Notes from Greece

Syntagma:
I arrived to Athens on Thursday, June 30th. I decided to go visit their Tahrir Square (aka Syntagma Square). The moment I arrived to the metro station beneath the square, I felt how similar it is to Tahrir Square. A girl was collecting the used metro tickets from people in order to not throw them on the ground. Doesn't this remind you of Tahrir Square, and the feeling of patriotism people used to have there!? People then told me they have witnessed in the previous night one of the most brutal police crackdown in their entire lives, and tear gas was used excessively then.

I found them hanging the tear bombs in the square as a proof of what happened. I photographed bombs made in Brazil, yet I was told that there were bombs made in USA and Israel as well. Some areas of the metro station were burnt, and I knew that they were having a field hospital in there, and it was attacked by tear gas too. A friend of mine has been to both Tahrir Square and Syntagme, and she told me the tear gas in Syntagma was much worse than the one used in Tahrir. May be because ours were expired.

This all happened after the Greeks started a 48-hours general strike due to the harsh austerity measures demanded in return for EU and IMF rescue loans. According to The Guardia the austerity package would raise taxes on minimum wage earners and other Greeks in addition to earlier cuts that have driven unemployment past 16%

The protesters are as creative as the Egyptians with their drawings, and banners. And every day at midnight - before the last metro departs from the square - they hold voting on the ideas being discussed that day in their open assemble held in the square.
The people in Syntagma and the spirit there are just wonderful.


Flotilla:

Meanwhile ships of the Flotilla carrying food and medical supplies heading to Gaza arrived to Greece. The Israelis are doing whatever they can do to stop those ships. Ships docking both in Ireland and Greece were sabotaged, and it's so obvious that the Israelis are behind this. I really don't know how they never give a shit about people's lives! People on flotilla said that they face unusually more complex routines whenever they go to finish any papers. Some other have speculations that their mobile phones are tapped and there might be Mosad spies on board.

Israel is spreading rumours that the ships carry weapons, this might be both to give themselves excuse to kill people on board later on, and to make their own soldiers more violent and eager to attack them cold blooded.

Israel is also putting a lot of pressure on countries to stop the flotilla. The Turks might withdraw, especially as they are busy with problems on their Syrian borders, and later on the minister of police in Greece order to stop Canadian vessels from leaving Greek to Gaza. It's the same minister responsible for the crack down on Syntagma by the way.

Related stories:
YNet News: Greece asks Israel for teargas grenades
Lopez to Gaza: Detained in Greece, Freed by Syntagma
Greece: We Gave Birth to Democracy, and We Killed It!
Twitter: Latest updates from #Flotilla2 hashtag
Not Gr33nData: From Cairo to Athens