"You're Jewish, not Greek": The antisemitic incident experienced by the former MK in Greece

Former MK Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin described an antisemitic incident she experienced during a visit to a museum on a Greek island. An elderly woman approached her after hearing her speaking in Hebrew, hurled antisemitic remarks including "You're Jewish, not Greek," and shouted "I support Palestine." Nahmias-Verbin spoke about a feeling of persecution and the connection to her family history of her grandparents fleeing Thessaloniki in 1933.

Former MK Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin, who currently serves as chair of the Jewish Agency's Terror Victims Fund, described an antisemitic incident she experienced during a visit to a small museum on a Greek island. According to her, an elderly woman approached her after hearing her speaking Hebrew with friends and shouted at her, "I support Palestine." When Nahmias-Verbin noted that she is half Greek, the woman replied, "You're Jewish, not Greek." Nahmias-Verbin described the woman as having "poison in her eyes" and the event as persecution, not a debate that could be held. The hardest moment, she said, was when the woman turned to a child with her and said, "They are Jewish." Nahmias-Verbin linked the incident to her family history, as her grandparents were forced to flee Thessaloniki in 1933 due to antisemitism. However, she emphasized that she does not see the incident as representative of Greece or of Greeks' treatment of Israelis, and thanked the museum staff and the Greek government for their support.