NEWS

Israeli envoy protests

Israeli Ambassador David Sasson yesterday sent a letter to the president of the Athens journalists union, protesting at what he called a campaign of defamation against his embassy. This followed the publication last week of a report by the Greek Helsinki Monitor detailing cases of alleged anti-Semitism in Greece. The report was distributed to news media through the Israeli embassy press office. «We have become aware of the fact that certain journalists are shamelessly distorting the truth and claiming that there is a supposed ‘black list’ of journalists in a report of the Israeli Embassy concerning anti-Semitism in Greece,» Sasson said in his letter to ESIEA President Aristidis Manolakos. The embassy released the letter to the news media. «In reality, these individuals are referring to a report of the Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM), an NGO that deals with human rights, which has nothing to do with the embassy of Israel. Last week, the GHM, not the Israeli Embassy, did in fact publish a report about anti-Semitism in Greece. Of course, we are not responsible for the reports of Greek NGOs and we will not tolerate defamation against our embassy for positions expressed by other organizations,» Sasson wrote. He added that this is the second time the Greek news media have attributed reports or protests by others to the embassy. Sasson called on the journalists’ union «to take immediate measures to stop this unacceptable mudslinging campaign against our good reputation.» The GHM report singled out journalists for alleged bias.

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