Greek daily recently accused by court of contributing to hate against Jews publishes antisemitic slur over Coronavirus vaccine

A Greek daily newspaper, whose publisher was last week found guilty of defamation and whose newspaper was accused by the court of contributing to hate against Jews, has published an antisemitic slur on its front-page, allegedly comparing the Greek-Jewish head of the Pfizer pharmaceutical company with the infamous Nazi Josef Mengele and referring to the vaccine that Pfizer has reportedly produced as “poison.”

The Makeleio newspaper published its front page article under the headline “Jewish veterinarian will stick the needle in us!” in connection with the role of the Pfizer CEO, Dr Albert Bourla, a Greek Jew, in the development of a vaccine for COVID-19.

The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS) issued a statement condemning the newspaper and claiming that it regularly publishes “incendiary antisemitic articles.”

It claimed that the article, which was illustrated with a photo of Josef Mengele, was “yet another antisemitic story” and “a clear incitement to violence against the Jews.”

The newspaper was also condemned by George Kalantzis, the General Secretary for Religious Affairs, who said that the article and others in the same newspaper “cultivate consciously the most vile antisemitism.”

It brought to mind, said Mr Kalantzis, the medieval period when Jews were blamed for every disaster, illness or defeat. “At that time the road to Auschwitz begun,” he declared.

He added that it was “a great honour and a source of pride” that a Greek “regardless of which God he might believe in” has significantly contributed to “finding a solution for this unprecedented health crisis” in a period when the health of billions of people, as well as the global economy, depended on the existence of a vaccine.

Just days ago, an Athens court found Stefanos Chios, the publisher of Makeleio, guilty of defamation in connection with an article in 2017. Mr Chios was fined £1,660 for a 2017 article defaming a former President of the Jewish Community of Athens.

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