[ALBSA-Info] Anti-Semitism in the Balkans

[Agron Alibali]

"Alfa1"

22-9-2001

Parliamentary Question of Yorgos Karatzaferis

"Since the country, like the others on the planet, is under the new dogma
of the Americans as officially heard by President Bush in the Congress:
"States must choose if they are with the Americans of the terrorists."

Given that since September 11th, the day of the sad events in New York and
Washington, new conditions have been created that automatically affect our
country, especially because of the 2004 Olympiad and the fact that we
neighbor with Islamic countries, I am bringing the following to your
attention:

Two newspapers of Israeli interests, "Haaretz" of Tuesday September 18th
and "Yedioth Ahronot" of Wednesday September 19th, stated the following
among other things:

"4000 Jews working in the Twin Towers did not go to work on the day of the
attack. In addition, the visit of Ariel Sharon to New York, where he was to
speak at a celebration of Zionism, was postponed on the same day. Besides
that, 5 Jews were arrested videotaping the destruction 4 hours after the
event. They are being held by the FBI for suspicious behavior, which was
interpreted as being ridiculing and sarcastic about the tragic event."

According to the newspapers 4000 Jews and Ariel Sharon were prevented (and
therefore saved) from the secret services of Israel.

The Minister is asked:

Are you aware of these publications?
Have you brought it to the attention of the other 14 European Governments?
How will you handle the issue in light of the threat of an endless war? 

----------------------------

EMBASSY OF ISRAEL


PRESS RELEASE

The Government of Israel categorically rejects all allegations that Israel
supposedly informed Jews about imminent terrorist attacks in New York.
These allegations are simply preposterous. Strangely enough, these absurd
accusations are even being propagated by certain personalities, even
political ones, in Greece.

It is really a shame that at the beginning of the 21st century one can
still find people, even politicians, who are resorting to the same
criminal, racist, anti-semitic propaganda used by the Nazis to justify
their crimes against Jews. Blinded by their own hatred, ignorance and
stupidity, these individuals intentionally ignore the reality of
international developments and try to directly or indirectly blame Jews for
every evil in the World.

In light of the terrible human tragedy that struck the civilized world,
there is no other way to explain the baseless accusations that Israel
withheld information from its dearest friends, the people of America. There
is only one word to describe this accusation. A shame!

