Sunday, May 17, 2009
Muslims invade Sweden and Jew-hatred rises
Jews Leaving Malmo, Sweden
by Yated Ne'eman Staff
20 Iyar 5769 - May 14, 2009
http://chareidi.shemayisrael.com/amalmobhr69.htm
Jewish out-migration is on the rise in Malmo, Sweden's third largest city. One-third of the southern port city are Muslims, forming a population group that has created a considerable challenge due to their reluctance to integrate and adopt local norms. In Stockholm, Sweden's largest city, the population is 20% Muslim.
In recent years Malmo has become a symbol of intolerance toward Jews. The situation worsened significantly following the recent war in Gaza and continued to deteriorate following the protests against allowing Israeli tennis players to participate in Davis Cup matches held in the city.
In recent interviews, young members of the local Jewish community, which currently numbers 900, said Jewish residents feel they would be better off leaving the city than being subject to harassment and threats by Muslims.
"We're leaving," one young Jew declared during an interview on a news program at a local radio station. "It's not a question of if but when, and maybe not just Malmo, but Sweden, too."
The Jewish community is not only disappointed by its treatment by the Muslim neighbors. That would have been bearable, they said, since they expect the situation to improve in the future. Rather they are more disappointed by city leaders, who are largely dependent on the Muslim vote.
It was the mayor of this traditionally working-class city, socialist Ilmar Reepalu, who justified the criticism of Israel during the recent Davis Cup protests, saying the city must display solidarity toward Palestinian residents whose relatives were affected by the war. Yet the protesters in Malmo demonstrated not only against Israel, but against the Jews as well. The Judisk Kronika ("Jewish Chronicle") recently published a transcript from one of the demonstrations where calls to wipe out the Jews were clearly audible. "It's unfortunate such shouts are heard, but they are not from Palestinians, but from members of neo-Nazi organizations," said Mayor Reepalu, choosing to totally overlook the city's Jewish-Muslim tensions.
The Muslim population is a source of problems elsewhere in Sweden, whose non-Muslim citizens are also largely unfriendly towards Israel and Swedish Jews. Growing public support for the Social Democratic Party (SAP), which is highly critical of Israel, has boosted Party Chairman Mona Sahlin, known for her extreme views against Israel.
"I don't want to be among those who didn't leave the city on time," another young Jew said during the radio program. "The situation in Malmo today might not be quite the same as what was happening in Germany during the 1930s. There, too, many people fled the rising wave of hatred, but many other stayed and were washed away. I don't want to be one of them," he said cryptically.
Not all Scandinavian Muslims are hostile toward Jews and not all of the Jews are packing their bags to leave. Just 40 miles away in Copenhagen the atmosphere is totally different. But the sense of fear and uncertainty palpable in Malmo is liable to reach epidemic proportions if left unchecked, and today Sweden has no leader brave enough to step forward and take a firm stand.
by Yated Ne'eman Staff
20 Iyar 5769 - May 14, 2009
http://chareidi.shemayisrael.com/amalmobhr69.htm
Jewish out-migration is on the rise in Malmo, Sweden's third largest city. One-third of the southern port city are Muslims, forming a population group that has created a considerable challenge due to their reluctance to integrate and adopt local norms. In Stockholm, Sweden's largest city, the population is 20% Muslim.
In recent years Malmo has become a symbol of intolerance toward Jews. The situation worsened significantly following the recent war in Gaza and continued to deteriorate following the protests against allowing Israeli tennis players to participate in Davis Cup matches held in the city.
In recent interviews, young members of the local Jewish community, which currently numbers 900, said Jewish residents feel they would be better off leaving the city than being subject to harassment and threats by Muslims.
"We're leaving," one young Jew declared during an interview on a news program at a local radio station. "It's not a question of if but when, and maybe not just Malmo, but Sweden, too."
The Jewish community is not only disappointed by its treatment by the Muslim neighbors. That would have been bearable, they said, since they expect the situation to improve in the future. Rather they are more disappointed by city leaders, who are largely dependent on the Muslim vote.
It was the mayor of this traditionally working-class city, socialist Ilmar Reepalu, who justified the criticism of Israel during the recent Davis Cup protests, saying the city must display solidarity toward Palestinian residents whose relatives were affected by the war. Yet the protesters in Malmo demonstrated not only against Israel, but against the Jews as well. The Judisk Kronika ("Jewish Chronicle") recently published a transcript from one of the demonstrations where calls to wipe out the Jews were clearly audible. "It's unfortunate such shouts are heard, but they are not from Palestinians, but from members of neo-Nazi organizations," said Mayor Reepalu, choosing to totally overlook the city's Jewish-Muslim tensions.
