Protesters at the rally in Greece, pictured here, held banners that said the “only one enemy” is international Zionism. Photo: CFCA.

A major international Jewish organization on Friday denounced a recent rally in Thessaloniki, Greece that featured signs and literature promoting antisemitic stereotypes of Jews.

“It was a particularly vile antisemitic demonstration,” Daniel Mariaschin, executive vice president of B’nai B’rith International, told The Algemeiner. “The fact that it happened in a city that is so important in Jewish history and whose population suffered – more than 90 percent killed during the Shoah – makes the demonstration even that much more outrageous.”

The demonstration was aimed at protesting new electronic citizen cards in Greece, according to the Coordination Forum for Countering Antisemitism. Members of the Greek Orthodox organization Agios Vasileios initiated the protest against “instruments of Antichrist and the New World Order” and were seen holding religious banners, along with Greek and Byzantine flags. One of the banners said, “No to the citizen card. There is only one enemy: International Zionism.”

Among the literature available for purchase at the demonstration was one booklet titled “The Jewish-Zionist vampire Soros is thirsty for Greek blood.” Protesters also shouted slogans against “Jewish” Mayor of Thessaloniki, Yiannis Boutaris.

Mariaschin told The Algemeiner the attacks on the mayor were “an outrage.” He said Boutaris, who has visited Israel a couple of times, has worked hard to build better relations between Greeks and Jews.

“We hope that the people in leadership positions, the political leaders, the media figures, media outlets and so forth will roundly condemn this vile expression of antisemitism,” Mariaschin said.

Nearly a thousand people attended the protest, which was held at the end of February, according to Greek journalist Sofia Christoforidou. She added that one of the speakers at the event, a man named Abbot Methodios, suggested that Christians are enslaved by Jews and claimed that Jews “were cannibals, when the Greeks were building Parthenons.” Christoforidou said the audience applauded his antisemitic rant.

Methodios threatened the Jews with a “Greek Hitler” at a similar rally held a few weeks earlier in Athens.

Watch disturbing footage from the rally below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOmGEaOAVWo