Swede Sentenced for Auschwitz Sign Theft

The Swedish neo-Nazi leader, Anders Högström 34, who has admitted to be the mastermind behind last year’s theft of the “Arbeit macht frei” sign at the entrance to Auschwitz has been sentenced to two years and 8 months in prison.

Högström plotted to steal the sign in December last year, and with the help of five Polish men, managed to steal the sign. Now he has been sentenced to 38 months in prison in a Polish court. The sentenced will be served in Sweden.

The stolen sign was found shortly after the theft in the Polish woods. It had been sawed into three pieces. The management of the museum at the Auschwitz concentration camp replaced the sign with a replica. The original sign is still undergoing restoration.

Högström was extradited to Poland in April this year to be tried for his crimes. He has become notorious in Sweden since leaving his post as leader for the largest Nazi party, NSF.

Pictured: Swedish Nazi party (NSAP) armband from mid 1930’s 

Denmark Arrests Swedish Terror Cell Members

Yesterday, agents from PET, the Danish security police, arrested five terror suspects, among them three suspects with Swedish connections. Two of the arrested were Swedish citizens;  Munir Awad, aged 29, and Omar Abdalla Aboelazm, 30 who were suspected of planning a terror plot against the Danish daily newspaper Jyllands Posten in Denmark’s capital Copenhagen.

The Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten has been under constant threat from terror organizations since a set of cartoons portraying the prophet Muhammad was published some five years ago. 

The two Swedish citizens who were arrested yesterday in the terror cell crackdown have been detained in Denmark.  A third suspect and Stockholm resident, Tunisian citizen Mounir Dhahri, aged 44 was also arrested. A fourth suspect, an 26-year old Iraqi citizen, has been released. An additional man, from Järfälla outside Stockholm, who had not been present in Denmark, was arrested today in Sweden.

Due to cooperation between the Swedish and Danish security police it was discovered  that the terror cell, which has connections to an international terror network, used both Sweden as well as Denmark as bases for planning the attack against the Danish newspaper. Security authorities have confirmed that the planned attack had no connection with Iraqi-born Taymour Abdelwahab, the Swedish suicide bomber who blew himself up in central Stockholm in the middle of December this year.

According to SÄPO, the Swedish security police, the threat had been recognized already months ago. Anders Danielsson, chief of SÄPO, stated in an interview:

- “We have had them under intense surveillance and have been prepared to make an arrest”

Munir Awad, who is one of the arrested Swedes, has been arrested twice before on suspicion of terror crimes but has been realeased with help of Swedish authorities. The first time was in 2007 in Somalia and the second occasion was in 2009 in Pakistan. The prior arrests were made because he was suspected of collaborating with Al Qaeda. Now Awad, Omar Abdalla Aboelazm and Mounir Dhahri are detained suspected of plotting a terror crime in Denmark.

The Danish security police PET believe that the attack could have been similar to the Bombay attacks in India in 2008, involving a shooting massacre. Jacob Sharf, head of PET states in an interview:

-       Our understanding is that the plan was to enter Jyllands Posten’s building and make an attack similar to the one in Bombay- killing as many as possible. This is a terror attack we have seen to be preferred by terrorists”.

At the time of the arrest PET found a submachine gun, a silencer, a handgun as well as live ammunition.

The Jyllands massacre plot, like the Stockholm bombing, comes in the wake an Al Quaeda audio statement attributed to Iraqi-based senior operative Abu Suleiman al-Nasser earlier this month. The statement released over the internet warned that the Stockholm attack was "only the beginning of a new era in our jihad". Suleiman called for NATO member states to "withdraw their troops from Afghanistan immediately and unconditionally," and to "stop their war against Islam." He also stated that failing to do so would mean that "you'll have no security" and that countries could "expect that we will strike at the heart of Europe."  Note that Western countries frequently state that they are not at war with Islam, yet Islamic terrorists seem to have no problem declaring war on the citizens of Europe.

The latest development of terror threats in Scandinavia clearly shows that terrorism has become a threat not only to the “provocative” Danish but also to Swedish society. Sweden seems to have thought that they were untouchable by terrorists. This has clearly been proven wrong—as was demonstrated when Sweden recently faced its first suicide bombing attack. Let’s hope that 2010 brings a change in the mindset of the Swedish security police and lawmakers. Only a change in understanding and subsequent changes in handling Muslim extremism may put a halt to terrorism—or at least make it harder for terrorists to use Sweden as a safe haven for terrorist activities.

Why bomb Sweden?

The column below was origionally published in the Jerusalem Post and have been republished here with the courtesy of the author Michael Freund

Stockholm this week joined the long and terrifying list of Western cities targeted in recent years by extremist Islamic fundamentalism.

For the first time since the 1970s, the normally tranquil Swedish capital was hit by terror last Saturday, as an apparently botched suicide bombing, which Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said “could have been truly catastrophic”, tore through the central part of the city, injuring two people.

The perpetrator, who died of his wounds, is said to have been an Iraqi-born Swede who immigrated to the country as a child together with his family.

In recent years, according to various media reports, he became increasingly radicalized and may have been linked to Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Moments before the blasts, which aimed to slaughter throngs of Christmas shoppers, the Swedish news agency TT received communications in Arab and Swedish, warning of unspecified "action."

"Our acts will speak for themselves," the messages said, adding that, "now your children, your daughters and your sisters will die as our brothers, our sisters and our children are dying."

They also urged Islamic "mujihadeen" to rise up in Sweden and elsewhere and carry out further attacks.

Despite the chilling familiarity which many of these details share with similar incidents in other parts of Europe, this latest assault by the forces of radical Islam left many people scratching their heads and pondering one simple question: why would anyone target Sweden?

