The Local reported last week on a recent decision in Mayor Ilmar Reepalu’s Social Democrat fiefdom. Malmö has just eased the way for even more non-integrating immigrants. How has Malmö managed to increase its social problems and unrest in one simple policy change? The Local notes that:
-“The municipality of Malmö will no longer print the personal identification numbers of marrying couples on the lists of upcoming civil weddings in a move which will make it harder for border police to hunt for illegal immigrants at weddings. “
In short, one of the key tools for weeding out illegal immigrants is to check their personal identification number and details. This was done by transferring a list of impending nuptials including i.d. numbers, essential to the police for verification of legal immigration status.
Now the police will no longer receive these lists with the personal i.d. numbers, although they can request the numbers by submitting a “proof of impediment”, presumably on a case-by-case basis.
City Hall has its rationale, as expressed by Tomas Bärring, the secretariat director:
-"We have had a discussion and came to the conclusion that we want to protect the personal sphere."
The result of this intimate little chat is that it is now infinitely easier for immigrants to marry illegals (or as illegals)—and then disappear back into the lawless immigrant neighborhoods where the situation is already strained. These neighborhoods are the source of a high percentage of crimes in Sweden, including arson, rape, theft, hate crime and gang wars. They are the result of a failing immigration policy in Sweden generally; in Malmö the problem of lawlessness is particularly bad.
Reepalu’s strategy is to throw bones like this lax policy change (and anti-Israel sentiments) around in the hopes that this will create “understanding”—or at least buy votes in the Muslim immigrant sector for himself and fellow Social Democrats in the upcoming elections. But no matter who wins, once the elections are over the same reality will be staring Malmö in the face—how to cope with a non-integrated and growing population which is largely unemployed, uneducated, and which neither shares Sweden’s purported democratic values, nor respects them.
Avoiding the arrest of illegal immigrants solves no problems for Malmö—it only increases them. According to scholar Daniel Pipes, Malmö is speeding its way toward becoming possibly the first Western European city with a Muslim majority. The question is whether it will be a city where all residents are respected, or whether today’s hate crimes and subsequent departure of a number of Jews from Malmö are just the beginning of the departure of the West and Western values from Malmö.
By : Chanah Shapira
Monday, August 23, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Israel’s IBA News Reports on Situation of Jews in Sweden
Leah Zinder, a reporter from the English IBA news in Israel, recently travelled to Sweden’s capital Stockholm in order to get a first-hand glance at the growing anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli atmosphere in the country.
The movie clip below gives a lengthy description of the general situation which the Jews in Sweden are dealing with today. The movie also gives a great opportunity to see interviews with individuals who previously have been mentioned and discussed in the Sweden, Israel and the Jews blog.
In order to view the news edition movie- click on the link below:
When the new window opens- click on the “IBA close up Weekly News Edition picture” and the movie will start.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
“Grave” Errors II: Aftonbladet and Colleagues Write “Pravda” Journalism
As those who recall the Soviet Socialist Empire recall, the totalitarian leftist regime there completely controlled all media. There was one party line which dictated the tone and content of all reporting. The “official truth” was what was printed in Pravda, which, ironically, means “truth” in Russian
No one is claiming here that the Swedish government is controlling all media outlets. Yet left-wing bias in the mainstream media—which also cooperatively own the main news agency—results in an eerily similar situation. We reported recently on the Mamilla graves issues, where a site which Muslim extremists are claiming now as “holy ground” was slated for development and used for pumping sewage by Muslims more than 60 years ago. Evidence clearly documenting these facts was overlooked by the mainstream Swedish media.
In effect, it would be more accurate to talk about a Swedish medium, singular. Basically, the Swedish mainstream papers, TV, and radio, as well as their internet avatars rely on the Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå (TT) news agency. TT claims to be the “only nationwide Swedish agency with a complete news service.” What this seems to mean is that it is practically the sole provider of foreign news in Swedish. As a result, the media, which receives government subsidies to guarantee multiple viewpoints, delivers one story from one angle to all the mainstream papers.
Now, it is understandable that in a country like Sweden, it would be unrealistic for each newspaper to maintain a foreign staff. However, it would not be unreasonable that their local staff cross-checks foreign material either through English-language sources or simply through online translation. (If anyone at TT doesn’t know how to do this, just email us and we’ll explain how.)
