Kammenos says Greeks of Jewish faith do not pay taxes - Jewish community enraged!

During an interview with Greek Antenna television channel on Monday, the leader of the Independent Greeks party (ANEL) Panos Kammenos claimed that people of Jewish faith in Greece do not pay any taxes. As expected the statement enraged the Greek Jewish community.

Jewish communal leaders immediately reacted and called on Kammenos to officially apologize for his "serious anti-Semitic" statement.

The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece said it categorically refutes the accusation, noting that Jewish institutions in the country had the same tax regulations as Christian ones.

     "It is a disgrace that a leader of a party in Parliament does not know that Greek Jews are equal citizens and subject to the all the rights and obligations of every citizen," the statement read.
     "Our representative bodies, which are public legal entities, are governed by the exact same tax obligations as the Church of Greece and without receiving any subsidy from the Greek state," the statement added.

Commenting on an article by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras published in a Greek daily, in which he called on ANEL’s MPs to vote in favour of the presidential candidate, Stavros Dimas, Kammenos said this is impossible because Samaras’ government has voted laws that are "against the Orthodox Church."

     "We see that Orthodoxy, which Mr Samaras cites in his article, his government took most of the decisions that are against the Church of Greece; cremation, civil partnerships for homosexuals, taxation just for the Orthodox religion. Buddhists, Jews, Muslims are not taxed, the Orthodox Church is taxed and in fact is at risk of losing its monastery assets," Kammenos said.

Source: ANT1 TV, Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece, forward.com