After all, few countries have a reputation as being more tolerant, more open and more accepting than the Nordic kingdom.

Indeed, Sweden is widely viewed as one of the most liberal states on a very liberal continent, with extensive state-sponsored welfare programs and one of the highest levels of social spending as a percentage of GDP in the world.

Notwithstanding their Viking past, the Swedes have also swung open their doors in the past few decades, allowing significant numbers of Muslim immigrants to move to the country.

Sweden, for example, accepted more Iraqi refugees fleeing the chaos after the toppling of Saddam Hussein than any other country in the West.

In April 2008, the mayor of the Swedish town of Sodertalje testified before the US Congress and pointed out that his municipality with just 85,000 residents had absorbed more Iraqi refugees than the United States and Canada combined.

Muslims now constitute 5% of the Swedish population, with growing political and economic clout.

So the question remains: why would extremists hit Sweden?

The mainstream media was quick to offer the standard, and rather uninspired, answers, with the New York Times suggesting that the bomber was “disaffected” and that he had “struggled to find his place” in Swedish society.

That may or may not be true, but there are plenty of outcasts and outsiders in every community, and not all of them strap explosives to their bodies and seek to maim the innocent.

Other media outlets suggested that the presence of 500 Swedish troops in Afghanistan, or a Swedish artist’s 2007 rendering of the founder of Islam in the form of a dog, are what may have sparked the attacker’s fury.

But these explanations just don’t cut it. They all miss the point, one that has been driven home time and again since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

To put it as simply as possible: These attacks have little to do with what the West does, and everything to do with what the West is, and what it represents.

The haters, killers and extremists may seize upon this or that current event as a convenient excuse to justify their actions, but what fuels their extremism in the first place is a world-view that is bent on global Islamic domination.

A clue to this could be found in the threat sent to the Swedish news agency just prior to the Stockholm attack, which said in part, “Now the Islamic state has been created. We now exist here in Europe and in Sweden. We are a reality”.

In other words, the bomber felt himself to be part of a larger movement, one that is seeking not to alter Western policy, but the very identity and nature of the West itself.

So no matter how much some might like to believe that steps such as withdrawing from Afghanistan will appease or address concerns raised by the extremists, they are sadly deluding themselves.

If anything, the Stockholm bombing underlines the need for Western countries to adopt a firmer and more uncompromising stance against radical Islamic fundamentalism.

Sadly, Sweden has not always adhered to that line. Earlier this year, for example, after Israeli forces intercepted the flotilla which was planning to bring supplies to Hamas-controlled Gaza, the Swedish Foreign Minister summoned Israel’s ambassador to demand an explanation. Shortly thereafter, Swedish dockworkers declared a week-long boycott of all Israeli goods and cargo.

And in the fall of 2009, after a popular Swedish newspaper published a blood libel against the Jewish state, accusing IDF troops of killing Palestinians to harvest their organs, the Swedish government rejected Israeli requests to condemn it.

So even as they kowtowed to Islamic extremists such as Hamas, Stockholm simultaneously could not muster support for their more natural ally in the form of democratic Israel.

Sweden’s real “sin”, so to speak, therefore boils down to the old Midrashic dictum found in Kohelet Rabba that he who is kind to the cruel will end up being cruel to the kind.

By failing to take a firmer stance over the years against radical Islamic fundamentalism, and refusing to stand by those such as Israel who suffer at its hands, Sweden’s leaders perhaps thought they would spare themselves the terror being meted out to other European countries.

Last Saturday’s bombing in Stockholm proved just how wrong they could be.

The article can also be found in Jerusalem Post http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=199696

Wiesenthal Center on Malmö: Jews Must Exercise “Extreme Caution"

In his speech to the recent European gathering of European Muslim and Jewish Leaders in Brussels earlier this month, European Jewish Congress President Dr. Moshe Kantor outlined necessary actions to be taken to create a more tolerant Europe. Kantor stated that strong measures—beyond the current legal framework—must prevail against “hate, racism and xenophobia”.

In a meeting with President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, Kantor particularly singled out Malmö as a community where Jews are under such continual pressure that they are moving out.

-       “If Jews are being driven out of parts of Europe once again, this does not bode well for the future of the continent…if the Jews, whose presence in Europe stretches back almost 3,000 years can not feel safe then the new Europe has failed us.”

Well, another confirmation of Malmö’s role as the anti-Semitism capital of Europe was issued yesterday in the form of a travel warning for Jews to use extreme caution when travelling in  Malmö. Top officials of the SWC,  Rabbi Abraham Cooper and Dr. Shimon Samuels conveyed the message directly to Sweden’s Justice Minister Beatrice Ask:

“We reluctantly are issuing this advisory because religious Jews and other members of the Jewish community there have been subject to anti-Semitic taunts and harassment. There have been dozens of incidents reported to the authorities but have not resulted in arrests or convictions for hate crimes”, he added. “A contributing factor to this decision has been the outrageous remarks of Malmo mayor Ilmar Reepalu, who blames the Jewish community for failing to denounce Israel.  The travel advisory urges extreme caution when visiting southern Sweden. It is not connected to last week’s Islamist terrorist bombing in the heart of Stockholm.”

It should be noted that the Swedish Minister of Justice is already familiar with these issues as we reported in March and April of this year. Reepalu had claimed that he could not “legally” aid the Jewish community with security assistance as the members of the small Jewish community struggle to meet the staggering necessary expenses for security at Jewish community premises. It is obvious that the private security is necessary because the local authorities fail to maintain a livable level of public security.

