Greek Jewish groups have condemned an “anti-Zionist patrol” which took place on the streets of Thessaloniki, exactly 95 years after assault squads targeted Jews in the same city.
The left-wing anarchist Rouvikonas group organized the “anti-Zionist patrol” on Saturday, heading toward Mavili Square, which they said “Israeli capital has parasitically infiltrated.”
They were joined by members of the groups Permanent Struggle for Class Liberation and the Libertarian Initiative of Thessaloniki.
Pictures and videos of the patrol show black-shirted men wearing Palestine flags.
“Under the pretext of investment and economic development, Israeli funds (and not only Israeli ones) are massively purchasing beaches, neighborhoods, and villages, turning the residents of these areas into migrants within their own homeland,” said Rouvikonas.
“Within this framework, Israelis are investing the money they have accumulated from genocide into Airbnb properties, tourist accommodations, and building plots, which the Greek state eagerly offers to them as investment opportunities.
“At the same time, tourists from Israel – soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces and their families – arrive by the thousands on cruise ships, turning their investment holdings into sources of income or vacation destinations away from the bombings and destruction they themselves cause in the Gaza Strip.”
“Israeli investments are presented as part of the tactic of ‘soft power’ of the Zionist state. At the same time, they generate enormous profits that are then used to sustain the costly international propaganda machine of the Israeli occupation.”
'Out with Zionist settlers'
Rouvikonas added that as long as states and capital cooperate commercially and militarily with Israel, it will fight to make sure the “genocidaires and Zionists are not welcome in our cities.”
“Out with Zionist settlers,” it added.
Ninety-five years ago, on the 29-30 June 1931, an antisemitic pogrom known as the Campbell pogrom took place in the Campbell neighborhood of Kalamaria in Thessaloniki.
Campbell was a poor Jewish area in the city built after the Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917 damaged Jewish houses and businesses. After the first fascist organizations appeared in the city in the 1920s, antisemitic activities became normalized.
Jews were portrayed as outsiders and enemies of the state who collaborated with communists to bring down Greece. This led reservists of the Hellenic Army and members of nationalist groups to target the community with antisemitic violence throughout June 1931, culminating in the pogrom mentioned. According to reports at the time, police did not prevent the violence, and stopped Jewish residents from defending themselves.
It is considered the first major antisemitic attack in Thessaloniki, which before that point was seen as a Jewish safe haven. It resulted in the mass emigration of about 30,000 Jews to either France or Palestine.”
“Exactly 95 years later – black-shirted individuals wearing Palestinian flags on their T-shirts organized new ‘assault squads’ in Thessaloniki to ‘patrol’ the city’s main streets, threatening and intimidating Jews, Zionists, Israelis, tourists, and business owners,” the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS) said.
“In both cases – then and now – the driving force has been hatred against Jews. Today, a new climate of Judophobia is once again taking shape, threatening not only Greek Jews but also the well-being of society as a whole. History teaches us that antisemitism begins by targeting Jews, but it never ends with Jews.”
KIS condemned what it called “tolerance” shown by state authorities and civil society institutions toward this “new wave of fanaticism directed against Jewish citizens of the State of Israel visiting our country.”
“These ‘assault squads’ and their followers seek to undermine the strategically important relationship between Greece and Israel at a time of instability in the Eastern Mediterranean that poses a threat to the security of both countries,” KIS said.
A Thessaloniki prosecutor opened a preliminary investigation into the Rouvikonas group on Monday, seeking to find out whether they are liable for incitement to commit crimes of violence or hatred, and threatening to commit crimes.