Sunday, November 27, 2011

Young Anti-Semite to Host Prestigious Swedish TV Show


Gina Dirawi Photo Credit: SVT
20-year old blogger, Gina Dirawi has recently been elected host of this year’s national Swedish song contest (Schlager festivalen), a contest that nominates Sweden’s contribution to the Euro Vision song contest. Gina Dirawi is not only a blogger and comedian but also an outspoken anti-Semite.
On her blog, Gina Dirawi, who is of Palestinian decent, writes about her private life but also about the US, Israel, terrorism and Jews. Many of her posts contain deeply disturbing anti-Semitic content such as a post called “go terrorism?”; here Dirawi writes:
How can a can a country like Israel, that violate all human rights, do the exact same thing as Hitler did, but with other means, not be called a terrorist country?
The post has been erased from the blog following criticism of the content, but a screen capture can be seen here (in Swedish).
In the post Dirawi further elaborates on her conspiracy for the September 11 terror attacks, which she believes was a plot constructed by the U.S. government. Ironically, despite her anti-American conspiracy theories, Swedish television has previously chose Dirawi to participate in a TV show commemorating the terror attacks against the World Trade Center.
Except for in the post "go terrorism?", Dirawi has on numerous occasions compared Israeli politics to Hitler and the Holocaust. One of the EU criterias on what can be reffered to as anti-Semtisim. 
On Holocaust Remembrance Day 2010 she wrote: “Today it's the 27th of January and apparently it is the remembrance day for all those who were murdered during the Holocaust” (…) I want all of us not only to have a silent moment for all those Jews who were killed but for all people who have been killed and murdered. For all Palestinians who have been murdered by Zionists in Israel”...
More posts contain the same anti-Semitic message:
I don't understand how people who have experienced the Holocaust can do the exact same thing against other people, and that the world is just watching. This is the new Holocaust….” (Screen capture can be found here):

And this:

“The Israeli government is doing the same thing as Hitler did against their people but with other means, they oppress and they are murdering people who are not like them!”

Following criticism of the Swedish National TV’s decision to choose Dirawi as the host for the Swedish song contest, the CEO of SvT has answered one Swedish blogger, who chose to publish their reply on his blog (in Swedish). It reads:
SvT cannot accept statements of this kind from people representing SvT. Gina wrote the text that is referred to, when she was 18 and before she started working for SvT. We did not know about them and she has taken them off [the blog]. Gina Dirawi has on many other places on her blog emphasized her respect for people with different faith, also for Judaism. But she is against violence. We are having a dialogue with Gina about how she better can describe this conviction.

It is clear that the dialogue between the CEO of SvT and Dirawi is not working very well as there at present are posts with the same theme on Dirawi’s blog.
The Swedish national song contest is held yearly and allows Swedish songwriters to compete for a prestigious place in the European song contest (also known as the EuroVision). The Swedish national competition is one of the most-watched TV programs in Sweden and being a host of this event is a great honor.
In Sweden, the show is broadcast by national Swedish TV (SvT), which is subsidized by Swedish taxpayers. The fact that Gina Dirawi has erased a portion of her blog content with clear anti-Semitic topics (not to mention the talkbacks) does not erase the fact that she is highly unfit to be a spokesperson for Swedish National TV.
Many thanks to Swedish blogger Anna Ekström for an informative blogpost on the topic.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Public Idiocy and Nazi Aerobics

At least Lenin had USEFUL IDIOTS
photo credit: The Local
Here is an item which popped up in the Swedish Local news in the last couple of days:

Top young Moderates sacked over Nazi salute.

-"Two young members of the youth wing of the Moderate Party have been asked to leave the organization after posting a picture of themselves making the Nazi salute [with a German flag in the background] on a personal blog. One of them has also been charged with hate speech."

The saluting blogger made some interesting comments, including, "“We were just doing a morning workout,” and this in defense of the Moderate Party “...it's wildly immature to use this incident, something two drunk teenagers did ...to sully an entire party". Actually, it was "wildly immature" to get drunk and then post Nazi-looking photos of themselves on the internet, especially when they were affiliated with a public organization, and their actions can be construed politically.

Denying any racist motive she also stated “I judge people, not by the colour of their skin, but by their actions. But in this country, you're a racist no matter what you do.” What will they do at parties now?

Kudos to the Moderate Party for promptly ejecting these intellectually-challenged individuals.

