The Israeli media reported that last Friday, an Israeli couple was stabbed in Athens, after anti-Semites heard them conversing with each other in Hebrew and saw the Israeli woman wearing a Star of David necklace.
By Rachel Avraham
The Israeli media reported that last Friday, an Israeli couple was stabbed in Athens, after anti-Semites heard them conversing with each other in Hebrew and saw the Israeli woman wearing a Star of David necklace. According to the Times of Israel, the couple were heading to their hotel from a restaurant on Ermou Street in central Athens when the anti-Semitic assailants attacked them in an alley. According to the report, one of the Israelis suffered light injuries to the leg and head, but neither of them required hospitalization.
Uzi, an Israeli who was sat near the couple at the restaurant, told N12, “We followed them out of the restaurant, and heard that the couple was speaking Hebrew loudly. Arabic speakers who were passing by the area heard them and approached them. I heard them say ‘hi,’ and then they started attacking them and stabbing them with a knife.”
Uzi told N12 that he couldn’t sleep after the incident. “I still haven’t calmed down,” he said. “My flight back to Israel is tomorrow morning, and I don’t know if I’ll go out to walk around the city today. It’s crazy that things like this happen in Athens, it’s supposed to be a safe city.”
One of the assailants, originally from the Gaza Strip, was apprehended while the other fled the scene, the Hebrew-language Ynet News reported. The Gazan suspect “had participated in the past in pro-Palestinian demonstrations,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry said, the Jewish Chronicle reported.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Rafi Rom, an Israeli tour guide who has lived in Athens for a decade, was very surprised that the Israeli couple was attacked in that area of Athens: “I am there all the time with groups of Israelis, conveying my explanations in Hebrew, and I have never encountered any manifestation of antisemitism or anti-Israelism there.”
I24 News reported that this incident is part of a series of attacks targeting the Israeli community in Greece. In March 2023, Greek police arrested two Iranians of Pakistani origin, suspected of belonging to a group planning an attack on an Israeli restaurant and a synagogue in Athens. According to the report, the Mossad praised the intervention of the Greek authorities at the time, accusing Iran of orchestrating the operation, which Tehran denied.
More recently, in July 2024, I24 News reported that the Greek police arrested seven people for arson attacks against a hotel owned by Israelis and a synagogue in central Athens. According to the report, among the suspects were a 25-year-old Greek woman, two Iranians aged 46 and 36, and a 44-year-old Afghan, who were accused of attacking a building that housed an Israeli hotel and restaurant, using a homemade incendiary bomb.
That same year, Haaretz published an article, accusing Greece of being the most anti-Semitic country in Europe, claiming following the publication of the Anti-Defamation League’s 2024 survey: “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).”
According to Haaretz, “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. In elections held for Athens mayor, for example, 16 percent of the vote went to Golden Dawn spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris, a man notorious for beating a female political opponent during a television interview and for the large swastika tattooed on his shoulder.” However, more recently, the Greek newspaper Kathimerini published that Greece has drastically improved in this year’s ADL Survey: “The percentage fell from 69% in 2014 to 50% today, even amid the ongoing Gaza conflict, making the progress even more noteworthy, analysts in Washington say.”
Dr Aykan Erdemir, ADL’s director of international affairs and lead researcher, told Kathimerini that while global antisemitism has surged by 20 points among adults, Greece has shown the most significant decline. “We are talking about a 19-point decrease since 2014,” he said. Erdemir highlighted another key finding regarding Holocaust historical accuracy. While, globally, respondents under 35 are 21 points less likely to acknowledge the Holocaust’s historical accuracy compared to those over 50, Greece shows a reversal of this demographic trend: “Greeks under 35 are 8 points more likely to recognize the Holocaust’s historical accuracy than older generations.”
According to the report, “Analysts in Washington attribute Greece’s progress to coordinated efforts in government actions, legislative reforms, and educational initiatives, emphasizing that political and social will can indeed reverse these biases.” Indeed, although the Golden Dawn Party has plagued Greek society, encouraging an atmosphere of intolerance and bigotry, Greece should be commended for hosting the largest trial of Neo-Nazis since the Nuremberg Trials in October 2020, leading to the Athens Court of Appeals announcing guilty verdicts for 68 defendants, including the party’s political leadership. General Secretary Nikolaos Michaloliakos and six other prominent members and former MPs were charged with running a criminal organization, found guilty of murder, attempted murder and other violent attacks, and were sent to prison.