-       “Dr. Samuels urged Sweden to strengthen the security of all Jewish institutions, adding ‘It is unacceptable in a democracy committed to protecting its citizens, that the Swedish Jewish community is forced to pay for necessary upgraded security measures to safeguard their lives and property’. “

Reepalu basically threw the security problem to the national government, asking for them to handle the situation which he could not be bothered with. Beatrice Ask threw the ball back into Reepalu’s court, noting that Malmö had already received additional security funding from the national government.  And, in the meantime, nothing is being done to change the situation in Malmö, which is continuing to deteriorate.

And, as of the writing of this post, none of the major Swedish dailies have mentioned the SWC’s travel advisory. An online check of Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet, and the Local came up with no reference whatsoever to the advisory.

So, there you have it. Malmö has now reached iconic status as the exemplar of a city edging toward “Judenrein” status. But so far the government and the liberal press have decided to ignore what is happening under their noses. You can ignore a problem, but it won’t go away. The SWC disavowed the timing as linked to the Stockholm bombing for the advisory, but there is a linkage. The same liberal Swedish ideology that sympathizes with extremists will end with two separate but related results: persecution of the Jewish population, and local terror.  You can be as liberal as you want, but justifying anti-Semitism and the wanton murder of citizens in the streets is not liberalism—it’s hatred and self-destruction.

Sweden’s policy of misguided sympathies and wishful thinking—which could be described as “be complicit with the illicit and you won’t get hit” –has hit the fan in the reality check. Swedish support for terror-linked organizations has not provided immunity against terror in Sweden’s streets. And as far as Malmö goes, unless the city begins to handle the problem of anti-Semitism, things will only continue to get worse—for Jews and for the rest of the population.

 By: Chanah Shapira

Malmö’s Hate Crime Prevention Forum: More Diatribe than Dialogue

Recently BBC’s reporter Wendy Robbins started her research for a radio show which was to answer the question: “Why are there increasing numbers of attacks on Jews in Europe?” During her visit to Sweden she got a bizarre answer in the Malmö forum, which is tasked with trying to reduce hate crime, including anti-Semitism, in the city.
Robbins visited a number of cities throughout Europe to get a greater understanding of why attacks on Jews are increasing in frequency in Europe. She started her journey in Malmö where she interviewed Saeed Azam, a participant in the forum. This forum was established after statistics revealed that the number of hate crimes (such as anti-Semitism) had doubled during 2009. The idea was to provide a forum which will promote meaningful dialogue among the city’s diverse ethnic groups.


When asked about the Jews’ situation in Malmö, Azam answered that he wanted to do everything in is power to make Jews stay in the city and “even dance for them”. Why? His response was: since Jews “will kill Palestinians if they move to Israel”.


This is exactly the kind of response one might expect—given that Malmö’s Mayor Reepalu has stated that if Jews are suffering in Malmö they can leave, presumably for the State of Israel which he finds so reprehensible. Reepalu and his fellow Social Democrats support anti-Israel organizations with links to terror groups, and many, including Reepalu, fail to distinguish between Israeli government policies with which they disagree and Jews living in Sweden.


In fact, the main perpetrators of anti-Semitic hate crimes in Malmö are members of the Moslem immigrant population, and it’s clear that they are reading Reepalu’s hints. Reepalu in effect has signaled that it’s “understandable” to take out anti-Israel anger on the local Jews. The forum is just a political piece of window-dressing.


As long as the mayor continues to imply that Malmö’s Jews are responsible for the attacks directed against them, the “dialogue” in the forum will consist of the kind of hate-filled diatribes that Azam freely offers to BBC reporter Robbins. It’s no wonder that Robbins began her research right in Malmö, the anti-Semitism capital of Europe.

First Suicide Bomber Attack in Sweden

Aftonbladet's detailed picture of the actual suicide bomber

Yesterday Sweden got first-hand experience with the suicide bomber phenomenon when a man blew himself up in central Stockholm wounding two. Initial reports stated that a car in central Stockholm exploded around 17:00 local time; shortly after that a man was found dead close to the exploded car.  Signs indicate that the attacker attempted to blow himself up following the first exposion.

Gas canisters were later found in the car, and according to investigators it appears that “the explosion was carried out in order to attract police and rescue personnel to the scene”. In other words, the attacker could have meant to cause two attacks, the first targeting shoppers, and the second targeting police and ambulance personnel.

A backpack was found near the dead man that was full of nails—intended to cause more severe injuries—as well as six pipe bombs. Pascal, a medic which who was out shopping with his wife, heard the explosion and ran to the scene. In an interview he states that he “removed the Palestinian scarf from the man’s face and tried to resuscitate him”, yet without success. According to Pascal “it looked like the man had carried something which had exploded against his stomach”. It was in fact one of the six pipe bombs that killed the bomber.

Before the terror attack was carried out a sound file threat was sent to Swedish news agency TT as well as SÄPO. The recording was made by a man stated who that “it is time to strike”—with the justification that the prophet Muhammad has been humiliated  and that there is an ongoing war being waged by the West against Islam.

The man also encouraged other Muslims to “stop sucking up and humiliate themselves”. The bomber apologized to his family for lying about a trip he had made to the Middle East. In the recording he confessed:  “I never went to the Middle East to work or make money, I went for Jihad”.

In the recording the man proclaimed his love for his children and asked his wife to kiss them from him. At the end the man stated that it is Swedish people, Lars Vilks and his Muhammad Cartoons, the Swedish soldiers in Afghanistan and the Swedish people’s silence, which are the reasons for his act.  One of his concluding statements was: “So shall your children, daughters, brothers and sisters die like our brothers and sisters and children die” and lastly he repeated that “the mujahidin should not forget him and should pray for him”. The audio file is in both Swedish and Arabic and is available here: http://bcove.me/jud6qre1

 According to the Swedish Security Police (SÄPO) which deals with counter-terrorism in Sweden, there is still no conclusive evidence that the man has any connections to known terrorist organizations. 