By Chanah Shapira

 


Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Ahlmark Slams Bildt in Critical Biography

Per Ahlmark
photo credit: Wikipedia
Our previous post covered Swedish government funding for pro-Palestinian propaganda.  Just in case you forgot, the man in charge at the Foreign Ministry is Carl Bildt, whose pro-Palestinian sympathies outweigh his concern for Israeli kids living in Gaza’s rocket gun sights.  But it’s not just us!
Bildt also gave a cold shoulder to Darfurians suffering genocide at the hands of Sudanese Muslims. After all, the Sudanese government was also helping Bildt and his cohorts at Lundin Petroleum earn some nice oil revenues. So says former minister and Liberal party leader Per Ahlmark. Ahlmark’s recent critical biography of Bildt charges that he banned the use of the word “genocide” in the foreign ministry in connection with events in Darfur. Worse, there was total compliance by ministry staff.
The major daily, Svenska Dagbladet, reported that Ahlmark also charges Bildt with downplaying the Srebenica massacre, and alleges that Bildt was slipped into the government only after the Alliance  was voted in, in a move which deceived the electorate.
Regarding Israel, Ahlmark accuses Bildt of being both “horridly cold” to Israel, and ignorant of Israeli society. It seems Bildt persists in seeing Israel as a single-ethnicity state, while in reality Israel is composed of immigrants from over one hundred nations. States Ahlmark:
-"The Foreign Minister's ignorance of this country's history, culture, vitality and democratic rule is obvious and is based on a clearly hostile attitude."
A less harsh version of this story appeared in the Local.

By Chanah Shapira

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Sweden Exports Al-Shabaab Terror

Available in Sweden!
The Somali al-Qaeda-linked terror group Al-Shabaab has recruiting operations in Scandinavia which draft members of the Somali immigrant communities.  A number of immigrants sent by Al-Shabaab to fight in Somalia have been killed in combat or terror ops. A report linked on Tundra Tabloids notes that persuasion takes the form of “hate propaganda and film clips of bullets and gunpowder”.  An operations base in Stockholm’s suburb of Rinkeby is the main recruiting center in Scandinavia. Rinkeby, which is home to many Somali immigrants, carries the nickname of “Little Mogadishu”, and is no stranger to immigrant unrest. It is considered a highly radicalized area.

However, the Swedish authorities continue to pretend that all is fine and happy.

-“But no one in the network… has ever been convicted. Two Swedish-Somalis were brought to justice, but acquitted because the court did not think there was proof that Shabaab were terrorists.”
Those acquittals happened in March of this year. However, according to the USA’s National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC), the USA recognized Al-Shabaab as a terror group in 2008.  Their summary of Al-Shabaab notes that a 2010 double suicide bombing in Uganda attributed to Al-Shabaab killed more than 70 people; this would be a dramatic expansion beyond their terror activities in Somalia—suicide bombings and assassination attacks on aid workers, journalists, activists and political figures, including an attempt to kill a visiting US Congressman.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) notes that:

- “In November 2009, the terrorist organization announced the establishment of Al Quds Brigade, a military unit specifically tasked with attacking Israel.”

Although this may be of little concern for left-leaning Palestinian sympathizers among Sweden’s ruling elites, it is hard to see how Swedish authorities managed to misconstrue the Al-Shabaab statement of February 2010 announcing their alignment with Al Qaeda.

Terror expert Magnus Ranstorp of the Defence College of Sweden points out that 15-20 immigrants have left Sweden to join the jihad in Somalia. Ranstorp notes:

- “There is a natural link to Oslo through the Somali community in Gothenburg. Operationally there is a belt from Copenhagen via Malmö, Gothenburg and Oslo…The same environment is linked to Rinkeby in Stockholm.”

In Ranstorp’s assessment “many mid-level leaders in the al-Qaeda-affiliated organization are located in Scandinavia”.

As long as the Swedish authorities tolerate the spread of hate propaganda and allow terror groups to operate bases within its borders, it’s more than fair to call Sweden a terror-exporting country.

By Chanah Shapira

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Rabbi Kesselman on Malmö

Our parallel blog Norway Israel and the Jews, has a Dagens interview translated into English. It's worth reading both as a view of life in Sweden for a Jew who is identifiably Jewish, and as a portrait of courage and humanity.

And, if you want more news on Jewish life and Israel politics in Scandinavia, have a look at the new Danish blog.

The way Sweden is going….


November 8, 2011

By McGonagall

With kind collaboration from a reader with contacts in Sweden. Lets just hope this scenario does not pan out in Norway…

Jews are leaving Malmö in Sweden and the community Rabbi fears the hatred he meets in the city.


In a unique interview in the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter the Rabbi of Malmö blames the political leaders for the hatred growing with young muslims. In peaceful Sweden Jews are not safe and can not walk the streets without fear. It is almost unreal that this is Sweden in 2011, not 1941.

“I wasn’t prepared for the hatred I was to face”


In recent years the hatred of Jews has increased in Malmö. many translocate from there. Rabbi Shneur Kesselman has chosen to stay. But when he came to Malmö seven years ago, he was not prepared for the hatred he would face.


Full interview here.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Can Sweden Make Money on Hitler Art?


