Greek authorities arrested and charged seven individuals on Thursday for two separate attacks earlier this year targeting a synagogue and an Israeli-owned hotel in Athens.
These incidents are among the latest instances of violent antisemitism in Europe following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7. In France, a 12-year-old girl was recently the victim of an alleged antisemitic rape, and this spring, a German synagogue was attacked with a molotov cocktail.
Other recent reported targets of attacks in Europe include the Israeli embassies in Belgium and Sweden. Last weekend, an attacker who wounded a Serbian police officer guarding the Israeli embassy in Belgrade was shot dead.
Four of the suspects in Greece — a Greek citizen, two Iranians, and an Afghan accomplice — were charged in connection with a May incident involving a homemade bomb targeting an Israeli-owned hotel and restaurant, Reuters reported. Another three — one Greek, one Afghan, and one Iranian — were arrested in connection with a June incident where police reported that two of them threw flammable material at the entrance of an Athens synagogue.
The hotel attackers were accused of plotting a racially motivated attack on a foreign-owned property and were also charged with arson that endangered human lives. The synagogue suspects faced charges of arson, robbery, and several other crimes, authorities said.
Greece experienced a high-profile antisemitic terror incident last year when authorities thwarted a planned attack on a Chabad-Lubavitch center in Athens. Photo by George E. Koronaios, Wikimedia commons.