Yesterday veteran blogger Ilya Meyer wrote an excellent piece about Sweden’s disproportionately excessive reporting on Israel. According to Meyer, Sweden currently has something of an obsession for bashing Israel in the Swedish public media.
Meyer draws attention to the fact that in no other country is there such frequent and negative reporting on Israel as there is in Sweden. He writes:
In an average month of 30 days, there are never more than 3 days without some negative reporting on Israel in the publicly-funded state TV (SVT). Check out the news function on teletext and on a minimum of 27 days out of 30, there will be a story about Israel. Not about Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, the Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Somalia, Bangladesh. The standing joke in Sweden is that one can always tell when there is a new employee at the taxpayer-funded SVT, because that is the day there is no anti-Israel item on teletext. New recruits never make the same mistake twice, if they wish to keep their jobs.
One example of the irrational Israel-bashing in the Swedish media has already been cited in this blog. Helle Klein, the political author of the left-leaning Social Democrat daily Aftonbladet—which is notorious for Israel-hating screeds—spends the vast majority of her time publishing anti-Israel stories in her Aftonbladet blog. During the month of June this year, 28 out of 44 posts concerned Israel and most of them were encouraging Sweden and Aftonbladet’s readers to boycott Israel.
As mentioned last week the same thing can of course be said for Swedish state-funded radio SR which can’t seem to refrain from continuing and contributing to the anti-Israeli trend in Sweden.
Sweden’s negative obsessive reporting on Israel has justified the persecution of Jews in the larger cities in the country. Jews have been asked to take a stance against Israel in order to “ensure” their own security. This is a sad development for a country which claims to be a “multi-cultural society”. In reality, the state has an Orwellian version of multi-culturalism—Sweden’s obsessive and biased media reporting reveals that some cultures are more equal than others.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Monday, August 9, 2010
Swedish Photojournalist Slams Israel for Targeting Jacuzzis in “Impoverished” Gaza
Sommelius starts off telling the Swedish readers that Operation Cast Lead was conducted during December 2008 and January 2009 when “The Israeli army, IDF, managed to prevent foreign journalists from entering into the Gaza Strip”. Due to Israel’s restriction on media presence in the Strip—which was imposed due to security risks for foreign journalists—this review’s author consequently claims that in “Sweden nobody was informed”.
With the publication of Kent Klich’s book, Sommelius seems to think that Swedish people now will be able to understand the suffering that the Palestinians are going through due to the operation in Gaza which the author states clearly was aimed at the civilian population. Sommelius clearly seems to be oblivious to the nature of the operation in the strip. The facts are that Hamas soldiers, in contradiction to international law, purposely did not wear uniforms to identify themselves as combatants. This was in order to blend in amongst civilians. Any attack on a Hamas militant could therefore be claimed as the wounding or killing of a civilian. This was a war crime committed by Hamas, not Israel.
It is clear that Sommelius has no understanding of the complex nature of the operation in Gaza. He states that Israel waged war on civilians, completely disregarding Israel’s very specific mission: preventing the militant terror group Hamas from launching rockets at Israeli civilians. These rocket attacks, which have been renewed this past week with a larger range and lethal force, also constitute war crimes, as their sole purpose is to kill, maim, and terrorize the civilian population.
Initial reaction to the pictures, such as the one below, is surprising as the living conditions in Gaza, before the war, were much higher than, for example, the standards of the mostly Muslim immigrants living in the neighborhood of Rosengård in Malmö.
Sommelius continues to bash Israel by arguing that Israel, since the end of the operation in Gaza has defied international conventions, hindered the reconstruction of buildings by classifying building material such as concrete as forbidden goods for import. He of course doesn’t mention that much of the blockade is force in order to prevent attacks from the Gaza Strip on civilians in Israel and the use of concrete for bunkers. Sommelius also fails to mention that despite the “lack” of concrete, the Hamas-led government in fact, recently managed to put up a shopping mall—this seems to be in place reconstructing homes for citizens. Neither does he mention that Hamas not long ago violently evicted Palestinian families from their homes as the government decided that a prison was going to be built on that very same spot.