Athens, 24.9.2001
Press Office


=====

"Eleftherotypia" 29-9-2001 by Ios [CARRIERS OF THE IOS (VIRUS) ARE: TASSOS KOSTOPOULOS, DIMITRISTRIMIS, ANGELIKA PSARRA, DIMITRIS PSARRAS (ios at e...)]A lie transforms into anti-Semitic hysteria and reaches Greek ParliamentThe Black International of Liars(translated by GHM from the Greek original available at:http://www.enet.gr/online/online_p1_fpage_text.jsp?dt=29/09/2001&id=56459)"Israelis working in the Twin Towers were saved!"("Espresso", 24.9.2001)Yorgos Karatzaferis [extreme right wing LAOS party deputy] found no traceof a Jew in the Twin Towers devastation.For days now we've been following, dumbfounded, the construction process ofan outrageous rumor and the mechanisms by which it is promulgated. Therumor claims that the Jews (note: any and all Jews) were behind theterrorist attack of September 11th. This is proved by the fact that therewere no dead Jews among the thousands of victims of the attack because the4000 Jews working in the Twin Towers were notified in time to organize amass truancy from work - and their own salvation - on the crucial day. Yes,you understood right: 4000 American Jews kept the earth shattering secretto themselves, and not even one betrayed it to his/her colleague in thenext office!The fact that this rumor is monstrous enough to insult the intelligence ofeven the most militant anti-Semite has not stood in the way of itsdissemination. It has been given space in newspapers, broadcast ontelevision, adopted by politicians and supported by academics endowing itwith whatever prestige they have. What's more, it has reached GreekParliament thanks to a parliamentary question put by a well-knownheadhunter of Jews (and others), Yorgos Karatzaferis. Karatzaferis askedGreek Foreign Minister George Papandreaou (whom, it should be noted,Karatzaferis considers a Jew through his grandmother Sofia Mineiko) toinform him as to his awareness of the articles published in two Israelinewspapers ("Haaretz" and "Yedioth Ahronot"), and if he had advised hisEuropean counterparts of them. These publications supposedly "reveal" thatthe 4000 Jews working in the Twin Towers had been notified by the Israelisecret service and did not go to work on the day of the attack, and thatAriel Sharon had canceled his visit to New York that same day.The dissemination of a rumorMr. Karatzaferis' demand of the Foreign Minister is obviously ridiculous(why would the EU governments expect to be notified by the Greekauthorities about Israeli publications?). Therefore, one must lookelsewhere for the significance of the entire matter in which theparliamentary questioning process served as a pretext. Quite simply,Karatzarferis, as part of his personal anti-Semitic crusade, took it uponhimself to spread a rumor in Greece that had circulated in some Arab media.It's worth looking at how this was done. The "news item" apparently firstappeared in the Kuwaiti newspaper "Al-Wattan" and in the Pakistani "NawaiWakat." It definitely was broadcast on the Lebanese "Al-Manar TV," whichadvertises itself as "the first Arab channel to wage an effectivepsychological war against the Zionist enemy." A few days later thePakistani weekly "Darb-i-Mumin" (21-27 September) published, in the form ofa dispatch from New York, the "news" that the American authorities wereinvestigating why there were no Jews among the dead of September 11th. Andthis, despite the fact that initially, moments after the building wasstruck, much of the media, especially the Israeli media, rushed to mournthe 4000 Jewish workers in the Twin Towers. The article ascribes thisinformation to "Arab diplomatic sources," adding that Western mediasubsequently withheld the fact that Jews were absent from the scene of thecrime.Within this climate it seems that two Israeli newspapers, "Haaretz" and"Yedioth Ahronot" (18 and 19 September respectively), quoted the abovearticles in order to use them as typical examples of current Arabanti-Israeli propaganda. The entire affair would have remained in theframework of yet another classic Arab-Israeli altercation were it not forthe fact that some of these articles were hosted on "Indymedia"(Independent Media Center), the well-known website that strives, as we'veseen in the past, to operate as an independent source of uncensoredinformation by harboring controversial (and occasionally unsubstantiated)views on a variety of current topics. So, it was on "Indymedia" that Mr.Karatzaferis' associates found the "documents" that the MP displayed totelevision viewers as proof of the "new Jewish crime," as he withheld theirreal origin as well as the discourse surrounding them."You won't have it easy"Up to this point we are dealing with a typical process of rumor productionand dissemination, the construction of which, in order to be convincing, isascribed to its very victims: the Jews knew of the terrorist attack, andsince they admit it themselves, who are we to doubt them? What comes next,however, is even more outrageous. When the strong reply of the Embassy ofIsrael in Athens was made public last Tuesday, and the publications on thetopic began multiplying, Karatzaferis showed up in a frenzied state on hisdaily TV program at "Teleasty" to literally declare war on Greek Jewry.In a delirium of hatred that the most fanatic national socialist wouldenvy, the parliamentarian did more than ascribe the terrorist attack andevery evil in the world to the Jews. Addressing himself alternately to theIsraeli Ambassador in Athens and to all Jews indiscriminately, he demandedthat they essentially be denied any possibility to object to whatever it isthey are yet again being accused of. But mainly - and this is important tothe understanding of how this new anti-Semitic rumor is used within theGreek context - he openly threatened Greek citizens of Jewish origin,regarding them as an a priori fifth column and excluding them once and forall from the "national body."Let's stay for a bit on Karatzaferis' - by grace of parliamentary immunity- anti-Semitic hysteria to look at what actually is at stake behind theso-called innocent recycling of this rumor: "These people who havecommitted so many crimes in this land have no right to protest," theparliamentarian maintained. "The Jews are not justified to a voice and tochallenge politicians in Greece. This shows great impudence on their part."Following this was the requisite questioning of the Holocaust itself: "Comenow, Mr. Ambassador, let's talk about the Holocaust, let's talk about themyths of Auschwitz and Dachau and those ovens; let's talk about the gaschambers to see if their walls were insolated to retain the gas or weresimply made up of bricks."And further down: "Are we the ones persecuting you, or is it that we findyou wherever we go and wherever we settle? Just because you've had your waywith some fools that tremble and fear you, and because you control thesystem with your secret societies and their spin-offs, do you think thatwe'll kowtow to you in the same way? No, there are still some individualsin Greece who aren't afraid. And we're the majority." And the barragecontinues: "Let's take a look at the role you've played in contemporarypolitical history. Let's look, finally, at the Greek Jews. […] You're moreover there [meaning Israel] than over here, no matter if you've been bornhere, no matter if you've made your money here, no matter if you've madeyour fortunes here - you're still more over there. And good for you forloving your country. But, you won't deprive us of the right to love our owncountry, to defend our own country from any threat, and we see you as oneof those threats. That's just how it is. […] Why do you want hearts andflowers? Aren't you in our midst? Haven't we put up with you since 1453?[…] In 1821 […] where did you all disappear? Because you sided with thepowerful Turks so you could make money, so you could make your fortunes."This "historical" documentation was then followed by the predictable"therefore": "So, that's why we don't like you. Because your very existenceand history has always been against Greece. […] That's why we don't wantyou around, that's why we don't sympathize with you. But, from that pointon, when you act with such impudence in our home [referring to thedisclaimer of the rumor], just know that we won't be so nice to you and youwon't have it so easy." And, in conclusion, he gives us (lest we'veforgotten) the most categorical justification of the Holocaust: "Whereveryou've gone throughout history, everyone's said 'out with the Jews.' Werethe Pharaohs crazy, were the Ptolemies crazy, too? Were all the peoples ofthe world crazy? Are all the people crazy who don't want you in theirmidst? Okay, Hitler was crazy - but all of history? So just know that, Mr.Jew ambassador, and watch your step."Yorgos Karatzeferis' outrageous frenzy wouldn't have mattered so much ifthe rumor, of which he was the basic linchpin in Greece, had not appearedvirtually uncommented upon in many newspapers ("Adesmeftos Typos" owned byMitsis 22/9, "Vradini" 22/9, "Paron" 23/9, "Espresso" 24/9, etc.) and onnumerous TV channels. If it had not been supported by politicians such asNew Democracy deputy Eugene Haitidis and professors such as Maria Tzani andYorgos Hourmouziadis (KKE - communist party). By utilizing the anti-Semiticsubstratum of a society that otherwise boasts of its ecumenical andanti-racist sentiments, this repulsive rumor seems to have found fertileground at a juncture where the "invisible danger" is easily detected in thefigure of the eternal scapegoat. Thus, the age-old mechanism has provedstill capable of stimulating the phobic and irrational reflexes of thepast. Unfortunately, it seems that Yorgos Karatzaferis is not alone on thismatter. Mainstream Antisemitism in Greece after the 11 September Attacks


