DIALOG.......................
Travel Advisory from the Simon Wiesenthal Center
October 14, 2003
TWENTY MONTHS OF ANTISEMITIC INVECTIVE IN GREECE:
MARCH 2002 – OCTOBER 2003
A report based upon research by the Greek Helsinki Monitor
Presented at the OSCE/ODIHR Human Dimension Meeting in Warsaw on 14 October 2003 by Dr. Shimon Samuels, Director for International Liaison of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, Paris
Antisemitic invective has been constant and escalating over the period of this report. Beginning with newspaper caricatures using Holocaust imagery to Nazify the Jews, this has continued with media articles attacking Jews and Judaism as responsible for all the ills of Greece, in the language of 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'. In this poisonous atmosphere, we have witnessed the desecration of both ancient cemeteries and Holocaust memorials. Most recently, even the Jewish faith itself has been vilified and the loyalty of Greek citizens of Jewish ancestry and identity has been questioned. Finally, an exhibit, which glorifies suicide bombing, is due to open in Athens on 20 October. Its favourable review by the so-called quality press is a dangerous endorsement of terrorism and a new threshold that could encourage the indiscriminate targeting of innocents in the Jewish community and beyond, in Greece and other OSCE states.
Unless the Greek authorities publicly and emphatically condemn this incitement to hate and violence, the prospect of physical racist assault cannot be ruled out. The Wiesenthal Centre has appealed to the Greek government to take appropriate measures against this offensive, which is in violation of EU provisions and international conventions.
Antisemitism is a paradigm for all forms of xenophobia. This report is, therefore, a barometric measure of an atmosphere that can menace the very fabric of Greek society for all its citizens.
MARCH 2002
4: High-level Greek politicians use Holocaust rhetoric in reference to Israeli military actions. Speaker of the Greek Parliament Apostolos Kaklamanis: “genocide”; Government Spokesperson Christos Protopapas: former spoke “with sensitivity and responsibility…expressing the sentiments of the Parliament and Greek people.”
17: Apogevmatini publishes “The Letter to the Jews” by Dimos Mavrommatis, addressed to his “Jewish personal friends, Greek Jewish friendly acquaintances and Diaspora Jews…and those with their characteristics,” berating the “Greek Jews in particular” for “their silence” in the face of “the Hitlerist Sharon…who has created a Mauthausen, if not an Auschwitz or a Dachau.” Lauded throughout the Greek press and internet groups as “bold” and “daring,” the highly antisemitic “Letter to the Jews,” with the author’s response to criticism from KIS and the Israeli Embassy, was reprinted in Eleftherotypia, Apogevmatini, and center-left satirical weekly Pontiki. In subsequent eulogies to the author, the “Letter” was a called a “hymn to mankind.” Jewish critics of it were “revilers…who haven’t the right to look us in the eyes as long as they observe this crime with callowness. For they are accomplices.” (Eleftherotypia 2-4-02).
led an eight-member leftist and Greek Palestinian delegation, unannounced, to the Embassy of Israel. When they were not received, Glezos claimed, “It is unsupportable that these people, whom we protected against Nazi persecution, should be making a Holocaust.” “The Greek people…are pained and outraged when they see the descendents of Holocaust victims copying their victimizers…” (Eleftherotypia 21-3-02, 27-3-02)
30: Prominent PASOK deputy and former Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos chose Sabbath of Passover to launch an extempore protest march of bipartisan politicians on the Embassy of Israel. Finding the embassy closed, he claimed that “it isn’t the Sabbath of Passover in Greece and they should respect the country they’re living in.” In full page essay in To Vima (14-4-02), Greece’s largest selling Sunday paper, Pangalos accused Greek Jews of “glaring absence from all demonstrations against the massacre of the Palestinians” and of “silence, apathy or, even worse, solidarity with the Sharon Government.” He demanded that Greek Jews unequivocally condemn the Sharon Government and “then, we…will be able to stand by them, without reservation, against all forms of prejudice and attempts at discrimination.”
30: Eleftherotypia publishes Stathis cartoon equating Nazi destruction of Warsaw Ghetto with Israeli attack on Ramallah. Nazi ghost soldier musing: “Finally things are complete! Just as we killed the Jews then, so now are the Jews killing the memory of those who were killed.”