It is more convenient for Sommelius to leave out this kind of information because Sommelius refuses to acknowledge that Hamas does not want to rebuild Gaza, nor homes for its citizens. This creates a propaganda exhibit for biased media outlets, who can continue to photograph homeless Gazans. In turn, maintaining some Gazans as homeless “exhibits” means that foreign NGOs will continue to pour in aid unconditionally to the Hamas government. These funds guarantee that high-positioned corrupt Hamas leaders or sympathizers can continue to build luxury homes and leisure malls while the many of the Gaza population are forced to live in poverty. Last year Sweden itself in fact contributed around 800 million Swedish kronor ($111.5 million USD) to the Strip.
Sommelius ends his article by writing:
-“ Klich’s photographs are registered, they are documentation of the Israeli army’s war crimes. In a just world the IDF’s commanders and government officials would have been put to question in trials for what took place. The pictures are proof of what happened and are therefore also accusations, pictures which accuse [Israel] of ‘crimes against humanity’”.
I beg to differ. The pictures taken by Kent Klich portray the true reality in Gaza; due to the corrupt Hamas led government some people in Gaza, as can be seen in the pictures, can and are living in luxury. Their living standards before the war were far better than that of the Swedish immigrants living in the neighborhoods of Rosengård in Malmö. (It is also a fairly safe bet that just as Hamas managed to find a way to put up a mall it will rebuild homes for those of its top echelon who may have lost their homes—if it hasn’t done so already.)
Klich’s photographic works can actually also be argued as documenting the fact that foreign donors’ money isn’t used for the benefit of the general welfare. This model might work in a socialistic and democratic country like Sweden, but not in a terrorist dictatorship like the Gaza Strip. Klich’s book fails in its objectives; it rather emphasizes the problems which will continue to exist as loads of money enable more radicalization and corruption on a small piece of land known as the Gaza Strip.
Friday, August 6, 2010
New (and Mostly Useless) Ship to Gaza Flotilla Planned
"We will go [again] before the end of this year and we are quite sure that this flotilla will have more boats, bigger boats, there will be several passenger boats."
These efforts certainly do not come up to the level anticipated by celebrity Swedish mystery author and flotilla sailor Henning Mankell who manically boasted of larger exploits and “glowing” results:
“What will happen next year when we come back with hundreds of boats? Will they drop an atomic bomb?”
Sure, Henning, Israel is just itching to drop a nuclear bomb right near its own beaches. Actually the flotilla has barely delivered results—as far as Gaza residents are concerned. The facts are that
-“Of the seven flotilla ships, only four were freight ships. The Challenger 1 (small yacht), the Sfendonh (small passenger boat) and the Mavi Marmara (passenger ship) did not carry any humanitarian aid.”
So, firstly, in plain language, when Feiler speaks of more passenger ships, he means more ships with no aid cargo for Gazans. At best he is talking about increasing protest tourism for drama-seekers like Mankell, and at worst, he is talking about bringing more armed jihadist would-be martyrs.
As the Turkish daily Hurriyet reported in June, the European Campaign to End the Siege of Gaza and the Freedom Flotilla Coalition would also bring more IHH members—again, would-be Islamic martyrs with clubs, night scopes, knives, etc.—from the jihadist group linked with Hamas.
Secondly, like other “aid shipments” the four freight ships brought cargo which was largely useless for humanitarian purposes:
-“The equipment does not constitute humanitarian aid in the accepted sense (basic foodstuffs, new and functional equipment, fresh medicines).
-“Because of the improper packing, some of the equipment was crushed by the weight in transit.
-“ Some of the medicines have already expired, and some will expire soon. The operating theater equipment, which should be kept sterile, was carelessly wrapped.”
And the bulk of the “aid” was
- “some 2000 tons of construction equipment - building materials and tools, and construction waste (rubble, toilets, sinks and cement) for re-use.”