Yet, according to Magnus Ranstorp, Sweden’s leading terrorist expert and professor at the Defense College in Stockholm, the trips made to London and Jordan seem to point towards a distinct possibility that the man was not alone in planning the act. This belief is further strengthened by the advanced pipe bombs found at the scene and the intended dual explosion. Multiple explosions have been carried out in the past, one example being the notorious  Palestinian attack in Jerusalem’s Zion Square in 2001 which killed more than a dozen people and left many more maimed and injured, including rescue personnel. It may turn out that the style of the attacks and the Palestinian-style scarf were less than coincidental.

The initial car bomb

Today Sweden’s Prime Minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, held a press conference in response to the terror attack. According to Reinfeldt, speaking at 13:00 local time, there was “no need to believe that the car blast and the man necessarily had any linkage” He also emphasized that what had happened is “undesirable and unacceptable. It is something that an open society such as Sweden cannot accept”. He also stressed that the Swedish people “shouldn’t come to hasty conclusions”, this even though much prior to Reinfeldt’s statement foreign minister Carl Bildt Twittered that Sweden had been struck by a terror attack . 

The man is still unidentified but is believed to be a man from the town of Tranås in Southern Sweden. The man was in fact the registered owner of the car which exploded minutes before the man himself exploded. On Sunday police were reported as searching the man’s apartment in Tranås and they were 95% certain that the man who owned the car and the suicide bomber where the same man.

According to Sweden’s English language daily, the Local, a Facebook page believed to belong to the bomber indicated that he supported violent struggle. He had also posted numerous videos relating to the Iraq war, the war in Chechnya and the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay. According to the Local, “His favorite pages on Facebook included ‘Yawm al-Qiyaamah’, the Islamic ‘Day of Resurrection’. The page’s signature image features London’s Tower Bridge being engulfed in flames and floods. Another favorite page was the ‘Islamic Caliphate State’.”

The man was apparently also active on Muslim dating sites where he was looking for a second wife. In a posted message he claims that he was born in Iraq and moved to Sweden in 1992.

Despite Reinfeldt’s hesitation, it is clear that Sweden has experienced its first attack by  Muslim Jihadist suicide bomber. Swedish Police currently believe that the man’s bomb may have detonated too early—which is one of the reasons as to why only two people sustained light injuries as a result of the blast. The man exploded in one of the most crowded streets in central Stockholm, targeting Stockholm’s major shopping district in the evening when many Swedes were out Christmas shopping. It is quite clear that the man aimed at causing as much “collateral damage” as possible.

Now more than ever, it is time for Sweden to wake up and realize that Sweden is not safe from the terrorist phenomenon which plagues the world today. In fact, no country which harbors a large unassimilated Muslim population is immune from these attacks.

Hopefully, as a result of this failed terror attack Swedish leaders who have been in denial will now see the threat and react appropriately. It’s time to take active steps towards halting Swedish governmental financial support for terror-linked organizations, and to stop providing a safe haven for terrorists in Sweden.

Anti-Semitic Attack in Göteborg

The Coordination Forum for Countering Anti-Semitism (CFCA) recently reported that a WIZO (Women's International Zionist Organization) bazaar held in Sweden’s second largest city, Göteborg, was the target of an anti-Semitic verbal assault. This was yet another hate crime incident.


The WIZO bazaar is an annual event held in support of Israel and is run by the ladies of the local WIZO chapter. The CFCA noted that the event is “well-known and advertised in the local newspaper”. While people were lining up to get in to the Jewish Community center, a car with three Middle Eastern men pulled up in front of the crowd and shouted "Dö, jävla judar dö" (Die, f***king Jews die).


This extremely public display of anti-Semitism—which constituted yet another incident of hate crime—has not been reported in the Swedish media. The fact that this kind of hate speech and intimidation was of no interest, and in no way constituted “news” arguably shows that harassment of Jews is of no interest to the Swedish public—it’s just business as usual.

WikiLeaks’ Latest & Sweden’s Spin on Cablegate

The latest release of U.S. documents by self-styled whistle-blower, Julian Assange covers a wide range of policy discussions, as summarized by U.S. State Department officials and diplomatic personnel in internal cable correspondence.  In fact, the scope of the material allows for not one, but two levels of revelation, the first being the actual WikiLeaks material, and the second being the bias of the news agency covering the leaks, as there is lots of room to pick and choose.

For example, the Local, Sweden’s English-language daily, discussed the impact of the leaks on diplomacy in very general terms. The article is based largely on the responses of Rolf Ekéus, former Swedish ambassador to Washington, to the release of the diplomatic cables.

-“Ekéus said he feared WikiLeaks' publication of confidential diplomatic correspondence could result in fewer contacts being willing to provide diplomats with vital information.”

The Local notes that the relatively small amount of information dealing with Sweden includes “observations that Sweden was the leader of a handfull [sic] of European countries to oppose sanctions on Iran at a meeting in Brussels in 2009.” Note this symptom of denial.

On the various issues raised by the WikiLeaks publication, the Local breezes over substantial issues and eschews delving into details, merely saying that:

 -“Particular matters of interest to [Ekéus] were new details about the Koreas, Middle East and EU, as well as judgments on Russia and world leaders that have not been previously reported.

  “To Ekéus, the most surprising revelations in the documents were the ‘great nervousness’ expressed about the Iranian nuclear programme and whether it is moving towards manufacturing weapons.”

