Sweden

Protest targets Israel's Eurovision singer

Mon, 20 May 2013 09:52:58 +0100

Israeli singer Moran Mazor was under heavy security protection during her stay in Malmö, Sweden, where she competed in the Eurovision Song Contest. Israeli journalists told Swedish radio that they were followed by a group of young men who said they wanted to bomb the Israelis' hotel rooms.

They got away by telling the men they were from Cyprus. A taxi driver who picked up six passengers from the Israeli delegation's party reportedly called them "damn Jews" and "Jewish whores" in Arabic.

Before Saturday's final, hundreds of Swedes and Danes took part in pro-Palestine rallies in Malmö in which local politicians called for a cultural and economic boycott of Israel under the slogan "Israel, welcome back when Palestine's free".

Daniel Sestrajcic, chair for the Left Party in Malmö and of the Malmö Board of Culture, claimed that Israel does not live up to the Eurovision Song Contest's values of peace, democracy and solidarity.

"Israel is denying the Palestinians from experiencing all that so today we are telling the EBU [the European Broadcasting Union]: You should not to allow Israel to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest," Sestrajcic said in his speech.

On Saturday, the day of the Eurovision final, Sestrajcic took part in a “kippah march” organised to protest against antisemitism and intolerance.

Around 300 people participated in the march, which was rerouted after police granted the Malmö Palestine network permission to set up a protest tent camp on a central square which previous kippah marches have passed through.

According to local media reports, priests, imams, rabbis, politicians, top businessmen and members of the public took part.

Moran Mazor, who celebrated her twenty-second birthday on the day of the semi-final, did not make it through to Saturday's final.

Malmo braced for multiple demos ahead of Eurovision

Nathalie Rothschild — Fri, 03 May 2013 11:30:56 +0100

Pro-Palestine groups in Malmö, Sweden, are planning a series of actions to protest against Israel’s participation in the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest, which the city will host in May.

Other Malmö residents are planning a “kippah march” on the day of the Eurovision final to protest against antisemitism.

Pro-Palestine activists are planning to set up a protest tent to distribute leaflets and to hold a Nakba Day demonstration in the city centre.

In 2009, Malmo was the scene of violent confrontations when a pro-Israel rally was pelted with eggs, bottles and fireworks.

“It is particularly important to participate in this year’s Palestine event as Malmö will welcome Israel to the Eurovision Song Contest in connection with our Al-Nakba,” said Mohannad Yousif, head of the Malmö Palestine network.

Mr Yousif led the 2009 demonstration against a Davis Cup tennis match between Israel and Sweden which, on Malmö mayor Ilmar Reepalu’s orders, was played to empty stands.

Thousands participated in the Davis Cup riots, but according to Mr Yousif the actions planned for Eurovision will focus on awareness-raising.

The aim is to promote boycotts and to explain “why Israel does not fit in at the Eurovision”, said Mr Yousif. He added that he cannot guarantee that other pro-Palestine groups will not take different kinds of actions.

Israel’s Eurovision contestant this year is singer Moran Mazor.

Sofia Nerbrand, organiser of the kippah marches in which participants are encouraged to wear Jewish symbols, said her demonstration is not about the Middle East conflict but about tolerance.

“Since there is concern and fear among Malmö’s Jews and since the city has received a reputation for antisemitism I, as a non-Jewish Malmö resident, feel it is important to show that there are forces for tolerance here and that it is unacceptable that Swedish citizens should be afraid to display Jewish symbols.”

Swedish opposition party hit by hate row

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 16:00:48 +0100

Sweden’s Social Democrat party is in crisis after it was forced to remove the Swedish Islamic Society president Omar Mustafa from its board just six days after his appointment.

The party came under fire after an anti-racism magazine drew attention to Mr Mustafa’s links to notorious antisemites and virulent anti-Zionists.

Under Mr Mustafa’s presidency, the Islamic Society invited several extremists to speak at its conferences, including the Egyptians Salah Sultan, who has accused Jews of ritual murder of Christians, and Ragheb Al-Serjany, who has claimed Jews control international media.

Another speaker, British-Palestinian Azzam Tamimi, has described Israel as “a cancer”.

As president of the Young Muslims association, Mr Mustafa invited the imam Sheik Abdullah Hakim Quick, who has referred to Jews as “filth” and advocates capital punishment for homosexuals.

In a radio interview, Mr Mustafa defended Quick: “You have to understand that he comes from an environment in South Africa where these kinds of views are quite widespread,” he said.