APRIL 2002
During April 2002, in particular, there was a literal barrage of virulent antisemitic articles, caricatures and letters to the editor across the spectrum of the extensive Greek press, in the context of escalating Israeli military attacks on Palestinian targets. In addition to religious and Holocaust comparisons, the texts characteristically cited “the Jews,” and Greek Jews as collectively responsible for Israel’s actions, as being global conspirators, and in general for all the world’s evils. The cartoons routinely compared Sharon to Hitler, Israeli soldiers to Nazi storm troopers, and Palestinians to Jewish Holocaust victims. During the Greek Orthodox Easter season, Arafat was depicted in the role of Christ being crucified by the Jews with the Palestinians as his prophets. The dailies Eleftherotypia, Ta Nea and Ethnos were the worst offenders. The regular cartoonist and columnist Stathis [Stavropoulos] (Eleftherotypia) has been consistent in his generally sarcastic antisemitic commentary.
Appeals by the Embassy of Israel and the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS) to both the major papers themselves and to the Union of Athens Daily Newspaper Journalists (ESIEA) were either ignored or rebuked as falsehoods or censorship efforts.
1: Eleftherotypia - KYR caricature on front cover: “Holocaust II” depicting Israeli soldier as Nazi officer and Palestinian civilian as Jewish death camp inmate, with archival photo of Jewish child propelled at gunpoint by Nazi soldier.
2: Organ Trafficking Libel. The official Athens News Agency (Athinaiko Praktoreio Eideision) distributes unconfirmed story from a Palestinian organization: “Israelis are selling organs of dead Palestinians” and are “using Arabs as guinea pigs.” The story appeared as news on 2-4-02 in three major dailies: Ta Nea, Eleftherotypia, and Apogevmatini (latter as front-page headline, with follow-up on 3-4-02).
2: Eleftherotypia, Ta Nea, and To Vima: same article by world renowned composer Mikis Theodorakis: “the Jews” are “imitating Nazi barbarity,” and becoming “more and more enamored with Nazi methods,” and conducting “their final solution against the Palestinians.”
10 (Athens) and 14 (Thessaloniki): Massive pro-Palestinian concert/rallies spearheaded by Mikis Theodorakis. Israeli flag paraded with swastika in place of Star of David.
15: Desecration of Holocaust Memorial in Thessaloniki by “unknown vandals” using red paint (to indicate bloodshed) and the word “Palestinians” one day after Holocaust Memorial Service at same monument and Theodorakis anti-Israel rally in same city.
15: Desecration of Jewish cemetery of Ioannina. At least four headstones vandalized. To date Sworn Investigative Inquiry (E.D.E.) has not proceeded.
15: Eleftherotypia publishes reader’s antisemitic letter that prompted Greek Helsinki Monitor to first react with a letter to the newspaper’s director, and then press charges against the daily for violating Greek anti-racist Law 927/1979 as amended with Law 1419/1984. A reader from Patras writes, inter alia, “Jews today are lucky that no one intends to deprive them of the right to be called human beings, when they aren’t” and “it’s a proven fact that Jews are untrustworthy and fickle. They infiltrate societies, first playing the poor souls to generate pity and then, when the time comes, they’ll grab you by the throat.”
16: Ta Nea publishes same antisemitic letter with two additional sentences and one phrase removed.
MAY 2002
Late May: Construction begins on Holocaust Memorial on the island of Rhodes.
JUNE 2002
10: Rhodes local daily Drasis reprints Stathis’ “Warsaw Ghetto = Ramallah” cartoon with announcement of exhibition of history of Rhodes’ Jews.
12: Jewish Community of Rhodes spokesperson reports that verbal and physical harassment of workers during construction of monument requires 24-hour police protection throughout.
23: Official unveiling of Holocaust Memorial of Rhodes.
30: First signs of desecration of Holocaust Memorial of Rhodes with gradual removal of letters of inscription.
JULY 2002
3: Partial permanent destruction of Holocaust Memorial of Rhodes. Decorative wire cut and pushed down around the base of monument. Local daily Proodos reported (4-6-02) “vandals all but destroyed the monument,” noting that the Mayor of Rhodes had “recently received a letter from MP and [ultra-nationalist] LAOS party leader George Karatzaferis, expressing his opposition to the monument to the Jews of that city.” It further noted that Karatzaferis was scheduled to visit Rhodes three days later.