No surprises here. A large amount of the “aid” sent to the Palestinians by donors consists of used goods and product dumping. Expired medicines which are either useless or harmful are “generously” given by donors who claim to have donated thousands or even millions of dollars in aid—it’s just that they are referring to the cost of medicines and equipment when they were originally purchased, not their current value. Al Jazeera produced this clip which diplomatically demurs from naming donors, and points out the environmental damage caused by indiscriminate dumping of pharmaceutical waste:
In point of fact, Israel has expanded the types of goods allowed in and is shipping more goods than ever into Gaza. Every week thousands of tons of fresh food and medicines as well as consumer goods are trucked in for Gaza’s citizens.
It is now clearer than ever that the Ship to Gaza movement is not more than a political scam. Many boats did not bring any humanitarian aid and the ones that did brought mostly expired and nearly-expired medicines and used or damaged equipment. So far Israel has been demonized when trying to protect it citizens. One can only hope that many more people now think twice about the true agenda of Mankell and his martyr friends.
By Chanah Shapira
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Peres: Sweden Doesn’t Understand Us
One of the questions asked early in the interview is: what are Peres’ thoughts on the recent rise of delegitimization of Israel in the world? And does President Peres agree that such a rise in fact is taking place? To these questions Peres answers:
"For 2,000 years there was friction between the Vatican and the Jews. There are, what is it, 1.3 billion Christians? Now we have excellent relations with the Vatican. This is no small thing. And we have good relations with India, also hit by Muslim terrorists. And that’s together 3 billion. And [we now have] excellent relations with China."
When asked about his thoughts on the particular rise on delegitimization in the West Peres comments:
"Firstly, there is a problem in the Scandinavian countries. They always want to appear like yefei nefesh [the Hebraism roughly translates as “bleeding hearts,” with an undertone of hypocrisy]. And I don’t expect them to understand us. Sweden doesn’t understand why we are at war. For 150 years they have not had a war. There were even Hitler and Stalin, but they kept out of the picture. As did Switzerland. So, they don’t understand why we are “for war,” as if we really like wars. It’s like Marie Antoinette didn’t understand why the people didn’t bake cakes. The same logic."
It is interesting to see that Peres, when commenting on rising delegitimization of Israel in the west chooses to mention Scandinavia as a whole as a problem. Making such a broad and incorrect statement does not help emphasize the problem that does in fact exist currently in the region—not in Scandinavia as a whole, but in Sweden and Norway. It neither helps deal with the problem nor reduces the delegitimization.
Arguably, in order to deal with the growing problem the President should know where to put his emphasis. Instead he makes the mistake of rambling on about Sweden’s supposed neutrality in the Second World War when he could have mentioned that Sweden (as well as Norway) constantly delegitimizes Israel.
Peres could also have mentioned that this rising Swedish trend of delegitimizing Israel is a significant factor in the need for high-cost security for Jewish communities and institutions. Jewish families are currently leaving Sweden’s third-largest city of Malmö as a result of exponentially rising anti-Semitism. As shown in this blog, even the official numbers are dramatic, while attacks are known to be underreported or dismissed by the authorities, making the real picture much grimmer. Malmo’s Social Democrat mayor, Ilmar Reepalu responded to a jump in attacks by stating that Jews need to distance themselves from Israel in order to avoid these attacks. Furthermore, the Swedish mainstream media sweeps these issues under the rug and publishes “editorials” which are propaganda exercises in delegitimization of Israel. However, Peres forgot to mention important facts like these.
Repercussions from the article have been heard in England—which Peres also mentioned in the interview, referring to it as a highly pro-Arab as well as anti-Israeli country. So far no reactions have been heard from any Scandinavian country, not even from Sweden, Peres’ most direct target. This further emphasize that Peres clearly didn’t get his point across to the relevant parties. As a result, Peres missed an opportunity to start an international discussion on the spread of both delegitimization of Israel and anti-Semitism in Sweden and Norway.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Swedish Public Television—Where Taxpayers’ Money Goes to Spreading Propaganda Lies
Recently, SVT-Sweden's publicly funded television broadcasting company- issued a short teletext notice concerning the recent Israeli air strikes against strategic targets in Gaza, in retaliation for a rocket attack against Israel. The air strikes, the notice states, were aimed at two targets; a military training camp, and the “refugee tunnels” along the border to Egypt.