On Twitter, Mr Mustafa has described the Israeli embassy as a “terror embassy” and urged Sweden to send fighter jets to attack Israel.

Nima Gholam Ali Pour, a Social Democrat politician in Malmö, resigned in protest, claiming Mr Mustafa’s appointment shows the party “lacks any credibility on anti-racist matters”.

Mr Mustafa responded to his critics in the tabloid Aftonbladet.

He claimed that he has “forcibly removed antisemitic placards from demonstrations” in the past and said people who have preached hate should not be given a platform unless they condemn their hateful comments.

On Friday, Erik Nises, spokesman for Social Democrat leader Stefan Löfven, said that no formal decision had been taken about Mr Mustafa’s future in the party.

“He has to understand that what he has done is wrong and he has to show he means it through statements and actions,” said Mr Nises.

But the criticism intensified and at a crisis meeting on Saturday, the party board forced Mr Mustafa to resign.

Theatre plan to counter Malmo hate

Nathalie Rothschild — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 10:30:36 +0000

After witnessing growing segregation and tensions among young people in Malmo, Sweden’s third city, entrepreneur Daniel Sachs and Social Democrat politician Luciano Astudillo decided to intervene.

Through their newly-launched initiative, ‘The Future Generation’, the two partners hope to encourage youths to build a common future, Mr Sachs said.

Antisemitism in Malmo was the “trigger factor” for Mr Sachs and Mr Astudillo, but they believe the problem is part of a wider picture.

“Islamophobia is quite widespread, right-wing parties are on the rise, unemployment is high and Malmo is polarised. Some areas are populated almost entirely by immigrants and ethnic minorities and others hardly have any immigrants at all,” said Mr Sachs.

The first step will be to bring the play 3G — The Third Generation to Malmo. Directed by Israeli Yael Ronen and first performed in Berlin, the play has a German, Israeli and Palestinian cast and tackles issues such as the Holocaust, Zionism, the Nakba and how young Germans, Jews and Muslims relate to one another.

Mr Sachs and Mr Astudillo hope to run a series of workshops after the play. “The aim is to try to get young people to free themselves from the kind of prejudices and group identities that characterise some relations in Malmo today,” said Mr Sachs.

In 2010, Malmo city council set up a dialogue forum in the midst of a heated debate about antisemitism. The mayor, Ilmar Reepalu, was accused of failing to address Jewish residents’ concerns.

Mr Sachs believes a play like Third Generation can have more impact.

“What is powerful about this kind of theatre production is that, on an emotional level, it becomes very clear that we can’t go on like this… When you have a conversation after experiencing the play, it is on a completely different level than if you just gather in a room to talk.”

Malmo: 480 crimes, 0 convictions

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 10:09:18 +0000

Out of a record 480 reported hate crimes in Malmo between 2010 and 2011, only 16 led to an indictment and none led to a conviction, according to statistics from the Swedish Crime Prevention Council. None of the 44 antisemitic hate crimes reported in Malmo in the two-year period even made it to a prosecutor.

Malmo mayor Ilmar Reepalu, widely berated for failing to address growing antisemitism in the city, said that the new report is “alarming and has deeply upset me, and not least the fact that the police cannot investigate the crimes to the degree required for bringing in indictments”.

“Every hate crime is one too many,” said Mr Reepalu. “It is also a particularly serious crime since it is an attack on who you are as a person.”

Malmo, Sweden’s third-largest city, has received international media attention for attacks on both Jews and Muslims in recent years.

Between 2009 and 2011, hate crime reports in the city nearly doubled.

Fred Kahn, president of the Jewish Community in Malmo, said he is “frustrated” by the situation.

“We have worked with the authorities and local politicians to try and make sure that Malmo operates under a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to hate crimes… It is not just the Jewish Community that is affected. We are talking about 480 hate crimes in Malmo against Jews, Roma, Muslims and LGBT individuals.

“Either the police are failing in their reporting or the prosecuting authorities have a hard time comprehending that these are hate crimes. Something is not working here.”

The rise in the number of reported antisemitic hate crimes also coincides with the Malmö Jewish Community’s decision to be more vocal about the rise of antisemitism.

“While antisemitism has unquestionably grown in Malmo over the past five to 10 years, I can’t say whether or not there has been an explosive increase since 2010.