Spring 2002: Embassy of Israel issues a five-page confidential report on the “sharp rise in anti-Semitism in Greece since the end of March” to major Jewish and Israeli organizations in the United States.
The report was leaked to the Jerusalem Post and finally covered by
Tachis Michas in Eleftherotypia on 2 July 2002.
8: Simon Wiesenthal Center (on the basis of the report) announced that, at OSCE parliamentary discussion, it urged Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis and other Greek leaders to publicly condemn the use of antisemitic stereotypes and Nazi imagery that have characterized public and media criticism of Israel. “Failure to do so could jeopardize Jews in Greece and poison the environment leading up to the 2004 Olympic Games.”
AUGUST 2002
1: GHM lodges complaint with Public Prosecutor of the Athens Magistrates’ Court against Eleftherotypia and Ta Nea, inter alia, on the grounds of inciting racial hatred and discrimination through published material. Specifically, the letter of a reader published in both newspapers (15 and 16 April respectively) expressed anti-Jewish sentiments, and also used characterizations obviously offensive to Jews.
8: Following UN report on Jenin (1-8-02). In response to readers’ letters asking Eleftherotypia to apologize for previous disinformation at the expense of Israel, which “feeds the worst form of anti-Jewish racism in Greece,” the paper admitted that it had misreported, but that it “cannot ask for apologies from those who condemned the homicides but instead from those who committed them. Otherwise anti-Semitism and Semitism are both forms of racism that ‘E’ fights against always and everywhere.”
13: Eleftherotypia and Ta Nea indicted by the Public Prosecutor for violating articles 1 and 2 of anti-racism Law 927/1979. Minority Rights Group-Greece was involved in the indictment procedure as a witness.
SEPTEMBER 2002
24: Stathis cartoon in Eleftherotypia. Nazi-like Israel soldier with Star of David on his helmet says to Nazi officer next to him: “Arafat is not a person the Reich can talk to anymore.” Nazi officer responds: “Why? Is he a Jew?”
OCTOBER 2002
13: First round of elections for Greater Athens “super prefect”: MP and leader of Ultra-nationalist LAOS party George Karatzaferis comes in third with 14% of votes. Through his newspaper Alpha Ena, television channel TeleAsty, and statements and parliamentary questions (Jewish involvement in 9/11 and suspected Jewish origins of Greek politicians) Karatzaferis is notably Greece’s most vocal propagator of anti-Semitism and conspiracies theories.
20: Prefect of Hania, Crete, George Katsenevakis (supported by small leftwing Synaspismos party) was reelected with the majority of votes. Katsenevakis strongly opposed the re-opening of the 15th century Etz Hayyim Synagogue in Hania. On 5-4-02 he states to local press regarding Middle East crisis: “…civilization is being murdered. Christ is being re-crucified by the contemporary Caiaphas, the high priest of Zionism, Sharon.”
15: Letter from Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) to Greek Minister of Interior [Constantine Skandalidis]: “Close Down Racist Politician’s [George Karatzaferis] Television Mouthpiece for Hate.”
16: Front page headline of Eleftherotypia: “Nea Demokratia [conservative opposition party] is a Havra Ioudaion.” Havra Ioudaion (lit: Hevra of Jews) is idiomatic Greek for a noisy or rowdy gathering. It has a highly negative connotation.
17: Eleftherotypia rejects KIS objections over use of term Havra Ioudaion: “You are insulting the Greek language.” “There are two interpretations of the expression in question: the Jewish definition and the one established in the Greek language, which means rowdy mob gathering. We would kindly ask you to stop seeing insults, anti-Semitism and racism everywhere, because in addition, you are insulting the Greek language. We are presenting the interpretation as recorded in Greek dictionaries…”
18: George Karatzaferis asks Minister of Interior for copy of “slandering” SWC letter in order to take legal action against its authors.
18: Eleftherotypia columnist Yannis Triantis calls the SWC letter a “provocation” and a threat to “freedom of expression”: “Who and with what criteria will determine if we are dealing with incidents of racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, etc, when there are tremendous differences in interpretation…” (boldface his).
