Cessation of prosecution for the Hania Synagogue arson

On January of this year the Etz Hayyim Synagogue of Hania, Crete faced two arsonist attacks aiming to its complete destruction. The first one occurred on January 7th, (my post then) and went by unnoticed by the Press, political parties and civil society, (take a look in the highly critical announcement by Helsinki Monitor NGO). A week later a second attack followed with disastrous consequences making the Hania Synagogue the first synagogue to be violently destroyed in Greece since the Shoah. The size of the disaster is unfathomable since we’re not talking only about the thousands of burned books and artifacts but also about an attack on a 16th century synagogue, sole testimony of 2000 years of jewish presence in Greece which was restored thanks to international help despite local negative reactions, to the benefit of the entire city. 

An international mobilization in favor of the Synagogue brought Greece to the headlines and the international pressure forced the Greek Government to proceed to the arrest of 1 Greek, 2 Americans and 2 Britons. 
 

The arrests managed to trigger a new wave of antisemitism since pure Greek Christian patriots discovered foreign conspiracies and blamed not the pervasive antisemitism of my country which allows synagogues to burn freely unless foreigners get wind of it. The fact that it was the third arsonist attack on a greek synagogue in 12 months apparently did not trouble them.

From local newspaper Haniotika Nea we learn that those arrested are not even to be brought to trial because the Magistrate Court and the Public Prosecutor have agreed on the cessation of the prosecution and on lifting of all restricting measures because of «weak indications of guilt».

In other words they are either letting antisemitic arsonists free, or the initial arrests were only easy busts to show some progress when the eyes of international public opinion were set on Hania.

After these latest developments I admit I am no longer interested in what happened and those responsible manage to walk away unpunished; we have already seen the incompetence of the greek State over the tenths of unpunished attacks on jewish targets the past 3 years or the anti-jewish stance of the greek Courts with the acquittal of exterminationist, nazi-sympathizers.

Even better we have seen the indifference and even downright hostility of pseudo-progressive segments of the political spectrum and civil society when we asked for help; the few Christian compatriots who tried to mobilize them in solidarity only to find out the reality behind the facade have my sincere and deepest thanks for their courage to go with the untouchables.

The same gratitude goes to the Havura/Brotherhood of the Synagogue which is comprised mostly by non-Jews.

For the Greek Jewry let it be a lesson paid with the cost of a synagogue, no more.  

Fuente: Abravanel – Jewish life and not only in Greece  

Thank you very much Angela Maria Arbelaez for sending to us
this article.