Excerpts from Ios articles in "Eleftherotypia" mentioning antisemiticstatements by politicians of the country's three major parties, governingsocialist PASOK, opposition conservative New Democracy, and communist KKE.------------------------------------------29-9-2001A lie transforms into anti-Semitic hysteria and reaches Greek ParliamentThe Black International of Liars(translated by GHM from the Greek original available at:http://www.enet.gr/online/online_p1_fpage_text.jsp?dt=29/09/2001&id=56459)................."Yorgos Karatzeferis' outrageous frenzy wouldn't have mattered so much ifthe rumor, of which he was the basic linchpin in Greece, had not appearedvirtually uncommented upon in many newspapers ("Adesmeftos Typos" owned byMitsis 22/9, "Vradini" 22/9, "Paron" 23/9, "Espresso" 24/9, etc.) and onnumerous TV channels. If it had not been supported by politicians such asNew Democracy deputy Eugene Haitidis and professors such as Maria Tzani andYorgos Hourmouziadis (KKE - communist party). By utilizing the anti-Semiticsubstratum of a society that otherwise boasts of its ecumenical andanti-racist sentiments, this repulsive rumor seems to have found fertileground at a juncture where the "invisible danger" is easily detected in thefigure of the eternal scapegoat. Thus, the age-old mechanism has provedstill capable of stimulating the phobic and irrational reflexes of thepast. Unfortunately, it seems that Yorgos Karatzaferis is not alone on thismatter. "--------------------------------14-10-2001The Greek "Terror-Hunters"(translated by GHM from the Greek original available at:http://www.enet.gr/online/online_p1_fpage_text.jsp?dt=14/10/2001&id=59539)................"At Seven TV (3/10), when the debate was led to the antisemitic pathsprevailing these days, Mr. Papathemelis [PASOK] was wondering, with fakeinnocence, why the names of the Jews who were killed in the twin towerswere not released."


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