18: Kathimerini journalist Olga Sella writes that Greek publishers commented on “dominance of books on the Holocaust” at recent Frankfurt Book Fair, questioning the motives behind this trend. Is this simply extension of the ‘industry of the Holocaust’?”
DECEMBER 2002
13: Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM) sends letter to Manolis Barbounakis, publisher and owner of Katoi tou Vivliou bookstore in central Thessaloniki regarding prominent display and sale of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which has no place in a serious bookstore, but “only in those places that specialize in promoting anti-Semitic and other fascist ideas.” GHM did not receive a reply.
16: Eleftherotypia publishes article “Into the Fire.” Journalist G. Kork accuses “meddlesome Greek Helsinki Monitor” of “ordering” the publisher to “immediately remove” the book. (When visiting Thessaloniki in June 2003, GHM saw book had been removed and that its original letter with Mr. Barbounakis’ reply, a brief note handwritten on it, is freely available in multiple copies on a desk at the bookstore entrance.
JANUARY 2003
2: Eleftherotypia publishes antisemitic letter to editor by journalist Gavriil Lampsidis [member of Supervisory Committee of the Vafopouleio Cultural Center of Thessaloniki]: “[Greek] Jews should swallow their tongues.”
MARCH 2003
24: Misdemeanors Prosecutor refers the GHM v Eleftherotypia case directly to trial on 26/9/2003 before the Sixth Three-Member Misdemeanors Court of Athens. The leadership of the KIS constituted themselves civil claimants.
APRIL 2003
Preliminary investigation of GHM vs. Ta Nea case. Although mentioned as witnesses in the GHM complaint, the leadership of KIS was not summoned to testify, making the investigation incomplete, and preventing them from constituting themselves civil claimants.
MAY 2003
26: The English language weekly, Athens News, in its column on the Greek language, featured phrases on the summer at the beach. Column Editor, Brian Christopoulos, introduced the column with the question, "Who stole the beach? Answer: "The Zionists!"
JUNE 2003
3: First of two-part interview of Dimitris Kitsikis, Professor of History at the University of Ottawa, in extreme-right weekly Stochos, Greece’s oldest, most notorious antisemitic publication. Kitsikis calls Islam and Christianity “so-called Jewish religions.”
13: Avriani (small but influential center-left populist daily) front page and center spread. Claim that in gigantic privatizing scam, the financially beleaguered Softex paper company “ended up in the hands of a small group of Jewish ‘merchants’.” Incendiary phrases and words are capitalized through text, including “SELL OFF,” “SHUT DOWN” and that “Sly Jews MADE OFF” with company and all its assets.
20: Avriani front page, Sunday edition: alleged attempt by “Patriarch, Americans and Jews with the applause of the Turks [who are] seeking the fragmentation of the Church of Greece.” Draft of European Constitution is called “historically inaccurate pro-Jewish and pro-Turkish.”
23: Eleftherotypia columnist Andreas Roumeliotis reprints pamphlet and makes statement against globalization by the “‘Christian fascists’ and international Zionists,” i.e. supporting the doctrine of notoriously antisemitic Christianiki Dimokratia's group. Official news service of the (Greek Orthodox) Church of Greece devotes section to the 50-year history of Christianiki Dimokratia as “expressing the anxieties and questions of thinking and sensitive Christians.”
JULY 2003
10: Stochos, part 2 of interview of Dimitris Kitsikis: “It’s a fact that the Jews are the Greeks’ great rivals…The Jews and the Greeks are competing for who will reign over the Planet…I’m sure we will beat the Jews.”
13: Apogevmatini (mainstream conservative opposition) Sunday edition: Father George Metallinos, Professor at the School of Theology of University of Athens criticizes “Museum of (post-Charlemagne) Europe [for being] administered by a Jew (They couldn’t find a Christian!).”
12/13: Alpha Ena (extreme right, nationalist weekly, affiliated with LAOS party of George Karatzaferis): Theodoros Hadjigogos reviews Father Metallinos’ book: “The Orthodox Greek is not an anti-Semite, but he knows the essence of Zionism and its frame of mind against Hellinism…For the first time (the cleric) states that it is a bad thing for Greek children to be taught so much Jewish history [meaning the old testament].”
20: Eleftheros Kosmos (extreme right weekly) publishes reader’s contribution of “interesting data concerning the control of key sectors of the Greek Nation by people of Jewish origin or who have direct dealings with Zionist circles.” Many of those named in real – or apocryphal – positions are not Jews, but simply have foreign or foreign-sounding names.
