Un amico ebreo mi segnala questa situazione in Syriza: il candidato di Syriza a governatore della Macedonia dove si vota a maggio,  Theodoros Karypidis, ha espresso posizioni antisemite. La denuncia è del World Jewish Congress. E’ così? E che cosa ne dice il leader di Syriza Alexis Tsipras?

Qui di seguito il post del WJC:

6 February 2014

NEW YORK – The World Jewish Congress today called on the Greek party Syriza to withdraw a candidate for a regional governorship who made anti-Semitic statements about Greece’s Prime Minister, Antonis Samaras, and the country’s new public broadcasting channel NERIT.

PM Samaras speaking at the synagogue in 2013

“Syriza should withdraw the candidacy of TheodorosKarypidis for regional governor of Western Macedonia because his hateful anti-Semitic conspiracy theories can have no place in public discourse in the world’s oldest democracy,” said WJC President Ronald S. Lauder. “We join Greece’s Jewish communities in calling for Karypidis’sremoval from the Syriza list and from the party. Unfortunately, anti-Semitic outbursts such as this are not the reserve of extreme-right parties, and Syriza as a democratic party should condemn them without any delay ”

The left-wing Syriza party is the main opposition party in Greece. On his Facebook page, Karypidis alleged thatNERIT, an acronym, is derived from the Hebrew word for candle, “ner,” which he linked to the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, which commemorates the struggle of the Maccabees against the Greeks. “Samaras is lighting the candles in the seven branched candelabra of the Jews and lighting Greece on fire after his visit to the Thessaloniki Synagogue,” Karypidis wrote, according to a ‘Jewish Telegraphic Agency’ report. “He is organizing a new Hanukkah against the Greeks.”

The synagogue visit to which Karypidis referred was an appearance Samaras made with WJC and Greek Jewish leaders at Thessaloniki’shistoric Monastiriotes Synagogue in March 2013 to commemorate the deportation of 50,000 of the city’s Jews to the Nazi death camps in 1943. It was the first such visit a Greek prime minister had made in the last 100 years.

The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS), a WJC affiliate, issued a statement that said: “We hope that the leadership ofSyriza, which is a significant democratic party, will take all the necessary measures so that those who express views that incite racial hatred, intolerance and anti-Semitism, remain on the margins of Greek society.  It is our common duty to safeguard the principles of democracy, freedom and religious tolerance in the 2014 Greece, against those who serve the forces of darkness and anti-Semitic stereotypes. We hope that the party of Syriza will continue to strictly follow the policy against racism and anti-Semitism which is adopted by all democratic parties in Greece and in Europe.”

The bizarre and anti-semitic conspiracy theories of the SYRIZA candidate for Regional Governor of Western Macedonia

TV journalist and SYRIZA candidate in municipal elections Theodoros Karipidis

Questions have been raised over SYRIZA’s choice of candidate for the position of Regional Governor of Western Macedonia. Theodoros Karipidis is a journalist from the town of Kozani who, according to a recent post he made on his Facebook page, holds bizarre and apparently anti-semitic views about the name of Greece’s new public broadcaster.

In a few short years SYRIZA has gone from a coalition of leftist groups with single digit support to the main opposition party in Greek politics, currently leading in opinion polls over governing New Democracy. Following its rapid rise, one of the main challenges the party faces is convincing the electorate that it is a mature political force actually capable of governing.

That case is certainly not helped by candidates such as Theodoros Karipidis who is currently attracting the wrong sort of attention. Recently SYRIZA announced that Mr Karipidis would be its candidate for the position of Regional Governor of Western Macedonia in upcoming local elections in May.

As has been reported by a number of Greek news sites, the local TV journalist has made a number of controversial statements via his Facebook page including the following which draws a bizarre link between the name of Greece’s new state broadcaster (established by the current government after the shock closure of the former state broadcaster, ERT) and Hanukkah. Below is the Facebook post translated in full:

The importance of words… and names!!!

The new public TV channel in Greece will be called NERIT which is a Jewish name for girls and means ‘candle’ in Hebrew http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/0/Nerit. Nerit derives from the Jewish Nera http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/0/Nera and is given to girls who are born during Hanukkah… (the “candle” of the anti-hellenic celebration of Hanukkah in other words… What do the Jews celebrate during the anti-hellenic holiday of Hanukkah – read here: http://www.pentapostagma.gr/2013/01/blog-post_4686.html – about their victory against Alexander the Great!!!)

One by one Samaras is lighting the candles (Nerit) of the Jewish seven-candled menorah and is setting Greece alight… following his visit to the Synagogue of Thessaloniki (what an irony… in the land of Alexander the Great) he is arranging a new Hanukkah against the Greeks… Good afternoon!

Mr Karipidis has also been criticized for having invited Ilias Kasidiaris, the Golden Dawn MP on his TV show. In a statement Karipidis denied any affinity with the neo fascist party. But his controversial comments have led some SYRIZA officials to resign in protest and others to call on the party to reassess his candidacy in the run up to the municipal and European elections in May. The SYRIZA political secretariat, one of the party’s higher bodies, will convene today in an emergency session to decide on whether the party will keep Karipidis on the ballot.

The region of Western Macedonia covers almost 10,000 square kilometers and has a population of over 300,000 people. Regional governments are responsible for overseeing and implementing a range of development programs including European funded infrastructure works worth tens of millions of euros.

The coming municipal and regional elections are highly politically significant as they will show whether voters’ anger against New Democracy will translate into a massive vote in favor of SYRIZA. Alexis Tsipras, the party’s leader is attempting to transform the elections into an unofficial referendum on the policies of current government.

Analysts say SYRIZA has endorsed non-party members for the coming elections in an attempt to broaden its influence and appeal to voters beyond the traditional left. But the move appears to have backfired so far. The controversy over Mr Karipidis follows a similar uproar over the candidacy in the municipal elections of Odysseus Voudouris, a former PASOK official close to George Papandreou who supported the initial Memorandum (which SYRIZA has always vehemently opposed).

Wednesday 5 February 2014

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