“Whether” Iran is moving towards nuclear weapons development? Is this really a question?

Cablegate reveals the extent that the Swedish press and the “official line” expressed by Ekéus differs from reality. In fact, the true picture shown in the cables is that leaders of several Arab states actively and repeatedly sought U.S. military action against Iran. The material was less than surprising for those who follow the Israeli press and other (non-Swedish) sources.  For quite some time the Israeli leadership has been saying publicly that the Arab world is just as unhappy as Israel is regarding Iran’s nuclear program.  The cables confirm that there has been a huge gap between the public and closed-door statements of Arab regimes regarding Iran. Even Ekéus’ characterization of “great nervousness” about Iran implies a hand-wringing attitude—which is a far cry from the Saudis urging the U.S. to “cut off the head of the snake”. 

The Swedish media is not alone in the whitewashing of these home truths about the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran. The left-leaning New York Times in an initial report completely omitted the Saudi call to take out Iranian nuclear facilities, although, unlike the Local, it did note that:

-“Saudi donors remain the chief financiers of Sunni militant groups like Al Qaeda, and the tiny Persian Gulf state of Qatar, a generous host to the American military for years, was the ‘worst in the region’ in counterterrorism efforts.”

Admitting that terror is literally “fueled” by barrels of Saudi oil money flies in the face of the accepted leftist line that terror is the desperate choice of the downtrodden, and that revolution—Islamic or otherwise—is the uprising of the disadvantaged.  It’s a good guess that that’s why the Ekéus and the Local—which has been referred to as “Aftonbladet in English”—failed to give readers the substantive issues. 

By: Chanah Shapira

Justice Minister: Malmö Police Failed to Defend Pro-Israel Demonstrators from Illegal Mob Attack in 2009

In January of 2009, in response to Israel’s operation in Gaza, the Jewish community in Malmö organized a small demonstration in support of Israel’s right to self-defense and secured a permit to hold the demonstration. The demonstrators were peaceful and acting within their legal right when an illegal mob attacked the demonstration in the central town square. The pro-peace demonstrators were forced to flee the scene, but now the police admit that they were too passive when handling the illegal mob.

The legal pro-Israeli demonstration, ended abruptly after an angry—and considerably larger—mob had thrown eggs, stones and even fired rockets against the peaceful demonstration. Demonstrators, including elderly citizens from the Jewish community in Malmö, some of them Holocaust survivors, were compelled by the police, to flee the scene while being harangued with  anti-Semitic curse words.  Some of these elderly citizens have stated that the atmosphere was similar to that which they had experienced in Nazi Germany. 

The incident was reported to the Swedish Justice Minister who now—almost one years later—levels criticism against the action (or lack thereof) taken by the local police. In the local newspaper Sydsvenskan a quote from Justice Minister reads:

“I note the constitutionally-protected right to demonstrate, including the right to organize a counter-demonstration, but not the right to prevent the main demonstration from conveying its message. The police efforts should therefore have primarily focused on the disturbing counter-demonstrators”.

Another conclusion was that such protection might be costly but that the freedom of expression needs to be supported in a democracy, and that such behavior therefore should not be tolerated at any cost.

The demonstration is one in a row of assaults that the Jewish community has faced in the recent past. Yesterday the local newspaper Sydsvenskan ran a piece on Malmö’s Chabad rabbi, Shneur Kesselman, who is constantly faced with anti-Semitic attacks and abuse.

Kesselman states in the interview that he never feels safe in the streets of Malmö. Just in this past year he has had some (at least) 70 experiences of anti-Semitic hate crime directed towards him.  People constantly scream “fucking Jew”, “yahood” and other anti-Semitic curses at him in the streets as well as spitting and throwing cans and apple cores at him. At this point he avoids taking the bus. He also tells the reporter that he has a hard time explaining to his children why people always are spitting after them or screaming curses.

It is sad to realize how much time has gone by and that so little, if anything, has been done to counter this ongoing problem. If Ilmar Reepalu, Malmö’s Social Democrat mayor, claimed in 2009 that he had no idea that there was anti-Semitic hate crime in Malmö, this year he has no such excuse—yet Malmö’s Jews aren’t feeling safer and the abuses continues… 

Jewish Pro-Israeli Blogger Battered in Norrköping

On Monday evening a Jewish man was attacked in his own home in Norrköping. The perpetrators were two Arab men who managed to force entry into the man’s apartment where they attacked him with a wine bottle.

The attack was published in a local newspaper Monday evening and read:

“Just before 18:30 police and ambulance were called to the scene of an assault in an apartment on Trädgårdsgatan in Norrköping. Two perpetrators dressed in black and with hoods are stated to have entered an apartment and assaulted a person with a wine bottle”.

According to veteran blogger Hans C. Pettersson who writes the “Jihad I Malmö” blog the assault was purely anti-Semitic—due to the fact that the victim was a Jew who was actively and positively blogging about Israel. Pettersson also interviewed the victim who told him:

-“The first thing I heard was “Jew pig”; I was then beaten on the head with a wine bottle 4-5 times…”

The victim also said that a noise from the staircase made the attackers flee the scene while screaming “Yahood” (‘Jew’ in Arabic). When he came back from the hospital he also saw that the two men had tried to rip out his mezuzah from the doorpost.

It is still not known who the perpetrators of the attack are; the victim has reached out to the Pettersson and the readers of “Jihad in Malmö” and wants people who might have heard someone bragging about the attack to call the local Norrköping police at 011-23 63 00.

The description of the two men according to the victim is:

-Two men with Arabic accent, between 180-185 cm, brown eyes, who might have been seen running down Trädgårdsgatan alongside the tram tracks.