23: Indictment against Eleftherotypia revoked by Misdemeanors Prosecutor with request for complete immunity from charges.
30: All charges against Eleftherotypia quashed by Misdemeanors Judicial Council on grounds that reader “out of justifiable interest as a Greek citizen was expressing his concerns over the events taking place with Greece’s neighboring peoples, i.e. the Israelites [sic] and the Palestinians.”
AUGUST 2003
3: Sabbath desecration of Ioannina Synagogue with neo-Nazi symbols and slogans including “SIEG HEIL,” swastika, Celtic cross, “long live the victory,” “blood and honor.”
5: Ta Nea case. Prosecutor sends the case before the Misdemeanors Judicial Council with a motion to quash the charges. The text of the motion is not accessible until the Council rules on the case.
7: Eleftherotypia appeals the referral for indictment and an Appeals Prosecutor recommends to a Misdemeanors Judicial Council that the charges for the antisemitic letter be quashed. The Council’s ruling (ref. no. 3277/03), accepting the Prosecutor’s motion, was issued on 7/8/03 and the trial was cancelled. The Council argued that the letter writer was merely “freely expressing, through the press, his views, judgments and evaluation of the Jews, with no intent to incite others to perform acts or carry out activities that may result in discrimination, hatred or violence against the Jewish people, on the sole ground of the latter’s racial or ethnic origin.” In addition, the Council accepted a prior Council ruling (3292/97) that the publisher and the editor of the newspaper (who were also referred to trial) “are indeed responsible for the development, formulation and presentation of the newspaper’s daily main position on the major issues of the day, and therefore do not have the possibility of knowing every text published in the newspaper, and especially the readers’ letters that do not comment on the newspaper’s content but express their [the readers’] personal views.”
9: State television NET, on weekly investigative documentary program “To Kouti tis Pandoras” (Pandora’s Box) (Wed. 23.00-24.00): Witness speaks of one of many Greeks involved in monarchy-sponsored baby trafficking ring as “someone named Cohen, a lawyer, who was moreover a Jew” with clear derogatory emphasis on the word Jew. NET chose not to edit the last - irrelevant to the story - remark.
17: Kefallonia: Left-wing objects to presence of Israeli delegation at 50th anniversary commemoration of the country’s aid in island’s 1953 earthquake, using Holocaust analogies. Communist Party (KKE) and Neo Aristero Revma (New Left Current-NAR) call Israeli Ambassador Aviram and visiting Israeli military officers “agents of the worst holocaust in contemporary times” and Israel a “Hitlerist regime.”
21: Archbishop of Greece Christodoulos visits Majdanek Extermination Camp in Poland. Historical omissions in his speech and official statement issued by News Service of the Church of Greece. No references to the Holocaust as such, to the more than 1,500,000 overwhelmingly Jewish victims, or to the 1,500 Greek Jews – even simply as Greek citizens – who are documented among the “thousands of people, who were not to blame for anything, who met with a tragic death in this place.” Nor that their “blame” was simply being Jewish.
23: Russian media oligarch Vladimir A. Gusinsky arrested at Athens airport en route from Israel on charges of fraud by Russia. Story received extensive coverage in Greek media for several weeks. The vast majority of newspaper stories routinely referred to him as the “Russian Jew (Rossoevraio) Vladimir Gusinsky,” almost always with references to his affiliation with the “Jewish lobby,” the “all-powerful (panischyro) Jewish lobby,” the “American Jewish (amerikanoevraiko) lobby,” etc., and its pressures on Putin and on Greece to not deport him.
25: Kathimerini subheading: “American-Jewish (amerikanoevraiko) lobby moves to reverse [Gusinsky’s] deportation to Russia.” Mentioning “Rossoevraios” twice in text and “pressures” by the “powerful American-Jewish lobby.” Ethnos: “Russian Jew” with photo of Gusinsky wearing yarmulke next to Israeli flag. Many papers - but not all - chose this photo, when others were available.
26: Kathimerini front page: “Russian Jew” [Gusinsky] has “support of American-Jewish lobby.” Ta Nea: “Russian Jew.”