Let’s be clear about the Gaza-Egypt tunnel business. As documented by the mainstream media, and easily found on YouTube, the tunnels have been used for smuggling a large range of “goods”. Some of these include what may be termed consumer items—food supplies, fuel, appliances, and even sheep and cattle lowered and hauled up miserably on ropes. There has also been substantial human trafficking. But a substantial amount of the material brought in under the sealed Egyptian border includes drugs, weapons, missiles, and explosives.
These tunnels are fairly sophisticated, and have been dug out at considerable expense to the owners who, until recently, have made a very nice profit on their investment. Of course, anyone you see interviewed in these clips states that they are strictly in the grocery trade, but as anyone who has lived in the Middle East can tell you, these business owners paid some kind of kickback. Whether the payoff was made in cash, goods, or delivery services, the tunnels have been useful and good business for the Hamas regime.
Claiming these tunnels were “refugee tunnels” is a totally disingenuous misnomer, both because, as we have seen, that is not the purpose of these tunnels, but for a second, more significant reason. Lately, the tunnel business has been drying up. Yes, now that Israel has been trucking in even more consumer goods, the tunnels have become largely unnecessary for consumer goods. What that means is that now these tunnels have become almost exclusively weapons conduits.
When SVT, a publicly-funded broadcasting company, claims that Israel bombed refugees in retaliation for a rocket attack, it is not only wrong and purposely deceptive, but it gives credibility to the many rabid anti-Israeli leftists, and the not nearly as many but equally rabid anti-Israeli liberals and rightists, who are always quick to condemn “blood-thirsty”Israelis. Israel's opponents in Sweden are given another weapon to use in debates and op-eds, one which comes from a source which is considered to be reliable. Furthermore, it is disturbing that tunnels which are used for transporting weapons are described as being used by supposed Palestinian “refugees’ by a broadcaster funded by a compulsory fee, paid by all Swedes in possession of a television.
Notice that the Israeli action against weapons smuggling has been inverted to a “human suffering” story, while the renewed rocket attacks by Hamas directed against Israel’s civilian population, have been depersonalized to simply rocket attacks. The latest Hamas attacks hit the coastal city of Ashkelon and a children’s therapy center just outside the town of Sderot. Does anyone need to ask how the upgraded rocket got into Gaza?
It should also be noted that there as late as yesterday five rockets were fired from the Egytian-controlled Sinai desert which borders Gaza. Islamic terrorists fired into the area of Eilat and its neighboring Jordanian city of Aqaba, killing one person and injuring four others. This is a major escalation of the situation with Hamas and its affiliated terrorist weapons suppliers and operatives.
What's more, SVT is not the only publicly-funded Swedish broadcaster to have joined the choir of Swedish media spreading anti-Israeli propaganda; their radio counterpart, SR, has been waging a campaign against Israel for years. The latest of SR’s attacks against Israel is an article concerning the recent demolition of an illegal Bedouin village in the Negev, which the author of the article claims is part of the “Jewification” of the Negev.
This article, then, implies that the Negev, which constitutes about half of Israel's land area, does not belong to Israel. Furthermore, by using the word “Jewification”, the author of the article blames not Israel, but the Jews, for the demolition of the Bedouin village, evoking the ancient anti-Semitic stereotype of the greedy Jew, who in this case is constantly grabbing for more land. With such images being conveyed by the publicly-funded broadcasting companies, perhaps one need no longer wonder about the causes of the ever-increasing levels of anti-Semitism in Sweden.
Sweden is a democracy. That is a simple fact. However, when the publicly-funded broadcasting channels publish anti-Israeli and even anti-Semitic propaganda, one begins to wonder for how much longer the humanitarian racists will permit free speech which runs counter to their agenda.