As an example, I checked to see how the Swedish papers reported on the fake graves issue, which is the latest permutation of the Mamilla development squabble. It is unclear who financed the installation of “grave markers”, which can be seen in a video along with buckets, cement, gravel and building debris here.
What is interesting is that the source for the TT story was AFP (Agence France-Presse) which operates internationally in several languages. AFP‘s original report included these statements from the Jerusalem city council:
-"The municipality and the (Israel Lands) Authority destroyed around 300 dummy gravestones which were set up illegally in Independence Park on public land.”
-"The court approved the removal of all the dummy gravestones which were laid in the last seven months," the municipality said in a written statement sent to AFP.
-“Underneath the tombstones excavators found only ‘plastic bottles, cigarette packets and parts of a sprinkler system,’ the statement said. It accused "Islamic elements" of trying to pull off a huge scam.”
Notice that the report, credited as TT or TT-AFP—which was printed almost identically in Aftonbladet, Svenska Dagbladet, and Dagens Nyheter , and also the Christian daily Dagen—changes the wording of the AFP report:
-“Municipal leaders in Jerusalem on Thursday denied Palestinian information earlier this week that an Arab cemetery had been destroyed.
-“In its first comment on the information, local government leaders confirmed that about 300 gravestones had been removed; they claimed that they were false and that there were no human remains in them.
-“On Tuesday, A spokesman for the Islamic al-Aqsa Foundation said that Israeli bulldozers had torn up a couple of hundred graves in the centuries-old Muslim cemetery… in the Jewish-dominated western part of Jerusalem.
Notice that the city council is no longer quoted directly, but comes in the form of a denial of prior “information”. In the second excerpt, the city council “claims” the graves are false, and in the third bit, the al-Aqsa foundation spokesman is quoted directly, but his statement is not described as a “claim”. Also, the phrase “mostly Jewish” in the original report has morphed into the more loaded “Jewish-dominated” in the TT text. Of course, city council is not quoted as saying that it found trash under the alleged tomb markers.
Interestingly, the editor of Dagen, which has a more center-right orientation, was forced to write an editorial defending his use of the TT item. In his defense, he complains that because the primary source for this information was Arutz Sheva—a “settler mouthpiece” he was reluctant to publish this information—on the Swedish right, it’s still handy to bash the Israeli right. Later, Arutz Sheva’s documentation was picked up by other media, including the Jerusalem Post in which the city council statement explains how Islamic officials:
- “exploited permits they had received from the city’s sanitation department for the cleaning and renovation of existing graves, and instead [used the permits to] fraudulently erect fictitious tombstones …about 300 fictitious tombstones have been removed, with each new location being identified and cleared only after review and approval from an IAA [Israel Antiquities Authority] expert.”
The bottom line is that as Pravda did for the Soviets in the good old days, TT today often stands as the sole window on the world for Swedes. Shouldn’t the Swedish media work along the lines of the stated mission for those who receive governmental press subsidies? Doesn’t accepting the people’s tax money obligate the Swedish media to strive for objective reporting and multiple voices? It is obvious that a “reporter” at TT took what was a reasonable and factual piece and twisted it to make it seem as if Israelis were countering Muslim "information".
Instead of working as a news agency, they are operating as a leftist cabal with a central agency for doctoring the international wire service reports to conform to their world view. Clearly, when the monolithic left-wing Swedish media promotes the cause of Muslim extremists while bashing Israel for building a Museum of Tolerance, it is business as usual. For the Swedish media, it’s ideology first—facts are optional.
This post was written by Chanah Shapira.
No one is claiming here that the Swedish government is controlling all media outlets. Yet left-wing bias in the mainstream media—which also cooperatively own the main news agency—results in an eerily similar situation. We reported recently on the Mamilla graves issues, where a site which Muslim extremists are claiming now as “holy ground” was slated for development and used for pumping sewage by Muslims more than 60 years ago. Evidence clearly documenting these facts was overlooked by the mainstream Swedish media.