“Three years ago we decided to change our approach and tackle the problem head-on. We now encourage our members to report all antisemitic incidents because as long as it doesn’t show up in the statistics, it remains hidden.”

Regional newspaper Sydsvenskan’s analysis of the data shows that in all but seven of the hate crimes reported in Malmo, the prosecutor chose to remove the hate crime motive.

In the cases that were tried in the Malmo district court, the judge ruled they were not hate crime incidents.

Swedish editor defends article accusing IDF of organ-theft

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 18:30:17 +0000

A 2009 article in Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet by Donald Boström speculated that the IDF had “plundered” Palestinians’ bodies for organs. Now, the Swedish magazine, Filter, is saying that Boström was right all along.

In a new column, Aftonbladet editor Åsa Linderborg described how she was demonised by the Swedish press. “In Sweden all criticism of Israel’s occupation policy has always been labelled as antisemitism,” she wrote.

Linderborg said she and Boström have been vindicated by revelations in international media about organ theft at the Abu Kabir Institute of Forensic Medicine. However, other Swedish critics have stated that the illegal operations at Abu Kabir were already well-documented and that Israelis as well as Palestinians became victims of organ theft there. Neither Aftonbladet nor Filter have substantiated the claim that the IDF killed Palestinians for their organs.

Young muslim man gets prize for fighting antisemitism

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 15:40:25 +0000

A 21-year-old man who founded the group “Young Muslims Against Antisemitism”, in Malmo, Sweden, has received an anti-racism award from the Swedish Committee Against Antisemitism.

“Siavosh Derakhti is a role model for young people,” said Willy Silberstein, president of the committee. “We hope that the prize will stimulate positive forces in Malmo so that more residents mobilise against antisemitism,”

Mr Derakhti, who arranged for his school class to visit Auschwitz in 2010, said it was “a great honour” to receive the prize.

While in Poland, he made a film which has subsequently been shown in Swedish schools. He regularly participates in public debates about racism.

During a ceremony in Stockholm’s Great Synagogue, to mark the anniversary of Kristallnacht (the Nazi Night of Broken Glass in 1938), Mr Derakhti was given a diploma and a cheque for 20,000 Swedish kronor (about £1,900).

He is the first recipient of the annual award which was instituted in October 2012 in order to reward young people who are working to counteract antisemitism and other forms of prejudice.

The committee noted that Mr Derakhti had contributed to fighting xenophobia and to creating “a more tolerant and pluralistic Malmo”.

Jews in Malmo have attested to a recent surge in antisemitic hate crimes. In September, an explosive device was set off outside a Jewish community building.

Malmo’s problem

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 16:24:43 +0100

One of those battles is in Malmo, the Swedish city now notorious across Europe for its attitude to Jews, and for its Mayor's apparent insouciance - to put it no stronger - towards attacks on Jews.

That attitude has been confirmed in the JC's own dealings with the council. We have asked basic questions - such as whether the council is concerned by attacks on Jews and what policies it has to deal with them - and the response has, to date, been a total refusal to answer. If it was clear before that the Malmo authorities have a problem with Jews, it is now even more so.

Fear stalks the streets of Malmo and council has no answer

Orlando Radice — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 11:01:50 +0100

“You don’t wear a kippah in this city. That would be suicide,” said the head of Malmo’s voluntary security team guarding the gates of the city’s Jewish cemetery.

The security service was established in the wake of a peace demonstration by the Jewish community after the 2008-2009 Gaza war in which the crowd was firebombed and a Holocaust survivor assaulted.

The past 70 years have seen a dramatic reversal of fortunes for Jews in Sweden’s third-largest city.

In 1943, thousands of Jews were smuggled to Malmo out of Nazi-occupied Denmark on kayaks, ferries and fishing boats. Today, the city’s Jewish population of around 1,500 are regularly met with cries of “Heil Hitler” and “f**king Jews” as they walk the streets — and over the past ten years they have slowly but steadily been leaving for Stockholm, Israel and the US. “When young Jews leave Malmo now, they don’t come back,” said Fred Kahn, Chairman of the Board of Malmo’s Jewish community.

“The problems for us derive from the Muslims in the city,” said the security head, who did not wish to be named.

Roughly a fifth of Malmo’s population of 300,000 are Muslim immigrants, a large proportion of which are Palestinian. Many live hived off in Rosengard, a district blighted by gang wars and drug crime.

It is a sign of how bad things have got in Malmo that British businessman and philanthropist Martin Stern decided to help fund a visit to Malmo by Copenhagen’s Jewish community to show solidarity with the Jews on the other side of the Oresund Strait.

