Greece to officially adopt broad definition of anti-Semitism

PM says country to use International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance description of Jew hatred

By Marcy Oster 10 November 2019, 9:49 pm

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Illustrative: Children place flowers at the Holocaust Memorial commemorating the persecution of the Jewish people during World War II in Thessaloniki, Greece, January 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Nikolas Giakoumidis)

JTA — Greece will adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism, its prime minister said.

The IHRA working definition offers a comprehensive description of anti-Semitism in its various forms, including hatred and discrimination against Jews, Holocaust denial and, sometimes controversially, the way anti-Semitism relates to the ways criticism of Israel is expressed.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis made the announcement on Friday during a meeting at his office with the President of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece, David Saltiel, and the head of the Greek Delegation to the IHRA, Dr. Efstathios Lianos Liantis, the Ekathimerini newspaper reported.

Mitsotakis assigned the country’s vice president, Panagiotis Pikrammenos, oversight of the project as well as coordinating and supervising the integration of the IHRA definitions into domestic legislation and education.

Liantis is a founding member of the Holocaust Museum of Greece. In April he was appointed Greece’s Special Envoy on Combating Anti-Semitism and Preserving the Memory of the Holocaust.