In effect, it would be more accurate to talk about a Swedish medium, singular. Basically, the Swedish mainstream papers, TV, and radio, as well as their internet avatars rely on the Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå (TT) news agency. TT claims to be the “only nationwide Swedish agency with a complete news service.” What this seems to mean is that it is practically the sole provider of foreign news in Swedish. As a result, the media, which receives government subsidies to guarantee multiple viewpoints, delivers one story from one angle to all the mainstream papers.
Now, it is understandable that in a country like Sweden, it would be unrealistic for each newspaper to maintain a foreign staff. However, it would not be unreasonable that their local staff cross-checks foreign material either through English-language sources or simply through online translation. (If anyone at TT doesn’t know how to do this, just email us and we’ll explain how.)
As an example, I checked to see how the Swedish papers reported on the fake graves issue, which is the latest permutation of the Mamilla development squabble. It is unclear who financed the installation of “grave markers”, which can be seen in a video along with buckets, cement, gravel and building debris here.
What is interesting is that the source for the TT story was AFP (Agence France-Presse) which operates internationally in several languages. AFP‘s original report included these statements from the Jerusalem city council:
-"The municipality and the (Israel Lands) Authority destroyed around 300 dummy gravestones which were set up illegally in Independence Park on public land.”
-"The court approved the removal of all the dummy gravestones which were laid in the last seven months," the municipality said in a written statement sent to AFP.
-“Underneath the tombstones excavators found only ‘plastic bottles, cigarette packets and parts of a sprinkler system,’ the statement said. It accused "Islamic elements" of trying to pull off a huge scam.”
Notice that the report, credited as TT or TT-AFP—which was printed almost identically in Aftonbladet, Svenska Dagbladet, and Dagens Nyheter , and also the Christian daily Dagen—changes the wording of the AFP report:
-“Municipal leaders in Jerusalem on Thursday denied Palestinian information earlier this week that an Arab cemetery had been destroyed.
-“In its first comment on the information, local government leaders confirmed that about 300 gravestones had been removed; they claimed that they were false and that there were no human remains in them.
-“On Tuesday, A spokesman for the Islamic al-Aqsa Foundation said that Israeli bulldozers had torn up a couple of hundred graves in the centuries-old Muslim cemetery… in the Jewish-dominated western part of Jerusalem.
Notice that the city council is no longer quoted directly, but comes in the form of a denial of prior “information”. In the second excerpt, the city council “claims” the graves are false, and in the third bit, the al-Aqsa foundation spokesman is quoted directly, but his statement is not described as a “claim”. Also, the phrase “mostly Jewish” in the original report has morphed into the more loaded “Jewish-dominated” in the TT text. Of course, city council is not quoted as saying that it found trash under the alleged tomb markers.
Interestingly, the editor of Dagen, which has a more center-right orientation, was forced to write an editorial defending his use of the TT item. In his defense, he complains that because the primary source for this information was Arutz Sheva—a “settler mouthpiece” he was reluctant to publish this information—on the Swedish right, it’s still handy to bash the Israeli right. Later, Arutz Sheva’s documentation was picked up by other media, including the Jerusalem Post in which the city council statement explains how Islamic officials:
- “exploited permits they had received from the city’s sanitation department for the cleaning and renovation of existing graves, and instead [used the permits to] fraudulently erect fictitious tombstones …about 300 fictitious tombstones have been removed, with each new location being identified and cleared only after review and approval from an IAA [Israel Antiquities Authority] expert.”
The bottom line is that as Pravda did for the Soviets in the good old days, TT today often stands as the sole window on the world for Swedes. Shouldn’t the Swedish media work along the lines of the stated mission for those who receive governmental press subsidies? Doesn’t accepting the people’s tax money obligate the Swedish media to strive for objective reporting and multiple voices? It is obvious that a “reporter” at TT took what was a reasonable and factual piece and twisted it to make it seem as if Israelis were countering Muslim "information".
Instead of working as a news agency, they are operating as a leftist cabal with a central agency for doctoring the international wire service reports to conform to their world view. Clearly, when the monolithic left-wing Swedish media promotes the cause of Muslim extremists while bashing Israel for building a Museum of Tolerance, it is business as usual. For the Swedish media, it’s ideology first—facts are optional.
