Greece set to deport pro-Hamas student demonstrators
Perhaps coincident with growing Israeli-Greek cooperation in various domains, the Greek government arrested 28 students at the Athens Law School on May 14, and is set to deport nine of these who are non-Greek Europeans, as reported in Greek City Times. It is a move celebrated by hundreds of thousands of social media audiences.
What does this mean for Israel-Greek relations? Is it really cause for celebration?
Greece to Deport Foreign Students Engaged in Anti-Israel Protests https://t.co/IdMIqxhuty pic.twitter.com/zFqARlt9lC
— Greek City Times (@greekcitytimes) May 28, 2024
According to one of the foreign students, who was released yesterday while awaiting trial, the protesters:
declared [the law school] occupied in solidarity with Palestine and in support of al-Aqsa Flood [the name Hamas gave for their 7 Oct atrocities], the ongoing liberation struggle, waged by the Palestinian Resistance, since 7 October.
disturbing the peace, damaging property, trespassing, and violations related to weapons and flares. Among those detained, nine foreign nationals have been classified as “unwanted aliens” and are considered a threat to public order and national security, prompting their deportation.
Until 2019, university campuses were off limits to police. In that year, the new government rescinded the post-1973 law that forbade security forces from acting on campus after dozens of students demonstating against the military dictatorship were killed when a tank rolled through the gate of the Athens Polytechnic. (You can read more about the ups and downs of this law over various administrations here.)
While the Greek government had been traditionally pro-Palestinian, it has moved to a much more positive pro-Israeli stance since democracy was reinstated in that country. An academic article published in 2019 in the journal, Strategic Assessment, describes the reasons behind this change and the way in which it came about. Today, Greece and Israel cooperate in issues of energy, security, trade, and tourism, and Cyprus is also a partner in relevant projects. The authors write:
While Greece was once one of Israel’s strongest opponents in the European Union, the warming of Greek-Israel relations actually turned Greece into one of Israel’s staunchest partners in the EU.
And that includes Greece’s willingness to take a position in opposition to EU police regarding Israel.
An article published last year substantiates that these changes are holding up.
In contrast to this, according to mainstream media, Greek students maintain a decidedly pro-Palestinian stance and there have been pro-Hamas demonstrations in campuses across this country as we have seen most vociferously in the USA and UK. The effect of this government clamp-down on such protests remains to be seen.
How does Greece’s positive relationship play out in the UN?
Given that Greece is apparently willing to stand up to her European partners in the EU, I wondered if she is also willing to do the same at the global body that is supposed to promote world peace.
If 2009 was a critical year for the change in Greek-Israel relations, how has Greece voted in United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions over the past 15 years? The UN website provides voting pattern data for all countries since 2015, and if Greece moved from a pro-Palestinian to a pro-Israel position, we might expect Greece to have supported Israel in the UN at least since 2015.
Let us first compare Greece’s voting record in comparison with that of the USA, a country that is reputedly Israel’s “best friend.” To do this, I went to the UN Watch website for Greece.
OK. So that is since 2015. Perhaps as time passed, Greece started voting differently and we will see the difference in more recent resolutions.
Greece’s Post-Oct 7 voting
October 27th was the first time the UN General Assembly (UNGA) held an emergency session related to the Oct 7 atrocities committed by Hamas (with the participation and/or cheering suppport of Gazan civilians) and the ensuing war between Hamas and Israel. This was the first of three UNGA resolutions to date and Israelis and Jews around the world were still in shock, as were many non-Jews who recognized that this was a fight between good and evil.
How did the UN member states position themselves on this issue in these three resolutions? An accompanying article I wrote describing the resolutions, with links to the resolutions themselves, can be found here.
What is relevant to this article, is how Greece voted in view of the warmer relations that have been developing between Greece and Israel.
The first, Resolution ES-10-21, which calls for an immediate ceasefire without mentioning Hamas at all, passed with 120 in favour, 45 absentions, and 14 opposed.
Greece abstained. Hurray! But not very Israel-supportive, I think.
Next……
Then, on 12 December, UNGA passed Resolution ES-10-22 which calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, immediate and unconditional release of hostages and ensuring humanitarian access to the hostages, again, without naming Hamas. In addition, no connection was made between ceasefire and hostage release or access to them.
In this case, 153 voted in favour of the resolution and 10 against, with 23 abstentions and 7 absentees.
Greece did not even abstain this time. It can be found in its usual place, sandwiched between Ghana and Granada, on the list of those who voted for this Hamas-friendly resolution.
Finally, on 10 May, UNGA voted on Resolution ES-10-23, reaffirming previous resolutions regarding the rights of the so-called Palestinian people and upgrading the level of participation allowed in the UN to the Palestinian Authority, aka the PLO/Hamas.
How did Greece vote here? They are not among the nine countries that opposed the resolution. They are not among the 25 who abstained. No, there they are, once more in the long list of those who voted against Israel.
Closing thought
Okay, good. The Greek government decided to arrest pro-Hamas protesters on the Athens Law School campus and even to deport non-Greek Europeans. Had Greece made any indications of supporting Israel in the UN, I might have been moved by this, encouraged, uplifted even. However, even with growing spheres of cooperation between Israel and Greece, the latter still goes along with the Jew-hating crowd in the so-called “United” Nations, that body that is going to bring about world peace. Right!
This leads me to believe that the Greek government responded to the pro-Hamas demonstrations in a way that served purely Greek interests and has nothing to do with taking a moral stand against an evil terrorist organization that surpasses even the Nazis in their cold blooded viciousness.
I have become cynical post-Oct 7th. It is going to take a lot more than throwing out rabble rousing students from one’s country to get me to pay attention a second time.
And it makes me pray that our leaders know how to withstand international pressures and make sure to put Israel’s interest first and foremost.
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Feature Image is a screenshot of the “X” post in this article.
