A series of pro-Palestinian protests targeting an Israeli cruise ship around Greece have irritated a conservative government walking a diplomatic tightrope with Middle Eastern powers during the Gaza war.
At the crack of dawn on Thursday at the port of Piraeus outside Athens, dozens of riot police armed with truncheons, tear gas and shields sealed up a cruise terminal from hundreds of demonstrators.
Their ire was directed at the "Crown Iris", a hulking Israeli tourist ship that has attracted protests at each of its stops in the country since last month.
Tourism is a pillar of the Greek economy, but pro-Palestinian activists say the visitors "whitewash" Israel's devastating war in Gaza that was sparked by the unprecedented 2023 Hamas attack.
According to the All Workers Militant Front (PAME), a communist-affiliated union that called the rally, the Crown Iris was carrying Israeli soldiers.
"We cannot tolerate people who have contributed to the genocide of the Palestinian people moving amongst us," protester Yorgos Michailidis told AFP in Piraeus.
"We want people everywhere to see that we don't only care about tourism and the money they bring," the 43-year-old teacher said.
For Katerina Patrikiou, a 48-year-old hospital worker, the visitors "are not tourists -- they are the slaughterers of children and civilians in Gaza".
- 'Useful idiots' -
Greece traditionally maintained a pro-Arab foreign policy, but governments of different political stripes have in recent years woven closer ties with Israel in defence, security and energy.
Athens has carefully tried to protect both relations during the war, accusing the left-wing opposition of undermining the strategic Israel alliance aimed at counterbalancing the influence of historic rival Turkey in the eastern Mediterranean.
"The useful idiots for Turkey have been in our ports, where their extreme actions seriously damage Greece's image in Israel," Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis wrote on X last month.
"We must protect this alliance as the apple of our eye and isolate these fools... Those who exhibit antisemitic behaviour act against Greece's interests."
Before joining the ruling conservative party in 2012, Georgiadis was a prominent member of far-right party Laos, which had a history of anti-Semitic statements.
When first named health minister a year later, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) had urged the government to reconsider, noting that Georgiadis had made "troubling remarks" about Jewish people and had promoted an anti-Semitic book.
In 2017, he publicly apologised for having "coexisted with and tolerated the opinions of people who showed disrespect to my Jewish compatriots".
Several protests each rallying hundreds of people attempted to prevent the Crown Iris from docking at Mediterranean islands including Rhodes, Crete and Syros last month, with occasional scuffles between demonstrators and police.
According to The Times of Israel, the ship's owners decided to skip Syros after 200 people protested as the vessel approached.
Israel's ambassador to Greece, Noam Katz, condemned an "attempt to harm the strong relations between our peoples, and to intimidate Israeli tourists" in Syros.
Greece's Minister of Citizen Protection Michalis Chrisochoidis has said that anyone who "prevents a citizen of a third country from visiting our country will be prosecuted" for racism.
- 'Whitewash crimes' -
PAME accused the government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of using antisemitism allegations "to whitewash the crimes of the murderer state, suppress any reaction, and any expression of solidarity with the Palestinian people".
"Nobody is racist, nobody has a problem with Jewish identity... Our problem is the people who support genocide," Michailidis said at Thursday's rally.
The October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Gaza's Hamas rulers resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Palestinian militants also took 251 hostages that day, with 49 still held in Gaza, including 27 who the Israeli army says are dead.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, mainly civilians, according to figures from Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.
An Israeli aid blockade has exacerbated already dire humanitarian conditions in the devastated strip and plunged its more than two million inhabitants into the risk of famine.
imm/jph/bc
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