This post was written by Chanah Shapira.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Not Playing Fair: Social Democrats Oppose Swedish-Israeli Handball Match
The game is to be held on July 12, 2011 if the community in Karlskrona will allow it. The chairman of the sports and leisure board (idrotts-och fritidsnämnden) in the community, Camilla Brunsberg (Moderate) is positively inclined towards the match. According to Brunsberg the critique has been raised by officials in the city due to security concerns. But she asserts that “police, the foreign ministry and the handball association have been contacted in order to gather opinions”, all in order to make sure that the game will be able to be played. When asked about her thoughts on boycotts of the game Brunsberg answered:
“I don’t believe in boycotts, what is important is to strengthen relations between countries”.
Vice chairman for the same sports and leisure board (idrotts- och fritidsnämnden), Jan Elmqvist (Social Democrat), is not so positive and does not want Karlskrona to host the game. In an interview Elmqvist states: “Spontaneously, I don’t think that the game should be hosted here”. When asked if it is okay to mix politics with sports he further answers: “This has always been done.”
The chairman of the Karlskrona community board, Karl-Gösta Svensson (Moderate) also states that he wishes that Karlskrona hosts the game as: “sports and politics should not be mixed”.
According to the local newspaper Sydöstran the main concerns strive from uncertainties on whether or not Karlskrona will be able to manage the security measures necessary in order to host a game for an Israeli team. Opponents to the match have argued that the community will not be able to counter the type of security threats which arose when Israel played Sweden in a Davis Cup game in Malmö last year.
Still, with the clear division of thoughts between representatives from the Social Democrats and the Moderates in the community it seems pretty clear that also politics at this point clearly are influencing the decision to host the game.
Nervous authorities in Malmö declared that last year’s Davis Cup match between Israel and Sweden had to be played without crowds. But, unlike the capitulating Malmö Social Democrat city authorities, the team manager for the Handball association confirms that they want to play the game—they hope that the community will play fair and say yes.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Anti-Semitic Trends in Norway Spotlighted in the U.S.—Is Swedish Anti-Semitism Next?
The blog “Norway Israel and the Jews” is reporting that US senator Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) recently sent a letter to the Norwegian ambassador in Washington DC expressing his concerns over how “hatred of Israel and outright anti-Semitism is being allowed to fester unchallenged in Norway.” The letter, which was sent out on Aug 3rd, was based on a 10-point list created by the Simon Wiesenthal Center. What is striking is that the points on the list are much similar to what is taking place in Sweden today. Two examples are:
Point number 1:
Not surprisingly, the same thing was seen in Sweden when leader of the Left party, Lars Ohly, participated in an anti-Israeli demonstration. He was photographed wearing a scarf which is popular amongst Palestinians, displaying a text in Arabic and a map on which Israel does not exist. To many observers Ohly seemed to be making a statement—arguing that Israel lacks the right to exist as a Jewish state, as well as asserting the irrelevance of the two state solution.
Point number 7:
In Sweden during January 2009, an authorized pro-Israeli demonstration in Malmö was attacked by anti-Israeli protesters who had no permit to hold a demonstration. Rather than protecting those who were exercising their right, the police dispersed both groups. Aging holocaust survivors were forced to flee the scene recalling trumatizing memories from the 1940s.The second pro-Israeli demonstration held in Malmö was attacked by a group who hurled pipe bombs and projectiles at the demonstrators.
There is no doubt that the items on the Wiesenthal Center list pinpointing anti-Semitic and Israel-hatred issues in Norway and all bear a striking resemblance to events in Sweden. If we were to create a similar list for Sweden, one could arguably put in not only the two above-mentioned examples, but also these items:
1. The Mayor of the city of Malmö, Ilmar Reepalu, has continuously made statements which can be construed as anti-Semitic. He has been unable to take a stance on the fact that many Jews in Malmö today feel forced to leave the city due to growing anti-Semitic sentiments. In fact, European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor singled out Malmö as the European city where Jews are most pressured to leave due to hate crime.
2. The leader of Reepalu’s Social Democratic party, Mona Sahlin, has still not condemned the many arguably anti-Semitic statements made by the Mayor.
3. In 2009, one of the largest newspapers in Sweden, Aftonbladet, published a libelous article against Israel which claimed that Israel stole human organs in the Palestinian Territories in a modern twist on the age-old anti-Semitic blood libel. The political editor of Aftonbladet, Helle Klein, continuously spreads Israel-hatred in her Aftonbladet blog. It is important to note that the media is subsidized by the Swedish government, which declines to condemn these abuses of press freedom.
