Leila Khaled Calls on Greek Left to Protest Israeli PM’s Visit

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades in a trilateral meeting Thursday, Palestine solidarity activists took to the streets to protest.

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Their calls to oppose the Israeli leader’s visit were echoed by Palestinian revolutionary Leila Khaled, who released a video Thursday urging people to join the Greek protests.

“Instead of taking Netanyahu to the court for his crimes against us and not abiding by international law, he is to be received on the Greek land to sell the stolen Palestinian gas and to build a coalition against you and us,” she declared in the video.

“Raise your voices! Netanyahu out of Greece! Long live people’s struggle! We are united against imperialism. We are united against apartheid Israel. Boycott, divest, sanctions against Israel!” she closed.

Netanyahu’s visit to Athens and Thessaloniki, Greece come as the tripartite summit agree to the creation of a natural gas pipeline project under the Mediterranean sea.

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The Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, whose Greece chapter is also protesting the visit, describes the project as one of shipping “stolen Palestinian gas to Europe.”

The three countries are also meeting to intensify military cooperation between them.

The Marxist-Leninist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which Khaled is a part of, along with a number of left Greek organizations including the Communist Organization of Greece, KOE, and the Greek Front of Resistance and Solidarity for Palestine have also issued statements condemning the visit and Tspira’s cooperation with Netanyahu.

"We would swap our prime minister for a Palestinian activist," one protest organizer Petros Gotsis said. "(Tsipras) is no longer on our side."