A social media account called the “Palestinian Community of Greece” uploaded a new post clarifying the reasons it had deleted a previous post related to the death of a Greek-Israeli citizen, Ionas Karousis, who was killed during the Jaffa terrorist shooting at a Tel Aviv light rail station last week.
The subsequent post, also in Greek, explained that, after clarifications by the relatives of the victim, the initial post was taken down. The new post read as follows:
“The Palestinian Community in Greece announces the withdrawal of the post from its page concerning the death of a Greek citizen in Jaffa. This action was taken in response to the appeals and explanations provided by the victim’s family. The negative reaction from some media outlets towards the Palestinian Community, driven by a very small number of Zionist and hostile voices in Greece, does not in any way reflect the position of the Greek people, who have always supported the national rights of Palestinians and their struggle for freedom and the end of occupation.
We assure these misguided voices that they will not prevent us from raising our voices against the occupation. As members of the Palestinian community, deeply understanding the pain of human loss, we share in the grief and sorrow of the families of innocent victims, despite the media’s attempts to exploit this situation to discredit the Palestinian people and their cause.
We always call for an immediate ceasefire to stop the bloodshed! Give peace a chance, give the people the opportunity to live in peace. Stop the war, lift the blockade, allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, and begin the reconstruction of the region.
We express our solidarity with the loss of all innocent lives.”
The initial coarse post, written in Greek, triggered backlash across the country, as it effectively diminished the death of the innocent victim, portraying him as a member of the IFD and indirectly, as a combatant, because he had served in the past in the Israeli Armed Forces.
A translation of the inflammatory initial tweet on X read:
“It’s with great sadness that we address the tragic death of Ionas, a Greek citizen who lost his life in Israel. However, it is important to clarify that, unfortunately, Ionas was not an innocent citizen visiting Israel. He was a member of the Israeli army. This disturbing fact raises an important question: Why did he feel the need to go to Israel, a place of conflict, and die there when Greece is his real homeland!”
Speaking on a SKAI TV program on Sunday morning, the uncle of terror victim, Giorgos Karousis, called the post by on the specific social media account a “shameless lie.”
Ionas had dual Greek and Israeli citizenship. He was born in Tel Aviv, grew up in Jerusalem, and maintained close ties with Greece and Thessaloniki, his family’s place of origin. He was one of seven people killed during a terrorist attack by two Palestinian gunmen hailing from the West Bank, which took place only hours before Iran unleashed a barrage of missiles against Israel.