4. Social Democrat and Vice President for the organization Social Democratic Women (S-kvinnor) in Skåne county, Ingalill Bjartén, decided to join a demonstration outside a tennis arena and publicly compare Israelis with the Nazis when Israel was to meet Sweden in a tennis game in Malmö.
The list can be made longer, these are just a few points to show that the exact same things which Senator Brownback has called for Norway to address, in fact, also taking place in Sweden. We can only hope that a similar formal acknowledgement soon will be made.
Point number 1:
The minister of finance (Now Minister of Education) Kristin Halvorsen, leader of the Socialist Left Party, participated in an anti-Israeli demonstration in Oslo in January 2009. She was the only European minister to do so. She was photographed standing close to a sign which says “United States and Israel- the greatest axis of evil”…..
Not surprisingly, the same thing was seen in Sweden when leader of the Left party, Lars Ohly, participated in an anti-Israeli demonstration. He was photographed wearing a scarf which is popular amongst Palestinians, displaying a text in Arabic and a map on which Israel does not exist. To many observers Ohly seemed to be making a statement—arguing that Israel lacks the right to exist as a Jewish state, as well as asserting the irrelevance of the two state solution.
Point number 7:
In January 2009 during a pro-Israeli demonstration in Oslo in which a senior opposition leader Siv Jensen participated, there was an anti-Jewish pogrom of a size never before encountered in Norway’s history…Author Erik Eiglad wrote [it was],” wanton anti-Jewish mass violence.”
In Sweden during January 2009, an authorized pro-Israeli demonstration in Malmö was attacked by anti-Israeli protesters who had no permit to hold a demonstration. Rather than protecting those who were exercising their right, the police dispersed both groups. Aging holocaust survivors were forced to flee the scene recalling trumatizing memories from the 1940s.The second pro-Israeli demonstration held in Malmö was attacked by a group who hurled pipe bombs and projectiles at the demonstrators.
There is no doubt that the items on the Wiesenthal Center list pinpointing anti-Semitic and Israel-hatred issues in Norway and all bear a striking resemblance to events in Sweden. If we were to create a similar list for Sweden, one could arguably put in not only the two above-mentioned examples, but also these items:
1. The Mayor of the city of Malmö, Ilmar Reepalu, has continuously made statements which can be construed as anti-Semitic. He has been unable to take a stance on the fact that many Jews in Malmö today feel forced to leave the city due to growing anti-Semitic sentiments. In fact, European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor singled out Malmö as the European city where Jews are most pressured to leave due to hate crime.
2. The leader of Reepalu’s Social Democratic party, Mona Sahlin, has still not condemned the many arguably anti-Semitic statements made by the Mayor.
3. In 2009, one of the largest newspapers in Sweden, Aftonbladet, published a libelous article against Israel which claimed that Israel stole human organs in the Palestinian Territories in a modern twist on the age-old anti-Semitic blood libel. The political editor of Aftonbladet, Helle Klein, continuously spreads Israel-hatred in her Aftonbladet blog. It is important to note that the media is subsidized by the Swedish government, which declines to condemn these abuses of press freedom.
4. Social Democrat and Vice President for the organization Social Democratic Women (S-kvinnor) in Skåne county, Ingalill Bjartén, decided to join a demonstration outside a tennis arena and publicly compare Israelis with the Nazis when Israel was to meet Sweden in a tennis game in Malmö.
The list can be made longer, these are just a few points to show that the exact same things which Senator Brownback has called for Norway to address, in fact, also taking place in Sweden. We can only hope that a similar formal acknowledgement soon will be made.
Friday, August 13, 2010
“Grave” Errors and Serious Omissions as Swedish Media Group Pursues Anti-Israel Bias
TT (Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå), is Sweden’s wire service for Swedish news and foreign reports as well as providing internet and radio news, and serving as a source for Swedish television. Owned by the major Swedish newspapers, it is practically monolithic as a mainstream new source. As we have reported this week, there is an Israel-bashing story almost every day in the mainstream press.