“Three years ago I spoke to Malmo’s Rabbi Kesselman and he told me the situation was dire,” said Mr Stern. “The situation is terribly dangerous and they have no money to do anything about it.”

The solidarity visit by 70 members of Copenhagen’s community, led by Chabad Rabbi Yitzchok Loewenthal, was timed to coincide with a Holocaust memorial event last Sunday at Malmo’s Jewish cemetery.

Allan Niemann, president of B’nai B’rith Denmark, told the group gathered for the memorial: “Once I was proud of Malmo. It was here that Jews sought refuge. Today we are here to support Malmo’s Jewish minority that has its back against the wall.”

“The period during and just after the Gaza war peace demonstration was worst time for us,” says Rabbi Kesselman. “They threw a firebomb at us. The police sent us away because they couldn’t deal with it. After that, the community was traumatised.”

Rabbi Kesselman has suffered abuse and threats of violence on a regular basis since he arrived in the city in 2004. In one incident, a car reversed towards him and his wife at high speed; the pair only just dodged the vehicle. On some days, he is abused several times within the space of a few hours. Despite this, he refuses to move from Malmo, seeing it as his mission to stand by the Jews of the city.

For the past two years, Mr Kahn and Rabbi Kesselman have led the Malmo community in a campaign to alert the media and city authorities to the situation.

According to Rabbi Kesselman, the police failed to respond until US President Barack Obama’s antisemitism envoy Hannah Rosenthal visited the city’s mayor, Ilmar Reepalu, earlier this year. He said: “For months I had been handing to the police photographs of numberplates of those behind the hate attacks and nothing would happen. After Rosenthal’s visit, the police suddenly decided to start following up on the incidents.”

Mayor Reepalu is undoubtedly one of the problems facing Malmo’s Jews. He has said that if Jews want to avoid being attacked they should denounce Israel’s policies, and in March he told a Swedish magazine that the far-right Sweden Democrat party had “infiltrated the Jewish community in order to push its hatred of Muslims”.

Feelings about Reepalu are running high. Mr Niemann said: “Thank god he wasn’t mayor of Malmo in 1943 because had he been, we wouldn’t be here.”

Despite repeated requests for information, Malmo City Council refused to say whether or not it had a policy to tackle the situation and its head of integration, Jesper Theander, would not offer any comment.

For Rabbi Kesselman, and many others, official indifference is merely a symptom of the fact that the Muslims are now a key electoral constituency for the mayor. “This is about demographics, and the problem we have here will happen soon in other cities in Europe,” said Rabbi Kesselman.

Abandoned by the council, the community have taken matters — peacefully — into their own hands. Psychologist Yehoshua Kaufman came up with the idea of “kippah walks” for Jews to join together and stroll through the centre of the city wearing kippot, which has become a monthly event.

“It is much more dangerous to continue being afraid and hide away than confront your fear,” said Mr Kaufman.

Swedish minister joins Malmö march against prejudice

Nathalie Rothschild — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 13:24:36 +0100

Around 400 people participated in a “kippah march” in Malmö, Sweden, on Saturday to protest against antisemitism.

Sweden’s minister for European affairs, Birgitta Ohlsson, was among the participants. She said that the march represented a “refusal to be indifferent to antisemitism, prejudices and intolerance”.

Malmö has seen a surge in hate crimes against its 600-strong Jewish community, leading many of the city’s Jews to leave for Stockholm, Israel and the US. The local Chabad rabbi claims to have personally experienced around 90 antisemitic incidents since moving to Malmö seven years ago.

In an effort to stand up against antisemitism, a small number of Malmö Jews began to go on group walks around the city, openly wearing kippot and Stars of David.

Saturday’s walk was the biggest and most high-profile one so far. It went from Malmö’s synagogue to Möllevångstorget, a central square where a 2009 Israel solidarity demonstration ended in violence as participants were pelted with eggs, bottles and fire crackers.

Sofia Nerbrand, the president of a liberal think tank, organised Saturday’s march. “I want, as a fellow human being, to show solidarity with Malmö’s Jews, who live in fear,” she said.

The Jews’ situation in Malmö has received international attention, with the Simon Wiesenthal Centre advising against visiting the city and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe expressing concern. Malmö mayor Ilmar Reepalu has suggested that Malmö’s Jews could avoid antisemitism by condemning Israeli policy.