents of asshole or jerk or dick or son of a bitch, and the contrasting friend or pal or dude, depending on the context.

I grew up in a rather poor part of my city which still maintained the populist image of the neighborhood/γειτονιά typical of the Greek cities in the past decades. It was a time where parents were a bit less anxious and maybe a bit more naïve and let their kids roam about freely and play in the open spaces that still existed, (the Greek term is not translatable but certainly will invoke memories for the Greek readers: αλάνες).

Each day my best friend N. would come by my house and yell my name for me to come down.