One of the anti-Israel stories TT sent around lately was about Israel allegedly desecrating Muslim graves to put up a Museum of Tolerance. The misinformation about this project is outlined in the blog Peace in the Middle East (Fred i Mellanöstern), which describes the total misrepresentation of the facts in this case which were originally “dug up” by blogger Elder of Zion. The Jerusalem Post confirms the blogger’s information, a key element of which is that:
- “the Supreme Muslim Council of British Mandate Palestine had planned to build a large commercial center directly on top of the cemetery in 1945.”
Incidentally, the English source for this information was none other than a 1945 edition of the Palestine Post, the precursor of the Jerusalem Post. Basically, today’s complaints are completely false regarding Israeli intent to desecrate Muslim “holy ground”. In fact, that was already done by none other than the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini (a Nazi ally), who had built the Palace Hotel adjacent to the cemetery; due to arguments with the then-Muslim municipality, “Husseini agreed [with the contractors] to lay pipes to send the hotel's (partially treated) sewage - to the cemetery itself”.
In effect TT, while claiming to be a professional and dedicated media organization, has managed to complain about Israeli development of a tract of land which Muslims themselves had planned to develop, and which the Mufti had already desecrated himself by pumping sewage into it. All this information is readily available in English, including scans of original documents. Since running a story like this amounts to sheer propaganda and contributes to the anti-Israeli hatred already rampant in Sweden among Muslim immigrants and the leftists, the TT staff seems to be better described as professional liars and agitators.
Having dismissed this non-news, fictional item, let’s have a look at just one story which was covered in the Israeli media in the last week. This story concerns an explosion in Gaza which leveled 8 homes, and damaged 30 more and left 50 injured. Yes, Palestinian homes were destroyed and civilians were hurt but there was no outcry by Hamas supporters among Sweden's loyal left.
Why?
Well, it seems that Hamas was using the house as an explosives depot, right in the middle of a residential area. Hot weather and poor storage conditions led to the spontaneous blast. Of course, for those familiar with Islamic terror organizations, this is more or less standard procedure. The Israeli papers often report these “work accident” explosions which occur in inhabited areas. Many villages in southern Lebanon are exploited in the same way, and these accidents happen there, too.
Use of human shields as cover for combatants and weapons directly contravenes the Geneva convention. The residents complained that they had repeatedly asked Hamas officials to relocate the explosives cache, but were silenced by Hamas authorities. This was corroborated by a local Palestinian human rights group notes the JPost:
“’Usually when such explosions occur the armed groups in Gaza announce it’s Israel’s fault,’” Hamdi Shaqqura, deputy director for program affairs at the Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights, told The Media Line.
‘But our investigations often find that this is not the case.’
Shaqqura said armed groups try to hide the existence of bombs in residential areas, because local residents ‘would not agree to live on a barrel of explosives.’”
So, for TT and its media pals, it’s okay to report fake stories about Israelis, but you will never see the Gaza population depicted as victims of Hamas war crimes. This is yet another example of real humanitarian racism—most of the suffering of Gaza population is brought upon them by their corrupt, inhumane, and repressive regime. No one, especially in the Swedish mainstream media is calling for Hamas to stop putting its citizens at risk; in fact this kind of bias gives legitimacy to terrorists and their allies, such as the Ship to Gaza participants. But as long as Hamas has Israel in its gun sights, it seems propaganda is fair play for TT.
What a shame that Sweden’s “free”, “democratic” and “transparent” of “promoting diversity and making sure that people get more than one side of a story”.
As the Swedish authorities also warn:
“…the right to express an opinion calls for responsibility. Freedom of speech can be offensive, incite discrimination or violence, or have negative consequences for an individual or society.”
It’s time for the press and the government to take their own words to heart. They must stop supporting war criminals by bashing Israel in the government-supported media while ignoring the clear human rights violations on the part of Hamas. It’s time to stop making media darlings out of protest tourists who joined “Ship to Hamas”, and it’s inexcusable that the Foreign Minister,Social Democrat Carl Bildt, greeted them as V.I.P.s on their return to Sweden. When the government bankrolls and encourages one-sided propagandists for terror, it is complicit in supporting terrorism. That is certainly a negative consequence for Swedish society.