The Muslim population is a source of problems elsewhere in Sweden, whose non-Muslim citizens are also largely unfriendly towards Israel and Swedish Jews. Growing public support for the Social Democratic Party (SAP), which is highly critical of Israel, has boosted Party Chairman Mona Sahlin, known for her extreme views against Israel.
"I don't want to be among those who didn't leave the city on time," another young Jew said during the radio program. "The situation in Malmo today might not be quite the same as what was happening in Germany during the 1930s. There, too, many people fled the rising wave of hatred, but many other stayed and were washed away. I don't want to be one of them," he said cryptically.
Not all Scandinavian Muslims are hostile toward Jews and not all of the Jews are packing their bags to leave. Just 40 miles away in Copenhagen the atmosphere is totally different. But the sense of fear and uncertainty palpable in Malmo is liable to reach epidemic proportions if left unchecked, and today Sweden has no leader brave enough to step forward and take a firm stand.
Labels: Antisemitism in Sweden, Europe, European Anti-Semitism, Islamic antisemitism, Muslims, Palestinian antisemitism, Sweden, Swedish antisemitism, Swedish society
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Antisemitism in Sweden
Sweden accused of persecuting civil servant for pro-Israel views
By Cnaan Liphshiz
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/956205.html
Wed., February 20, 2008 Adar1 14, 5768
An employee of the Swedish Migration Board sued the organization last month for what he considers unlawful demotion for his support of Israel and the U.S., which he expressed in his personal Web site. The parties met last week at the Goteborg District Court for a first hearing on the case.
Lennart Eriksson, 51, told Haaretz by phone that his boss, Eugene Palmer, had demoted him last September from the position of manager of an asylum assessment unit - which he had held for six years - to manager of one of the board's shelters. Eriksson maintains that in effect, the demotion constitutes dismissal.
The board - the government body handling immigrants - disagrees with this.
Eriksson, who is not Jewish, also said he viewed his demotion as a form of political persecution.
According to Eriksson, Palmer told him he had seen Eriksson's Web site and that Eriksson's views were both "unusual and controversial." According to Eriksson, Palmer told him he was being demoted because of the Web site, and that running such a site was inappropriate for a senior official of the migration board.
He said his site "does not and has never contained hateful or acrimonious ideas."
The board's press officer, Marie Andersson, said the board "strongly denies that it persecutes any of its employees." She added: "Under the Swedish Secrecy Act [Sekretesslagen], the board is not at liberty - and we do not find it appropriate either - to discuss one of our employees and the specifics of this particular case."
The board had confirmed in previous queries by the Swedish media that Eriksson had been "transferred" as a result of the opinions he expressed on his Web site. Andersson said the board finds it "crucial to preserve people's confidence in the organization."
This, she says, makes it essential "for employees to not show that they are in favor of one side in a conflict which leads people to seek refuge in Sweden." It is particularly important for staff in leading positions to "show impartiality," she said.
But Eriksson says that at least one of his former colleagues, Arne Malmgren, is a veteran pro-Palestinian activist working against human rights violations in the West Bank and Lebanon. Malmgren and his wife, Birgitta Elfstrom - who also worked at the board until retiring recently - are quoted in the international media in this context.
The board never approached Malmgren on this issue and has even recently promoted him, says Eriksson. Press officer Andersson would only say on this issue that "Mr. Malmgren has not been promoted to a position as head of any unit."
Israel's former ambassador to Sweden, Zvi Mazel, said he was not surprised by the incident.
"The people who fired Eriksson took the lead from a prevalent anti-Israel atmosphere in Sweden's corridors of power," he said. Dr. Mikael Tossavainen, a Swedish-born researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, said he considered the incident a danger to free speech.
Upon hearing about the case, the vice chair of the Sweden-Israel Friendship Society, Ilya Meyer, launched a public campaign to raise awareness about what he calls political persecution apparent in Eriksson's case.
"If someone from another country had suffered the treatment to which Eriksson has been subjected, the victim would be granted political asylum in Sweden on the grounds of political persecution," Meyer said.
By Cnaan Liphshiz
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/956205.html
Wed., February 20, 2008 Adar1 14, 5768
An employee of the Swedish Migration Board sued the organization last month for what he considers unlawful demotion for his support of Israel and the U.S., which he expressed in his personal Web site. The parties met last week at the Goteborg District Court for a first hearing on the case.
Lennart Eriksson, 51, told Haaretz by phone that his boss, Eugene Palmer, had demoted him last September from the position of manager of an asylum assessment unit - which he had held for six years - to manager of one of the board's shelters. Eriksson maintains that in effect, the demotion constitutes dismissal.
