Greece to Deport Nine 'Unwanted Aliens' for Joining Anti-Israel Campus Occupation
AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis, file
The government of Greece said on Sunday it will deport nine Europeans who participated in disruptive anti-Israel protests at the University of Athens School of Law in May.
The defendants, including one man and eight women between 22 and 33 years of age, were among the 28 people arrested after anti-Israel protesters “occupied” buildings at the law school on May 14. The illegal occupation was ended by riot police and state security agents, who acted with the consent of the school’s rector.
Police officials said that unlike the Greek students arrested on May 14, the nine foreigners were not actually connected with the university. They were charged with disturbing the peace, damaging school property, disrupting the operation of the university, trespassing, and bringing weapons to the campus. Police confiscated smoke grenades, clubs, and a “multitude of handwritten notes and leaflets of anarchist content” from the demonstrators, along with Palestinian flags and cans of paint intended for vandalism.
The Greek students were released last Tuesday pending trial, but the nine foreign nationals – including British, German, French, Italian, and Spanish nationals – were detained pending a decision on their deportation. Greek officials called them “unwanted aliens” who should be evicted because they posed a clear threat to public safety and national security.
Lawyers for the foreign nationals said their clients live and work in Greece and would be unable to attend trial for their actions on May 14 if ejected from the country, so the deportation orders are “arbitrary and illegal.”
The lawyers claimed their clients were being held in “deplorable conditions” with “no interpreters” at the Amygdaleza detention center near Athens. The lawyers argued that the right of citizens to move freely between European nations should not be suspended “in the case of political action, especially if it concerns Palestine.”
“This revealingly fragile and audacious reaction of the Greek state still wanes in its outrageousness when considered in the context of the very reason the university was occupied: genocide,” the nine detainees said in a group statement.
Israel Hayom noted last week that Greece has been more indulgent of disruptive protests by Palestinian activists than the United States or United Kingdom until now, even though the government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has outspokenly supported Israel’s right to defend itself against the terrorists of Hamas. The deportation orders could be the administration’s way of drawing a line against further disruptions, as younger Greeks seem increasingly sympathetic to the Palestinians and Hamas.
“While Greece's government has moved toward closer alignment with Israel after historically pro-Palestinian leanings, the country has witnessed many protests reflecting growing support for the Palestinian side of the conflict among its youth,” Israel Hayom observed.
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