By: Chanah Shapira
One of the anti-Israel stories TT sent around lately was about Israel allegedly desecrating Muslim graves to put up a Museum of Tolerance. The misinformation about this project is outlined in the blog Peace in the Middle East (Fred i Mellanöstern), which describes the total misrepresentation of the facts in this case which were originally “dug up” by blogger Elder of Zion. The Jerusalem Post confirms the blogger’s information, a key element of which is that:
- “the Supreme Muslim Council of British Mandate Palestine had planned to build a large commercial center directly on top of the cemetery in 1945.”
Incidentally, the English source for this information was none other than a 1945 edition of the Palestine Post, the precursor of the Jerusalem Post. Basically, today’s complaints are completely false regarding Israeli intent to desecrate Muslim “holy ground”. In fact, that was already done by none other than the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini (a Nazi ally), who had built the Palace Hotel adjacent to the cemetery; due to arguments with the then-Muslim municipality, “Husseini agreed [with the contractors] to lay pipes to send the hotel's (partially treated) sewage - to the cemetery itself”.
In effect TT, while claiming to be a professional and dedicated media organization, has managed to complain about Israeli development of a tract of land which Muslims themselves had planned to develop, and which the Mufti had already desecrated himself by pumping sewage into it. All this information is readily available in English, including scans of original documents. Since running a story like this amounts to sheer propaganda and contributes to the anti-Israeli hatred already rampant in Sweden among Muslim immigrants and the leftists, the TT staff seems to be better described as professional liars and agitators.
Having dismissed this non-news, fictional item, let’s have a look at just one story which was covered in the Israeli media in the last week. This story concerns an explosion in Gaza which leveled 8 homes, and damaged 30 more and left 50 injured. Yes, Palestinian homes were destroyed and civilians were hurt but there was no outcry by Hamas supporters among Sweden's loyal left.
Why?
Well, it seems that Hamas was using the house as an explosives depot, right in the middle of a residential area. Hot weather and poor storage conditions led to the spontaneous blast. Of course, for those familiar with Islamic terror organizations, this is more or less standard procedure. The Israeli papers often report these “work accident” explosions which occur in inhabited areas. Many villages in southern Lebanon are exploited in the same way, and these accidents happen there, too.
Use of human shields as cover for combatants and weapons directly contravenes the Geneva convention. The residents complained that they had repeatedly asked Hamas officials to relocate the explosives cache, but were silenced by Hamas authorities. This was corroborated by a local Palestinian human rights group notes the JPost:
“’Usually when such explosions occur the armed groups in Gaza announce it’s Israel’s fault,’” Hamdi Shaqqura, deputy director for program affairs at the Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights, told The Media Line.
‘But our investigations often find that this is not the case.’
Shaqqura said armed groups try to hide the existence of bombs in residential areas, because local residents ‘would not agree to live on a barrel of explosives.’”
So, for TT and its media pals, it’s okay to report fake stories about Israelis, but you will never see the Gaza population depicted as victims of Hamas war crimes. This is yet another example of real humanitarian racism—most of the suffering of Gaza population is brought upon them by their corrupt, inhumane, and repressive regime. No one, especially in the Swedish mainstream media is calling for Hamas to stop putting its citizens at risk; in fact this kind of bias gives legitimacy to terrorists and their allies, such as the Ship to Gaza participants. But as long as Hamas has Israel in its gun sights, it seems propaganda is fair play for TT.
What a shame that Sweden’s “free”, “democratic” and “transparent” of “promoting diversity and making sure that people get more than one side of a story”.
As the Swedish authorities also warn:
“…the right to express an opinion calls for responsibility. Freedom of speech can be offensive, incite discrimination or violence, or have negative consequences for an individual or society.”
It’s time for the press and the government to take their own words to heart. They must stop supporting war criminals by bashing Israel in the government-supported media while ignoring the clear human rights violations on the part of Hamas. It’s time to stop making media darlings out of protest tourists who joined “Ship to Hamas”, and it’s inexcusable that the Foreign Minister,Social Democrat Carl Bildt, greeted them as V.I.P.s on their return to Sweden. When the government bankrolls and encourages one-sided propagandists for terror, it is complicit in supporting terrorism. That is certainly a negative consequence for Swedish society.
