Greece: Huge Protests Demand End to Ties With Israel

Thousands of people filled the streets of many Greek cities on Sunday, August 24, demanding freedom for Palestine, an end to all ties with Israel, and the immediate opening of aid corridors. The demonstrations were supported by grassroots trade unions and workers’ collectives, building on recent actions denouncing the links the Greek government continues to maintain with Israeli authorities.

“It is unacceptable for the Greek government to support the genocide and starvation of the Palestinian people by supporting a war criminal along with its allies,” Dimitris Koutsoubas, general secretary of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), said during the protests. “It must stop now, immediately, and cease all cooperation with this murderous state.”

Rally in Ioannina, Greece, August 2025. Source: PAME

The All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) reiterated the need for worker-led mobilization in solidarity with Palestinians, condemning both the complicity of Greece’s New Democracy government and the European Union’s political establishment. Going beyond the ignorance of the genocide in Gaza, PAME warned, European institutions are actively supporting Israel alongside the United States and NATO. “They [the West] sacrifice in absolute barbarity thousands of women and children for the new division of spoils; the natural and mineral wealth, the trade routes, and control of the region,” the network declared.

At the same time, union members criticized European governments for attempting to criminalize the growing Palestine solidarity movement. Greece is no exception to this trend, PAME noted: “They [New Democracy government] are disturbed by the mass expression of solidarity with the Palestinian people, by the content of demonstrations, and by the demands put forward in every possible way by trade unions and mass organizations across the country.”

Greek workers in several sectors have taken direct action to disrupt ties with Israel, including blocking military shipments bound for the occupation’s ports. Earlier this month, dockworkers in Piraeus mobilized again, this time against the arrival of a ship carrying members of the Israeli Occupation Forces. “The IDF murderers of the terrorist state of Israel are not welcome in the port and the city of workers of Piraeus,” PAME stated. “Greece will not be turned into a holiday destination for those who commit war crimes against children and civilians in Gaza.”

Mobilization in Piraeus port, August 14, 2025. Source: PAME

PAME also contrasted grassroots actions with the symbolic gestures of mainstream labor federations, stressing that genuine solidarity cannot be reduced to writing letters to EU officials, and requires confrontation with the system that promotes war. “Real solidarity is the struggle and action for a rupture with the capitalist system that breeds poverty and wars,” they said.

“We stand with those who are fighting for life, justice, and freedom,” trade unionist Valsamos Syrigos from the Federation of Construction Workers added during Sunday’s protests. “The Palestinian people are proving that if a people is determined, even barefoot, it can stand up to the most murderous machine in the world and manage to resist and hold on to its homeland for two years.”

Courtesy: Peoples Dispatch