Biker Möller
(Aftonbladet)

The Local ran a story claiming that paintings seized by authorities for debt repayment from a Hell’s Angels biker in  Sweden were not original works painted by Hitler. This was a bit of backtracking from the first information released:
 "If the paintings are originals, we estimate that they will sell at 100,000 kronor (around $15,000) each," said Christer Davidsson, representing the Swedish Enforcement Authority.
In the Local report, district court official Jörgen Larsson stated that an unnamed expert whom he considers an authority determined that the works were copies. This was apparently the line of Sweden’s governmental debt agency Kronfogden after it came under fire for planning to auction Nazi artifacts.  In a follow-up article, Hell’s Angels former head Thomas Möller claims that the works are genuine:
-“Möller, indignant at the suggestion that his paintings are fake, is now claiming to have documentation proving that they are genuine.

”’I got the paintings straight from Otto Skorzeny, who got them from Adolf Hitler himself,’ Möller told Sydsvenskan newspaper.

“Skorzeny was a well-known Nazi and a colonel in the Waffen-SS and according to Möller, the true worth of the paintings is 4 million kronor [US$608,000], not 500,000 that the collection agency had initially hoped to make.”
A search through various press reports found that none of the press agencies in the top results even bothered to print the claim that the works were just fakes worth a fraction of the cost of originals.
In other European states, selling Nazi memorabilia is prohibited, but not in Sweden, where Nazi memorabilia are export goods. Looks like the government authorities decided to whitewash their greedy plans to make money on Hitler's paintings by claiming they were “just fakes”.  Also, note that the value of original paintings is much higher than the rates quoted by Davidsson in the Local.
Our take: Morally decrepit and deceitful behavior on the part of Kronfogen for trying to make money on Hitler art then denying it when hit by blowback, and shame on the Local for printing the coverup.
Our suggestion: Throw the paintings into the next car-b-que in and good riddance!
By Chanah Shapira

Monday, November 7, 2011

Aftonbladet Ignores Bedouin-Egyptian Organ Trafficking

Aftonbladet is infamous for running a highly sensational and totally fictional account of alleged Israeli trafficking in organs from dead Palestinians. But somehow, the investigative powers of its reporting staff have failed to detect a real and lethal organ-snatching industry which is operating in Egypt. The victims are African refugees fleeing persecution in their home countries and hoping to get to Israel.
photo credit: CNN

Accounts of organ trafficking, confirmed by a number of sources, began to hit the mass media last week. In fact the story was known over a year ago. In a report released in June 2010 by the Israeli NGO Kav Laoved an African woman refugee reported this incident:


-“the Bedouins hurt and threatened to kill [13 individuals] if their families didn't send more money. Those among them who were unable to obtain more money were killed by the Bedouins and their organs were sold.”
Workers from Kav Laoved learned of this case in March of 2010. But Aftonbladet’s staff, which was so quick to accuse Israel with no real evidence, has yet to move on this story which is full of facts and murdered victims.
The story, which is now being treated as a freshly breaking story, was reported in detail by CNN in a Freedom Project Report and other media outlets. For at least several years, African refugees fleeing to Israel who fail to pay Bedouin human traffickers in the Sinai are drugged, their kidneys, liver and other “harvestable” parts are taken, and the bodies are dumped. CNN reports that two Italian NGOs:


“presented evidence that the bodies of African refugees have been found in the Sinai desert with organs missing…refugees -- from places like Ethiopia, Eritrea or Sudan -- are enslaved and tortured and the women raped if they cannot come up with the large sums of money the Bedouin try to extort from them and their families to smuggle them into Israel.”


Evidence indicates that these organs are being purchased for the Egyptian transplant market. Italian NGO worker Hamdy Al-Azazy has graphic photos which he says were taken in a morgue in El Arish. They show the kind of incisions which would typify surgery, not autopsy. Al-Azazy describes the procedure:


"Mobile clinics using advanced technology come from a private hospital in Cairo to an area in the deserts of Mid-Sinai and conduct physicals on the Africans before they choose those suitable, then they conduct the operation."


CNN also reports that the World Health Organization has cited Egypt as hub for the illegal organs trade. Organ trafficking is second only to arms trading in profitability, followed by drugs and prostitution trafficking, all of which are also Bedouin enterprises. Organs are sold for $20,000 and up to Egyptian doctors who work directly with the Bedouins. The police claim to be aware of the organ trafficking, but ignorant regarding the identity of the perpetrators. Sources have identified the Sawarka tribe as key operators in the illegal trafficking of human parts. It is hard to believe that NGOs and reporters would have more information than the Egyptian authorities. Putting two and two together probably means that transplants are profitable business for Egypt. Either the government turns a blind eye or certain people are getting kickbacks.


No conjecture is needed to see why Aftonbladet would ignore the story—a case where there is murderous brutality on the part of Muslims who also supply weapons to Gaza is a story the staff at Aftonbladet could never stomach.






By Chanah Shapira