By: Chanah Shapira
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Kvinna till Kvinna Feminists Support Repressive Chauvinistic Hamas Regime
Formed as a response to the tragedies of the Balkan conflict, this organization collaborates with various women's rights organizations around the world in order to, among other things, “empower and further educate women activists and politicians“, “counteract violence against women and human trafficking“ and “educate authorities and influence decision-making processes and legislation“. A noble cause, to be sure, and one which deserves support in every way. However, as is so often the case with Sweden, this does not tell the full story. Like so many other organizations in this Israel-obsessed nation of ours, Kvinna till Kvinna also dabbles in anti-Israeli propaganda.
On their website, Kvinna till Kvinna has written extensively about women's situation in Israel, in Gaza and in the West Bank. It is far from pleasant to read about how Arab women in particular are being mistreated and discriminated against. However, it is somewhat infuriating that Kvinna till Kvinna apparently thinks it is entirely in order to use propaganda, entirely unrelated to the cause they claim to be fighting for. For one thing, they never use the word “Arab”, which would simply make an ethnic distinction. Rather, they say “Palestinians”, politicizing the identity of those Israeli citizens who are of Arab descent. To quote an example from their English-language website: “A fifth of the Israeli population is made up of Palestinians and 70 per cent live in rural areas. Palestinian women in Israel suffer double discrimination: as Palestinians in Israel and as women in the patriarchal Palestinian community.”
It would be more accurate to identify the patriarchal Islamic society as the key issue holding women back. Calling the Israeli Arabs “Palestinians” sounds like political rhetoric. Usually, when one refers to Israeli Arabs as Palestinians, one is attempting to make out Israel as a colonial state, where the “European” Jews have come to what was once the Nation of Palestine and replaced it with the State of Israel. And what is this constant talk of discriminating against the Palestinians, and women in particular?
First off, how exactly are they being discriminated against? Israeli Arabs enjoy the same rights as any other citizen of Israel; they vote and are members of both the parliament and the judiciary, although they lack one of the duties of Israeli Jews, and one generally adopted by male Bedouin and Druze—as Israeli Arabs are exempt from compulsory military service. They do, however, retain the right to serve voluntarily—a right that is being used by a small but growing number of Israeli Arabs every year.
Secondly, they disregard initiatives on the part of Jewish and Israeli institutions to better the lives of Arab Israelis. Note that Arab women in Israel benefit from Israel’s Western, democratic political system :
-“Israel has extensive anti-discrimination laws. Moreover, since the founding of the State, the status of Arab Israeli women has been significantly improved by legislation stipulating equal rights for women and prohibition of polygamy and child marriage. Israel remains one of the few countries in the Middle East where women enjoy equality in rights and personal freedoms, including the right to vote and be elected to local and national office.”
In fact, although Kvinna till Kvinna makes a big fuss over the poor conditions Arab women in Israel are forced to live under, Haredi (or Ultra-Orthodox) women have lower health standards than their Israeli Arab sisters.
And, as if misrepresentation were not enough, Kvinna till Kvinna has also committed the signature sin of Sweden; hypocrisy. But more importantly, Kvinna till Kvinna, through one of their sister organizations, supported the Ship to Gaza-flotilla – often called, with more than a hint of bitterness and accuracy, Ship to Hamas.
In doing so, whether intentionally or not, they support the Hamas—one of the worst oppressors of women in the region (if not the worst)—who have recently embarked on a campaign to limit women's rights in Gaza. Examples include banning women from riding scooters behind men and preventing women from dancing in public as well as banning women from smoking water pipes. Is this really the kind of regime an organization working to promote women's rights should support?
In short, then, Kvinna till Kvinna is distorting the truth, omitting facts and lying outright, seemingly to further some unofficial political agenda. They are also hypocrites who have shown themselves to be quite willing to throw aside the ideals they claim to stand for, apparently not realizing that in so doing they are also throwing away all of their credibility. What the members of the organization do on their spare time, as private citizens, is their own business, even if that includes going against the stated goals of the organization. However, when the organization itself goes against those goals, when it lies and engages in political propaganda, it just goes to show that Kvinna till Kvinna is not to be taken seriously.
Women all across the world would be better off if Kvinna till Kvinna began to focus on improving women's situations worldwide. The struggle for women's rights is too important for its champions to squander their credibility in order to engage in political propaganda.
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