The events at Gaza touch everyone

ΖΑΚΥΝΘΙΝΟΙ ΘΑΥΜΑΣΤΕ ΤΟΥΣ ΠΕΜΠΤΟΦΑΛΑΓΓΙΤΕΣ ΠΟΥ  ΚΡΙΤΙΚΑΡΟΥΝ ΑΝΤΙΚΕΙΜΕΝΙΚΕΣ ΚΡΙΤΙΚΕΣ ΓΙΑ ΤΙΣ ΕΓΚΛΗΜΑΤΙΚΕΣ ΕΝΕΡΓΕΙΕΣ ΤΩΝ ΣΙΩΝΙΣΤΩΝ.

ΚΑΙ ΤΟ ΠΙΟ ΩΡΑΙΟ ΠΑΡΟΥΣΙΑΖΟΥΝ ΤΟΝ ΜΑΚΑΡΙΣΤΟ ΜΗΤΡΟΠΟΛΙΤΗ ΚΑΙ ΜΕΓΑ ΑΝΘΡΩΠΙΣΤΗ ΧΡΥΣΟΣΤΟΜΟ ΔΗΜΗΤΡΙΟΥ ΝΑ ΣΥΝΟΜΙΛΕΙ ΜΕ ΤΟΝ……….ΧΙΤΛΕΡ

ΝΤΡΟΠΗ  ΣΑΣ Η I SPY STRANGERS (LIKE IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS?)

ΤΟ ΚΕΙΜΕΝΟ

The events at Gaza touch everyone - but nobody in Zakynthos wants them to touch the island’s main industry of tourism because of a strongly worded text.

Politics or tourism?!

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It is well known that this year is shaping up to be, possibly, one of the most difficult in terms of tourism and econo-

mics that Zakynthos has seen for quite some time. With this in mind, most people and local authorities on the island

are striving to find ways in which we can encourage those tourists, who are to still able to afford a holiday this year, to

spend their holidays in Zakynthos. However, it appears that some of those involved in the local authorities, don’t appe-

ar to have quite grasped the concept of “good publicity/bad publicity”.

CONTINUED p. 3

DEPUTY MAYOR’S CONTROVERSIAL STATEMENT COULD HURT ISLAND’S TOURISM

February 2, 2009

3

Local news

The recent insurgency into Gaza carried

out by Israel has provoked many different

reactions (and some could say inactions)

around the world.

Most governments and local authorities

have felt the need to pass resolutions call-

ing for an end to the unrest, which result-

ed in the organization of a tentative cease-

fire.

Various comments have been made on

the worldwide stage, Barack Obama, to

name but one, was criticised for not step-

ping in to help resolve the situation – he

appears, however, to be making more

efforts since his inauguration.

The reaction of one of the councils here

on the island and that of its Deputy Mayor

in particular, has caused great consterna-

tion amongst local residents.

On the 4th of January this year the council

that covers Artemision district, which has

its headquarters in Machairado, met for

one of their regular committee meetings.

At this meeting the Deputy Mayor,

Anastasios (Tassos) Antiochos, put for-

ward a letter of resolution that he had

drafted in reaction to the unrest in Gaza.

Nothing unusual in this, you may say, and

indeed it should be seen as worthy that,

what some may view as a parochial coun-

cil, should want to make some comment

on a situation that, on the surface, has

nothing to do with Greece and the island

of Zakynthos.

The letter was strongly worded. It was pre-

sented before the council committee and

subsequently voted on. The result was in

favour of passing it as a resolution and,

therefore, it was accepted by the council

in its entirety. Again, you may say, there is

nothing unusual in this situation at all.

Council committee meetings are held

every day all around the world and resolu-

tions by the dozens are debated and rati-

fied.

The difference in this situation is that the

Deputy Mayor (or someone close to him)

then took it upon himself to translate the

letter into English and then publish it on a

blog on the internet that contained other

articles and comments submitted by

those that appear to

have a particular axe

to grind about people

of the Jewish faith.