Andreas Lovén on the Current Situation for Malmö’s Jews

Andreas Lovén is the Swedish journalist from Skånska Dagladet, who started a heated national debate in January of this year by discussing the increased number of anti-Semitic attacks in Malmö in print. Skånska Dagbladet’s series attracted international attention and put Mayor Ilmar Reepalu in the hotseat for not one, but a series of inconvenient statements relating to the issue. It has now been almost a year since Lovén broke the story. Recently, Lovén elaborated on the current situation for Malmö’s Jews, which he claims hasn’t improved.

Andreas Lovén decided to run an op-ed in Dagens Nyheter following the recent episode in Höllviken, not far from Malmö, where Jewish children were attacked by youngsters who threw eggs and yelled anti-Semitic insults. In his article Lovén reflected on the situation for Malmö’s Jews, and wondered if after this year’s focus on the rising number of anti-Semitic hate crimes in the city has made any difference for Jews in Malmö.  

Lovén notes his series on hate crimes against Jews led to increased national, as well as international attention to the problem. As a result, the attacks against Jews in Malmö finally were finally acknowledged in public discourse. He also mentions that, strikingly enough, attacks on Malmö’s rabbi as well as on Jewish football players in public, had never been something that the local newspaper would consider newsworthy.

But has a positive change taken place in Malmö? According to Lovén this is not the case.  Responses to the article series were, according to Lovén, mainly negative. Colleagues from both his own newspaper as well as others in the media constantly questioned the truth of the stories.  He also states that shortly after the first article was published he got an email from a prominent Social Democrat in Skåne that read:

“A part of the population in Malmö which is of Jewish descent lives like a king on a throne. They are Zionists with all what that includes (…) Let these people emigrate to Israel and settle down in a castle on occupied land.”

According to Lovén many reacted the same way and people with leftist sympathies completely turned their backs against him. The strong reaction from the Left was something he had not expected; he was disappointed that the Left, which is supposed to oppose discrimination and bigotry.

Showing again that this is not the case, Lovén recalls a recent conversation with two men from the Muslim majority neighborhood of Rosengård where the pair claimed that a locally known Social Democrat tried to gain votes “by calling the Liberal Party the ‘Jew party’ and promised economic support to Gaza in the event that the Social Democrats won the elections.”

In his op-ed Lovén also touches upon the fact that Ilmar Reepalu has managed to play a part in aggravating the situation by not managing to differentiate between the situation in Malmö and the conflict in the Middle East. He writes:

“What Ilmar Reeplau thinks about the Jew’s exposure in Malmö I can only guess. It is not realistic to think that he is anti-Semitic but the fact that he cannot separate Malmö from the Middle East is bad enough… In a recording Ilmar Reepalu called Israel’s politics an abscess; he also equated Zionism with anti-Semitism”.  

A dialogue forum was recently initiated to better the situation for the Jews and has been accredited to Mayor Reepalu. Nonetheless, Lovén notes that:

“The idea originally came from the Imam Saeed Azam, chairman of the newly founded Fatwa Council and member of the dialogue forum”.

Moreover, according to Lovén the forum was forced into creation by the Social Democrats’ former leader Mona Sahlin.

Lovén’s op-ed comes as a reminder that there is still much to be done about the Jews’ situation in Malmö. In the beginning of the year more attention was focused on the problem but it doesn’t appear that any real change has taken place. The continuing attacks are proof that the proposed “solution” has been ineffective.  

At the end of Lovén’s op-ed he notes that it doesn’t help that Malmö’s schools recently denied the introduction of a curriculum that was to educate Malmö’s students about the evils of anti-Semitism. According to Lovén, the Swedish Committee Against Anti-Semitism (SKMA) recently renewed their offer but it was declined again as Malmö teachers “were busy with the upcoming curriculum”.  Lovén accepts this excuse without comment.

Obviously Lovén identified a problem which is difficult for Swedes to discuss. There is a blatant conflict between the idea of Swedes as liberal and tolerant, while anti-Semitism on the other hand even erupts from the Left.  

There is also the fact that having largely adopted the Islamic and Palestinian victim narratives to define what happens in the Middle East, the Left cannot or will not see that Muslims can be oppressors.  But when we look at massacres of Christians in Iraq, the persecution of Copts in Egypt, or Muslims in Malmö—pelting Jews at a peaceful demonstration with bottles, stones, and firecrackers; trying to run the rabbi over on the street; or harassing those who identify openly as Jews, we see that there are Muslims who can be hate mongers. Yet very few in Swedish society dare to say this.

Between the fear and the hypocrisy, it seems that Malmö still has a long way to go when it comes to halting anti-Semitic attacks. It’s a constant uphill battle when Mayor Reepalu is leading the fight—because he’s neither willing nor brave enough.

More Swedish Terror—Abroad and Right at Home

As reported in both the Local and the Stockholm News, the Swedish Foreign Ministry has confirmed that a Swedish national of Tunisian origin has committed a suicide bombing in Iraq.  Details are yet unclear, but a website linked with al-Qaeda had details posted regarding the 36-year-old Stockholm resident.  Apparently the bombing occurred in the city of Mosul, and several people were killed.  The information posted indicates that the man traveled to Iraq with the express intent of dying as terrorist martyr.


As the Stockholm News notes:
-“He is now hailed as a martyr and hero for this deed on Islamic websites.”
No surprises here; it’s obvious that the terrorist network is self-congratulatory.
Nonetheless, it is truly upsetting that “Anna” his Swedish wife, the mother of his four young children, knew that he left on this mission and approved of his plans.  She reported that she was informed of his death by telephone.  She describes the exchange:


-“There was a man who called me. He said very short: ‘Your husband is dead. He has become a martyr.’ And hung up,” she told the newspaper [Expressen].
 “What he has done is right. I’m proud of him.”


