Deputy PM and FM Venizelos’ statement regarding the desecration of the Jewish cemetery of Thessaloniki

MFA, Friday, 30 May 2014:

 

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos made the following statement regarding the desecration of the Jewish cemetery of Thessaloniki:

“I condemn in the most unequivocal manner yesterday’s desecration of the Jewish cemetery of Thessaloniki. It is an abhorrent act that is a brutal insult to the memory not only of the Jewish Community, but of the Greek people as a whole.

I want to assure our fellow citizens, and especially the Jewish Community, that the Greek authorities will do whatever is humanly possible to identify and arrest the perpetrators of this flagrant act of anti-Semitism and intolerance, which is incompatible with the democratic values of tolerance and multiculturalism that reflect Greek society.”

mfa.gr

30/5/14

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****Jewish cemetery desecrated in Thessaloniki, Greece ..

Vandals smash headstones and ornaments days after the election of 3 neo-Nazi Greek politicians to the European Parliament.

 

According to David Saltiel, who was quoted by Walla News, the unknown assailants cut through the cemetery fence, smashed various ornaments and vases, and knocked down headstones and signage.
Saltiel said that the police had opened an investigation into the incident, which comes on the heels of this week’s election to the European Parliament of three members of a Greek neo-Nazi party.

The attack also follows the release of the Anti-Defamation League’s global anti-Semitism survey earlier this month, in which Greece captured the ignominious title of most anti-Semitic country in Europe.

With 69 percent of Greeks espousing anti-Semitic views, according to the survey, Greece was on par with Saudi Arabia, more anti-Semitic than Iran (56 percent) and nearly twice as anti-Semitic as Europe’s second-most anti-Semitic country, France (37 percent).

On its surface, the poll suggested that anti-Semitism is running rampant in Greece.
Much of the blame goes to the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, which has found fertile ground for its extreme-right ideology in the ruins of Greece’s economic crisis.

But both the ADL and Greece’s small Jewish community caution that the reality is more nuanced than the poll numbers suggest........ http://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-cemetery-desecrated-in-thessaloniki-greece/#ixzz33D7wS5Ok