The board - the government body handling immigrants - disagrees with this.
Eriksson, who is not Jewish, also said he viewed his demotion as a form of political persecution.
According to Eriksson, Palmer told him he had seen Eriksson's Web site and that Eriksson's views were both "unusual and controversial." According to Eriksson, Palmer told him he was being demoted because of the Web site, and that running such a site was inappropriate for a senior official of the migration board.
He said his site "does not and has never contained hateful or acrimonious ideas."
The board's press officer, Marie Andersson, said the board "strongly denies that it persecutes any of its employees." She added: "Under the Swedish Secrecy Act [Sekretesslagen], the board is not at liberty - and we do not find it appropriate either - to discuss one of our employees and the specifics of this particular case."
The board had confirmed in previous queries by the Swedish media that Eriksson had been "transferred" as a result of the opinions he expressed on his Web site. Andersson said the board finds it "crucial to preserve people's confidence in the organization."
This, she says, makes it essential "for employees to not show that they are in favor of one side in a conflict which leads people to seek refuge in Sweden." It is particularly important for staff in leading positions to "show impartiality," she said.
But Eriksson says that at least one of his former colleagues, Arne Malmgren, is a veteran pro-Palestinian activist working against human rights violations in the West Bank and Lebanon. Malmgren and his wife, Birgitta Elfstrom - who also worked at the board until retiring recently - are quoted in the international media in this context.
The board never approached Malmgren on this issue and has even recently promoted him, says Eriksson. Press officer Andersson would only say on this issue that "Mr. Malmgren has not been promoted to a position as head of any unit."
Israel's former ambassador to Sweden, Zvi Mazel, said he was not surprised by the incident.
"The people who fired Eriksson took the lead from a prevalent anti-Israel atmosphere in Sweden's corridors of power," he said. Dr. Mikael Tossavainen, a Swedish-born researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, said he considered the incident a danger to free speech.
Upon hearing about the case, the vice chair of the Sweden-Israel Friendship Society, Ilya Meyer, launched a public campaign to raise awareness about what he calls political persecution apparent in Eriksson's case.
"If someone from another country had suffered the treatment to which Eriksson has been subjected, the victim would be granted political asylum in Sweden on the grounds of political persecution," Meyer said.
Labels: Anti-Israel, Anti-Zionism, Antisemitism, Sweden, Swedish society
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Debating Antisemitism in Sweden
Anti-Semitism, in Sweden? Depends who you're asking
By Cnaan Liphshiz
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/922248.html
Fri., November 09, 2007 Cheshvan 28, 5768
The Swedes are not anti-Semitic, the Rabbi of Stockholm's Orthodox Jewish community, Meir Horden, told AngloFile on a visit here this week. According to Horden, Swedish Jews have only hostility from local Muslims to fear.
But Zvi Mazel, a controversial figure in Sweden ever since he served there as Israel's ambassador in 2004, strongly disagrees.
"It's not true to say that the Swedes are anti-Semitic. Some of them are hostile to Israel because they support the weak side, which they perceive the Palestinians to be," Horden said. The capital's Orthodox community numbers 4,500.
In an interview on one of his frequent trips here, Horden went on to say that "generally speaking," Swedish support for the Palestinians comes from the same place that led the Swedes to help Holocaust survivors.
"Of course you can't compare the two things, but that's their way of thinking," Horden explained at his Modi'in home after delivering a lecture on Swedish Jewry at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. "It's frustrating because the Swedes don't look too much into historical facts."
Mazel, however, speaks of a deep-rooted anti-Semitic sentiment that he says is inherent to Swedish culture. "If it weren't for this lingering anti-Semitism, the incident would arguably never have happened," Mazel said in reference to his interference with a work of art at a Stockholm museum in early 2004, during his term as ambassador.
Believing that an art exhibit celebrated Palestinian suicide bombers, Mazel caused the installation to short-circuit, and was forcibly removed from the museum as a result.
Blind hatred
Some days later, Mazel told a Swedish newspaper that "Sweden is among the most severely anti-Semitic places" with "daily agitations in the media to kill Jews."
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon supported Mazel's actions. Mazel retired several weeks later.
"I'm very surprised by Rabbi Horden's statements," Mazel said. "Anti-Semitism is prevalent in Swedish society as it has always been, and is apparent in cases of blind hatred of all things Israeli."
Mazel denied that his perspective on Sweden is warped because of the museum incident, and points to the first-ever systematic study on anti-Semitic images and attitudes in Sweden, released in 2005.