In another story, a bomb went off in the early hours this morning in Malmö’s Rosengård district.  There were no injuries, but there was extensive damage to an eight-story building, when the bomb destroyed a convenience store. The explosive material was apparently placed outside the building. (As opposed to the explosion which occurred this year at Malmö’s synagogue, the police characterized the device used in today’s attack as “no firecrackers”.)


The thread linking these two cases is the mentality of acceptance –and even approval—in some circles in Sweden for this kind of terrorist behavior.  In the case of the suicide bomber, his wife “Anna”, apparently a native Swede, has abandoned basic Western principles of rational behavior and not only failed to prevent her husband from succeeding in his murderous mission, but actually approves of this kind of act perpetuated in Iraq.


Similarly, the total ineptitude of Malmö mayor Ilmar Reepalu, and his abysmal failure to maintain law and order in Rosengård and the rest of Malmö is in a large part responsible for the lawless climate in which today’s explosion took place.   Reepalu has in the past condoned Islamic lawlessness and hate crime directed against Jews in Malmö, justifying these crimes the basis of political ideology. When the law isn’t the law and murderous behavior is accepted as the “cultural norm” of other “equally valid” cultures, this is the result.
Unless the authorities begin to publically repudiate the terrorist ideology behind this kind of criminal activity, it will only get worse.


By: Chanah Shapira

How Did Former Nazi Become Candidate for Southern Swedish Communal Council?

According to the anti-racist magazine Expo, an unnamed former Nazi who “previously has been engaged in NSF- National Socialistic Front” (Nationalsocialistisk front) activities, was never entered on the party lists in the communal elections. Instead, he was elected via 23 blank Sweden Democrat (SD) ballots in Ronneby commune which is located in the southern part of Sweden.

For those unfamiliar with parliamentary voting, this means that the 23 votes he received were not enough to get him a seat in the communal council, but he was eligible should others with more votes drop out. Lo and behold, a series of SD individuals have left the council and some space has opened up for this write-in candidate to take a seat on the council.

According to local SD representatives, the former Nazi is not welcome on the council. Local SD representative Richard Jomshof made this statement to local newspaper Blekinke läns tidning disassociating SD from the “candidacy” of the former Nazi:

- “He has absolutely nothing to do with our party. We don’t share the same values and therefore he cannot represent us. It is sad that this group can’t manage to get in by itself”.

The same article notes that the man in question actually has a criminal past; as an ex-Nazi he ran for the former National Socialist Front in Karlskrona, and was fined for “breaching the Public Order Act in connection with the demonstrations. He has also been sentenced to prison as part of a series of thefts in Blekinge.”

Blekinge läns tidning, notes that he does not seem too eager to become the SD local representative for Ronneby commune. In fact, he denies that he had anything to do with the voting, and is not seeking political office.

One must wonder how the local elections authority failed to disqualify votes for someone with a Nazi and criminal background. Also, the article quoted here does not give the name of the “candidate”. One wonders why this information is withheld. Is it perhaps because the individual is notorious enough to be a serious embarrassment to the authorities? 

Fortunately for the elections authorities and the citizens, Mr. X. Nazi is not interested in the office. Fortunate too, that he is on the right of the spectrum, and in local politics so he can be disposed of easily.

Those on the left, such as flotilla activist Mehmet Kaplan, can also be on the scene at violent protests—those of pipe- and knife-wielding IHH jihadists on the aid-free Mavi Marmara. But in Sweden, when you associate yourself with the perpetrators of serious violence acting on behalf of the genocidal Hamas regime, you still can keep your serious job in the national parliament. In Ronneby, it’s win one, lose one.

More Palestinian News You Don’t Get in Sweden

A similar post was run a while back, just to show that there is a whole range of news that never makes it into the mainstream media in Sweden. As readers know, the MSM in Sweden is very selective—they select only the items and the facts that fit their ideology.  So here are a few quick items to illustrate what’s missing in Aftonbladet and its fellow mainstream media pals.

Item # 1: Here is a photo which was taken just this week. Many have heard about the building freeze in the “territories”—well, this is some new construction that popped up recently south of Jerusalem.  Before anyone starts ranting about settler imperialism and how Jews are living it up at the expense of the Palestinians, let me just say that this is 100% non-frozen new Arab housing. Yes, this palatial example of Palestinian architecture is located on the eastern edge of the Arab village of Husan on the Beitar Road. Take a drive and check it out! It’s a positively eye-popping 7-story extravaganza in gleaming white stone, or as they would call it in Aftonbladet, another example of the squalid hovels of the dispossessed (no photos, please).

It’s very politically incorrect to point out that there are substantial numbers of prosperous Palestinians, but it’s true. The Foreign Policy Digest notes that:

-“While the global economic recovery remains sluggish, the economy of the Palestinian Territories is growing at a breakneck pace. In 2009, as American Gross Domestic Product (GDP) shrank by 2.6%, the West Bank’s estimated growth rate of 7% outpaced all but ten countries worldwide. Given that the West Bank’s GDP growth rate reached 9% in the first half of 2010, its economic expansion shows few signs of slowing. The strength of the economy has also led to tangible improvements in the daily lives of some Palestinians.”

In this case, “some” would refer to the owner of the house, the contractors, laborers, and suppliers of construction materials, home furnishings, appliances, and other goods to fill this luxury home.

