Greece’s Jewish community has filed a complaint with Greek authorities over a controversial poster advertising a show by stand-up comedian Tzimis Panousis that depicts the Star of David intertwined with a Aswastika. The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece has complained to authorities in Athens about the posters advertising a series of shows by singer and comedian Tzimis Panousis at a club in Piraeus, near Athens.
“The design depicted on the poster fiercely insults our very religion as well as the memory of the six million Jews, victims of the Holocaust,” said a statement from the Jewish umbrella body, addressed to the Greek justice minister and officials in the Education Ministry. There was no immediate response.
The poster advertising the show by singer and comedian Tzimis Panousis, for a series of shows at a club in the port city of Piraeus near Athens, shows the Swastika with the Jewish symbol and is plastered across Athens and on major boulevards.
The posters have been plastered across Athens and on major boulevards in the city.
The Central Board said in a statement that it had received positive responses to officials in its appeal to have the posters removed. However, the posters remained up in many places in the city.
Observers say that Panousis apparently was trying to imply that Greece’s financial crisis was a result of the combined efforts of a German-led austerity plan and Jewish-controlled financial interests. The 59-year-old satirist is no stranger to controversy. In 2000, he was charged with offending a national symbol after he used a poster depicting the Greek national flag featuring a hammer and sickle instead of a cross, to advertise one of his shows.
Greece has seen an upsurge recently in anti-Semitic incidents, but most have been tied to the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party.
