Israeli cruise ship passengers were left ‘running for their lives’ as crowds of furious pro-Palestine activists reportedly attacked them when they tried to disembark their cruise ship in Greece.
The protesters, waving Palestine flags and igniting flares, are said to have hurled metal bars and rocks at the tourists as they attempted to block their entry to Heraklion on the southern Greek island of Crete on Thursday afternoon.
One tourist was reportedly beaten by five protesters and injured, while clashes with riot police were said to have injured two officers as they tried to guard the Israeli holidaymakers including children.
Riot police, armed with batons and shields, formed lines to separate the protesters from the tourists, while passengers trying to disembark the Crown Iris ship were escorted from the port towards the town centre by police squads.
One couple claimed protesters ‘waited for us at the exit with sticks’ while another passenger, named Keren, told Israeli news channel N12 that ‘people fled for their lives.’
She said: ‘The first passengers who got off started running back because people were throwing metal bars and rocks.
‘Fifteen minutes later, we weren’t allowed off the ship. The port closed its gates, and everyone returned to the ship. Those who got off first were hit with rocks and bars. People fled for their lives.’
Another cruise passenger, Ido Nahum, said he witnessed pro-Palestinian activists attacking the Israeli tourists with stones.
‘They sprayed water on people and beat two officers trying to intervene. One person was injured after being attacked by five protesters,’ he added.
Demonstrators, who held banners saying ‘Palestinian resistance’ and ‘boycott Israel’, claimed they were protesting to express solidarity with the Palestinian people.
‘There was a small demonstration there, no more than 20 to 25 people. The police came and dispersed them, and all the travelers exited normally,’ Yuval Peleg, spokesman for Mano Maritime, who own the boat, claimed.
‘They went on their bus tours. And the port is currently open for entry and exit,’ she added.
The clash is the latest protest to target the Crown Iris cruise ship.
Last month, frenzied protesters prevented the boat which was carrying around 1,700 Israeli nationals, including between 300 to 400 children, from disembarking at Ermoupoli, in the Greek island of Syros.
The cruise ship had been met with an anti-Israel demonstration of more than 150 protesters as it attempted to disembark for a six-hour visit.
Protesters carried Palestinian flags, chanted and held banners reading ‘Stop the Genocide’ and ‘No a/c in hell’ as they formed a line to prevent the Israeli passengers from arriving in Greece.
The protest was met with rage by Greece’s Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis who called it a ‘shameful for Greece’.
While Michalis Chrysochoidis, the country’s Minister of Citizen Protection, said that anyone who tried to prevent foreign nationals from legally entering the country would ‘face prosecution, arrest and then criminal proceedings under the anti-racism law’.
A further two protests took place the following week, with riot police squads, armed with shields and helmets, deployed to piers where the cruise ship was docked to push back the chanting masses.
Four people were detained at a demonstration in Crete on July 29 with officers forced to use pepper spray to keep the protest under control after scuffles broke out between activists and police.
Similar scenes unfolded the previous day when the Crown Iris docked in a port on the eastern Greek island of Rhodes, where clashes broke out between riot police and demonstrators condemning Israel’s military conduct in Gaza.
The same ship, which sailed from Haifa on Tuesday and stopped in Rhodes unimpeded, was used to transport Israeli nationals to and from Cyprus after Israel closed its airspace during its 12-day conflict with Iran in June.
It has also been used as part of the country’s Operation Safe Return mission to repatriate citizens during conflict.
Greece and Israel enjoy increasingly close ties and trips to Greece are popular among Israeli tourists.
There are several flights per day between Tel Aviv and Athens, as well as from Israeli airports directly to Greek islands.