The poll of 5,000 adults in Sweden on their attitude to Israel and Jews found that over a third had "somewhat ambivalent attitude towards Jews," with 5 percent admitting to strong anti-Semitism.
Horden clearly disagrees with the assessment of the former ambassador. "Mazel does speak of anti-Semitism in Sweden," the rabbi said, but I don't think that's a problem," Horden says.
"Six percent of the population is Muslim and this causes problems, like attacks in graveyards, but you don't feel an anti-Israel situation."
Horden, an Israeli-American who was trained to serve in Sweden by the Rothschild Foundation, says that regardless of anti-Semitism, being a religious Jew in Sweden is tough. "Shabbat starts at noon at summer, and kosher food is hard to get."
Other problems are rooted in Sweden's ultra-liberal atmosphere, Horden says. When he, together with Muslim and Christian leaders, signed a petition in 2004 against same-sex marriage, the Reform Jewish community told the media that Horden's action did not represent the Jewish community as a whole.
"It was just important for the Reform stream to show Swedish society that they were indeed liberal and not extremists or fanatics," Horden claims.
Smiling, he adds: "I was surprised to see gay Jewish couples who wanted to get married in synagogue. In Israel the homosexual community is so anti-religious."
By Cnaan Liphshiz
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/922248.html
Fri., November 09, 2007 Cheshvan 28, 5768
The Swedes are not anti-Semitic, the Rabbi of Stockholm's Orthodox Jewish community, Meir Horden, told AngloFile on a visit here this week. According to Horden, Swedish Jews have only hostility from local Muslims to fear.
But Zvi Mazel, a controversial figure in Sweden ever since he served there as Israel's ambassador in 2004, strongly disagrees.
"It's not true to say that the Swedes are anti-Semitic. Some of them are hostile to Israel because they support the weak side, which they perceive the Palestinians to be," Horden said. The capital's Orthodox community numbers 4,500.
In an interview on one of his frequent trips here, Horden went on to say that "generally speaking," Swedish support for the Palestinians comes from the same place that led the Swedes to help Holocaust survivors.
"Of course you can't compare the two things, but that's their way of thinking," Horden explained at his Modi'in home after delivering a lecture on Swedish Jewry at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. "It's frustrating because the Swedes don't look too much into historical facts."
Mazel, however, speaks of a deep-rooted anti-Semitic sentiment that he says is inherent to Swedish culture. "If it weren't for this lingering anti-Semitism, the incident would arguably never have happened," Mazel said in reference to his interference with a work of art at a Stockholm museum in early 2004, during his term as ambassador.
Believing that an art exhibit celebrated Palestinian suicide bombers, Mazel caused the installation to short-circuit, and was forcibly removed from the museum as a result.
Blind hatred
Some days later, Mazel told a Swedish newspaper that "Sweden is among the most severely anti-Semitic places" with "daily agitations in the media to kill Jews."
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon supported Mazel's actions. Mazel retired several weeks later.
"I'm very surprised by Rabbi Horden's statements," Mazel said. "Anti-Semitism is prevalent in Swedish society as it has always been, and is apparent in cases of blind hatred of all things Israeli."
Mazel denied that his perspective on Sweden is warped because of the museum incident, and points to the first-ever systematic study on anti-Semitic images and attitudes in Sweden, released in 2005.
The poll of 5,000 adults in Sweden on their attitude to Israel and Jews found that over a third had "somewhat ambivalent attitude towards Jews," with 5 percent admitting to strong anti-Semitism.
Horden clearly disagrees with the assessment of the former ambassador. "Mazel does speak of anti-Semitism in Sweden," the rabbi said, but I don't think that's a problem," Horden says.
"Six percent of the population is Muslim and this causes problems, like attacks in graveyards, but you don't feel an anti-Israel situation."
Horden, an Israeli-American who was trained to serve in Sweden by the Rothschild Foundation, says that regardless of anti-Semitism, being a religious Jew in Sweden is tough. "Shabbat starts at noon at summer, and kosher food is hard to get."
Other problems are rooted in Sweden's ultra-liberal atmosphere, Horden says. When he, together with Muslim and Christian leaders, signed a petition in 2004 against same-sex marriage, the Reform Jewish community told the media that Horden's action did not represent the Jewish community as a whole.
"It was just important for the Reform stream to show Swedish society that they were indeed liberal and not extremists or fanatics," Horden claims.
Smiling, he adds: "I was surprised to see gay Jewish couples who wanted to get married in synagogue. In Israel the homosexual community is so anti-religious."
Labels: Antisemitism, Sweden, Swedish society