26: Macedonian Press Agency quoting Deputy Foreign Minister Loverdos: “other sides have shown interest in [Gusinsky], I’m referring to the Jewish lobby...”
26: Avghi (progressive internationalist) journalist Eirini Lazaridou writes: “Rossoevraios” Gusinsky “clashed with Putin when the latter attempted to diminish influence of Jewish lobby” in Russia.
27: English Kathimerini-International Herald Tribune notes Gusinsky is senior figure in World Jewish Congress. A Google search of Gusinsky and Jews showed Ekathimerini to be the only English paper on the www mentioning “Jewish.”
27: Same article in Kathimerini (George Delastic) and in Ekathimerini (GG de Lastic). English version is altered. Greek “Russian Jewish entrepreneur” becomes English “fugitive media baron.” Both mention pressure coming from “American-Jewish lobby” and “Jewish lobby in America” respectively.
29: in.gr, Greece’s busiest site and 261st in world traffic, published Athens Press Agency (APE) release, deliberately adding “Russian Jew.”
29: Avghi: Lazaridou: “Rossoevraios” (first sentence) and “crook” [apateonas] (headline) Gusinsky.
SEPTEMBER 2003
13: Stathis cartoon in Eleftherotypia: one soldier with ISRAEL on helmet with swastika in place of S, and one soldier with USA on helmet with Star of David in front of U.
15: Stathis column in Eleftherotypia with Holocaust comparisons: “Where will this Final Solution [for Palestinian people] take place? In Auschwitz? In Dachau? In Belsen?”
22: Huge neo-Nazi antisemitic graffiti on both sides of major highway –
obviously not freshly painted – observed by GHM, including swastika, Celtic cross, “Juden Raus,” and number 88.
22: Hellenic state television ET1, reporter on main 21.00 newcast: “The Rossoevraios Vladimir Gusinsky.”
25: Eleftherotypia publishes antisemitic letter by journalist G. Lampsidis [member of Supervisory Committee of the Vafopouleio Cultural Center of Thessaloniki]: “[The Jews] have vindicated the persecutions of the Nazis. All humanity says that they deserved such an executioner [Hitler] since they have proved to be murderers themselves.”
28: Sto Karfi newspaper. “Set Up and Money: Nicely rigged job with the Rossoevraios Gusinsky. The American-Jews and the Moscow prosecutor got together…a lot of money changing hands.”
29: Originally scheduled date for Eleftherotypia antisemitism trial. Case was quashed (see above).
OCTOBER 2003
6: Ta Nea interviewed Alexandros Psychoulis regarding his exhibit entitled "Body Milk", due to open in Athens on 20 October. He was quoted as saying, "I feel that the experiment of Israel has failed… but politics do not concern me in this work, only the relations between the woman and the supermarket – what is it that ultimately makes her feel pleasure in this place? The title 'Body Milk' brings together both female cosmetics and the human milk of an 18-year-old Palestinian girl bomber in an Israeli supermarket last March. A very beautiful girl, educated, in love… of an army of women in the women's' space of the supermarket… the supermarket is a super female provider. If she blows herself up there, she is magnifying her existence and her act." According to Ta Nea, this pink lace embroidery montage displays an Arab woman and her bomb belt "heroically" obliterating an Israeli supermarket.
In a letter to Prime Minister Simitis, the Simon Wiesenthal Center demanded that the exhibit be aborted, saying, “Over 450 innocents, including women, children, elderly, have been murdered and thousands maimed by suicide terrorists in the last three years in Israel – the most recent only four days ago in a jointly Jewish and Arab owned restaurant in Haifa. This exhibit will continue to poison the Athenian climate, adding to the antisemitic campaign currently underway in the Greek media. This can only encourage eventual violence in Greece itself, for the scourge of global terrorism is indivisible.”
The letter continued, “Mr. Prime Minister, if your government does not immediately take the necessary measures to abort this obscenity insensitive to atrocity and human life itself, the world will know that Greece will have lost its soul. In consequence, the prospect for terrorism will have been enhanced in the context of the approaching Olympics. Indeed, the very ideals represented by the Olympic flame will have been impugned in the land of their birth.”
8: Associated Press website of 9 October. For the second time (see 15 April 2002, above), the Ioannina Jewish cemetery and its Holocaust memorial were desecrated.