By Adam Eberhag and Chanah Shapira
Monday, August 2, 2010
Major Reepalu Silent as Malmö’s Jews are Attacked Once Again
After the recent attack, one would therefore expect that Mayor Ilmar Reepalu—who at the beginning of the year, was roundly criticized as he failed, time after time, to take a clear stance against anti-Semitism—now would have gotten his act together in order to condemn the recent attack on the Jewish community as well as help strengthen the security for the members. This is something he should do—if not for the right reason, then for the sake of Malmö’s image as a “tolerant and multicultural” town, or at least for the sake of his own image and political success.
Still, from a man who recently compared Zionism with anti-Semitism it does not come as a surprise to find that when reporters from the Forward tried to reach Reepalu for a comment on the attack the mayor answered: “I’m sorry, I’m sailing. I don’t know much of what is going on in Malmo,” before hanging up.
This came as no surprise to the spokesperson for the Jewish community, Fredrik Sieradzki, who concluded; “Reepalu has not said anything before about any attacks, and no one is expecting him to do it now. I would be surprised if he did.”
The attack did not harm anyone nor did it result in major damage on the building but it clearly showed that the Malmö’s Jewish community remains a target for violent anti-Semitic hate crimes. On this Sieradzki commented to the Forward: “[It] was a comparatively small explosive device, but it was enough to sow terror...We see this as an attack; someone purposefully put it there to prove a point. It’s an anti-Semitic point. ‘Beware,’ it says,”
Indeed the Jews in Malmö should be aware, especially when they have a mayor that clearly shows little interest in the security and well-being of the citizens for which he is responsible.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Rabbi in Stockholm Subjected to Death Threat
The first incident occurred on July 7th when Rabbi Isak Nachman arrived at Stockholm’s central train station. He was wearing a kippa, and was easily identifiable as Jewish. When he started walking in the direction of his home, he suddenly met by four younger men in their twenties that started screaming “You will die, fucking Israeli, fucking killer, you shall be beaten”.
After that the young men started to scream in Arabic and continued to follow Nachman who was forced to flee the gang. He managed to escape by running and finally throwing himself into a cab. Only then the four men dispersed from the scene.
Rabbi Nachman also tells Christian daily Dagen that he has lived in Sweden since he was 11, but never before has he encountered a similar threatening situation.
The second incident occurred only a few weeks later when Rabbi Nachman and two foreign colleagues were strolling down the streets of Stockholm. A car drove by and the passengers rolled down the windows and screamed “Fucking Jews”.
To the Swedish Committee against Anti-Semitism Nachman states:
-“It is unpleasant that something like this can happen just because I wear a kippa and consequently show that I am Jewish.”
He continues:
-“We have received a much harsher tone in the public sphere. We have, for example, local politicians who say that Jews should take a stance against what is going on in Israel; otherwise they will risk being subjected to attacks. I think that this type of statement results in lowered standards [of acceptable speech and behavior]. It becomes legitimate to attack, firstly Israel but also Jews in general. Many people do have a hard time separating Israel and Jews…”
It is now widely known that anti-Semitism is thriving in Sweden’s third largest city, Malmö. Also here Rabbi Shneur Kesselman has been subjected to a series of anti-Semitic hate crimes- the worst being when someone tried to run him over with a car. The synagogue in Malmö was subjected to an explosive attack last week and there is a constant threat against Jewish individuals in the town.
While Jews in Stockholm might have felt safer than the Jews in Malmö, we might now see a turning point. This is also confirmed by Rabbi Nachman who explains that the threat against Jews hasn’t been as bad in Stockholm as in Malmö. Now however, he has started to re-consider walking outside at night which clearly shows that the situation for Jews also in Stockholm has deteriorated.
More and more it seems that the Swedish authorities prefer political correctness rather than dealing with a growingly problematic situation. As documented in this blog, the frequency of anti-Semitic incidents is increasing, and now it seems that attacks are further spreading. Once again we are asking whether the authorities will wake up---before events spiral out of control.
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