Greece: Education Vice-Minister accuses Jews of stealing the Holocaust

Via Abravanel, the blog:

On September 15th 2016 the vice-Minister of Education and Religious Affairs Theodosis Pelegrinis, (Syriza), said in a prepared speech in the Greek Parliament, (h/t to Viktor Eliezer for the find), what can only be described as a dystopic, antisemitic adaptation of the Jews who stole the Holocaust the Grinch which stole Christmas:

    «Although the holocaust refers, generally, to the persecution and the genocide a state or regime performs against ethnic, religious, social or political groups[…] the Jews managed to identify holocaust with the tragic fate of their nation […] in order to highlight the crimes of the nazi regime against them with the ulterior purpose to create anger against those who comited crimes against their national status and the sympathy of the civilized world for their suffering. With patience and insistence they managed to appropriate the holocaust, so that they could claim their vindication».

I would have linked to the official transcript but after the outcry the minister changed the text of the speech in the site of the Ministry; another sign of the lack of trustworthiness and transparency of the Greek governments.

He proceeded to suggest that also the Greeks, (when he means Greeks he means the Christian Greeks), should try and appropriate the term «catastrophe» as a means of claiming reparations in the future. I need not say that this speech is one of the most insulting things I have ever heard:

(...)

Pelegrinis is no casual politician; he is the former Rector of the University of Athens, the Dean of the Philosophy Department, an award-winning actor and writer. He is one of the best examples how Greek Antisemitism is normalized; what Pelegrinis said is not some poor choice of words but reflects accurately of how the greek society lends itself to a culture of sterile victimization which views with jealousy the dubious jewish privilege of having been almost completely exterminated.

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Pelegrinis claims he's been misunderstood:

On his part, Pelegrinis states that his plenary speech in Greek Parliament on September 15, 2016, was misconstrued and distorted. He says that he expressed respect and sympathy to the Jewish nation for all it has suffered. He said that the word “exploit” instead of “showcase” does not change the meaning of the sentiment he had expressed in Greek Parliament.