The letter is as follows

and is reproduced in

its entirety as written

on the blog:

“RESOLUTION

OF

PROTEST

ANNIHILATE THEM,

It is high time the

HITLER-LIKE Zionist

pigs of the US sup-

ported

creation,

called the state of

Israel, stopped the

jungle- like operations of genocide against

the long suffering people of PALESTINE.

The pitiless killers of civilians are worth

the condemnation of all peace and justice

loving people throughout the world and

the new BARACK OBAMA administration

of the American Democratic Party should

cease pretending that they are deaf and

blind owing to the considerable pre-elec-

tion funding, which they received from the

Zion pigs, namely ROTCHILDS, ROCK-

FELLERS et al. (presumably meaning

Rothschild and Rockefeller!)

PALESTINIANS, descendants of the

ancient PHILISTINES of GREEK-CRETAN

origin - devastate the Zion pigs, who,

among other things, have been the eter-

nal and fatal enemies of HELLENISM

since the time of the traitor EPHIALTES

Greek of JEWISH origin up to today to

HENRY KISSINGER the creature who,

because of inferiority complex, hates

everything which has to do with the

GREEK CIVILIZATION and CULTURE and

he who was the gravedigger of CYPRUS.

PALESTINIAN defenders of the GAZA

STRIP teach these HITLERITE NEONAZI

ZIONISTS a bitter les-

son and annihilate

those who for sixty

years now have been

putting world peace in

peril.

Tassos Antiochos

Leader of the opposi-

tion and vice-president

of the municipality of

Artemision Zakynthos

Greece

(The above letter of

resolution was passed

at the 4th January

2009 city council ses-

sion of the municipality

of ARTEMISION ZAKYN-

THOS GREECE)”

The island Independent spoke to the

Mayor of Artemision Council, Antonis

Antiochos, on the subject and he respond-

ed by saying that “As the Mayor, I do not

vote in council meetings. Personally I think

that the situation in Gaza must stop, we

must not be merely spectators.” When

questioned about his thoughts on the pub-

lication in English of the resolution on the

internet, he stated that he would bring the

matter up in the next council meeting.

This letter is all the more surprising given

the history of Jews on Zakynthos. During

the Second World War, in 1944, the Mayor

of Zakynthos, Loukas Carrer was ordered

at gunpoint to hand over a list of Jews

residing on the island. The list was pre-

sented to the Germans containing only

two names: Mayor Carrer and Bishop

Chrysostomos. The Bishop bravely told the

Germans, "Here are your Jews. If you

choose to deport the Jews of Zakynthos,

you must also take me and I will share

their fate."

In the interim, all the Jews of the island

were safely hidden in mountain villages.

While the whole island knew what was

happening, not one person revealed their

whereabouts.

It is believed that Chrysostomos actually

communicated with Hitler himself, to beg

for the lives of the Jews on the island.

Unfortunately, the devastating earthquake

of 1953 destroyed all archives on the

island, making proof of the correspon-

dence impossible to find. Historians do

know that a boat was never sent to deport

the Jews of Zakynthos and that all 275 of

the island’s Jews survived the Holocaust.

The first boat to arrive with aid to the vic-

tims of the 1953 earthquake was from

Israel, with a message that read, "The

Jews of Zakynthos have never forgotten

their Mayor or their beloved Bishop and

what they did for us."

Monuments have also been erected to the

Mayor and the Bishop on the site of one of

the former synagogues on Tertseti Street

in Zakynthos Town.

One has to wonder at the judgement of

the Deputy Mayor in publishing such a

strongly worded statement on the internet

without, seemingly, sparing a thought for

what image this sends to the rest of the

world about the inhabitants of this

island. In this time of crisis, when every-

one is trying their best to encourage

tourists and investment to Zakynthos, it

could be called, at best, a miscalculation

of what the words World Wide Web actu-

ally stand for.

This paper neither condones nor con-

demns action by either side in the Gaza

Strip, as it is not within the remit of this

publication to do so.

Politics or tourism?!