ATHENS – Still fighting anti-Semitism in the country, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and visiting American Jewish Committee (AJC) CEO David Harris met in the capital where they were said to talk about other issues.

That included relations between Greece and the United States, said Kathimerini, with Harris also due to meet other political leaders and attend The Economist conference that includes an appearance by major opposition SYRIZA leader and former premier Alexis Tsipras.

In December, 2019, Greece moved to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism after Mitsotakis met with the President of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece, David Saltiel, and the head of the Greek Delegation to the IHRA, Dr. Efstathios Lianos Liantis.

Mitsotakis assigned Deputy Prime Minister Panagiotis Pikrammenos, oversight of the project as well as coordinating and supervising the integration of the IHRA definitions into domestic legislation and education.

Liantis is a founding member of the Holocaust Museum of Greece. In April he was appointed Greece’s Special Envoy on Combatting Anti-Semitism and Preserving the Memory of the Holocaust. 

The IHRA working definition offers a comprehensive description of anti-Semitism in its various forms, including hatred and discrimination against Jews, Holocaust denial and, sometimes controversially, the way anti-Semitism relates to the ways criticism of Israel is expressed.