Item # 2: Barry Rubin, director of the Global Research in International Affairs Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs reflected on the legacy of Yasser Arafat in his Jerusalem Post column this week. Not surprisingly the Swedish media did not pick up this item nor did they take the opportunity to look back at Arafat on the sixth anniversary of his death. Aftonbladet, Dagens, and Svenska Dagbladet all failed to mark the date. Rubin notes:

-“Today, the Arafat era’s lessons have been largely swept under the rug: his persistent mendacity, use of terrorism, cynical exploitation of an ‘underdog’ posture to garner sympathy and unfailing devotion to the dream of wiping Israel off the map. The placing of that last priority over creating a Palestinian state is why there is none today.”

It’s important to remember that Arafat’s popularity amongst Euro-leftists was more Euro chic than substance, remarks Rubin:

-“a British reporter who revered him admitted that Arafat didn’t have support from his people. ‘Foreign journalists,’ she recounted, ‘seemed much more excited about Mr. Arafat’s fate than anyone in Ramallah.’

“At the time of his death he was more popular in France, where almost half the population saw Arafat as a great national hero, than among his own people. In a June 2004 poll, only 23.6 percent of Palestinians named him as the leader they most trusted.”

Perhaps it’s time for Swedes to realize that although they find revolutionaries romantic, real life with terrorists is less than charming.

Item #3:  Free speech got smacked down in the West Bank when it clashed with Islamist sensibilities, as the CP and other sources reported this week. A man from the PA town of Qalkiliya was arrested on charges of blasphemy, “illustrating a new trend by authorities in the Arab world to mine social media for evidence.”

Here is another case where life in the near-state of Palestine is much less appealing than left-wing apologists would have you believe. Although the leftist media is quick to portray alleged Israeli “occupation” as a threat to Palestinian freedom, this case vividly shows how “living free” in the PA is definitely less free than the life of Arab Israelis, who can say whatever they want against Israel.

Now, this man—who used an anonymous account at the local café may receive a “potential life prison sentence on heresy charges for ‘insulting the divine essence.’”

But there’s more:

-“Many in this conservative Muslim town say that isn't enough, and suggested he should be killed for renouncing Islam. Even family members say he should remain behind bars for life.

-"’He should be burned to death,’ said Abdul-Latif Dahoud, a 35-year-old Qalqiliya resident. The execution should take place in public ‘to be an example to others,’ he added.”

It all goes to show you, Sweden, real life is just not as simple as it looks in the pages of Aftonbladet.

By: Chanah Shapira

In Response to Dror Feiler’s Comments to Sweden Israel and the Jews Blog

This week a blogpost was published on the attempt of Ship to Gaza activists Dror Feiler and Swedish MP Mehmet Kaplan to enter Israel, and their subsequent deportation. Israel had requested that they apply to appeal the 10-year entry ban imposed on all flotilla participants; Feiler and Kaplan both failed to do so. We received a comment from Feiler (below) asserting that, contrary to the statement released by the Israeli Interior Ministry, he had never signed a statement agreeing to the entry ban:

I would like to inform you and your reders [sic] that I never signed any document during my forced stay in Israel in May/June (after being forced into Israel). All such statements will be chalanched [sic] in Israeli courts and the Israeli authorities will ave [sic] to show those none [sic] existing documents.

We point out again that Feiler, having renounced his Israeli citizenship, is subject to the rules of entry that any sovereign state may impose on foreign nationals seeking entry. Again, Feiler failed to apply for an exemption to the entry ban at the Israeli embassy in Sweden where he resides, a fact which he does not deny.

In my conversation today with Israeli Ministry of the Interior spokeswoman Sabine Haddad, she reaffirmed that all the flotilla participants signed a statement acknowledging the 10-year entry ban prior to their release. Additionally, she pointed out that Irish activist and flotilla participant Mairead Maguire was denied entry to Israel in September; Feiler and Kaplan certainly knew this ban applied to them as well.

Feiler is free to contradict the Ministry statements and pretend that he is seeking justice instead of publicity, but in any case, Israel as a sovereign state must reserve the right to deny access to those who ally themselves with the Hamas regime in Gaza.

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated:

“Hamas is guilty of at least four war crimes: inciting to genocide; systematically and intentionally firing on civilians; using civilians as human shields; and preventing visits by the Red Cross to kidnapped IDF soldier, Gilad Shalit.”

In the light of these and other documented crimes committed by Hamas, especially the ongoing detention of Gilad Shalit, complaints regarding their justifiable arrest and generous release—as Feiler and Kaplan were abetting Israel’s genocidal enemy—are merely the petty provocation of hypocrites.

By: Chanah Shapira

Defeated Mona Sahlin Resigns as Party Leader of the Social Democrats

Yesterday it was announced that Mona Sahlin, Member of Parliament since1982 and party leader of the Social Democrats since 2007, has decided to resign from her position as party leader. 

The decision seems to be based mostly on the losses the party has experienced in the past two elections.  Additionally, a number of long-time Social Democrats were among those voters who made a radical shift and voted for the extreme-right Sweden Democrats.

The decision to resign was not only Sahlin’s; it has been acknowledged that her party comrades encouraged her to resign. The Social Democrats faced the worst election results in almost a century, losing even further ground as the Red-Green coalition of Social Democrats and Greens garnered only 156 votes, 17 fewer than the victorious Moderate-dominated alliance. It is obvious that Sahlin can take much responsibility for the erosion of the Social Democrats long-term hold on the Swedish political leadership. This was obvious to regional party leadership—before this past weekend seven party districts were prepared to demand her resignation.

The following is a brief list of Mona Sahlin’s (anti-) Israel policies and activities during her time as party leader for the Social Democrats:

·      Visited and gave legitimacy  to the Hamas leadership in Gaza, 2007

·      Condemned Israel for using “exaggerated violence” in the Gaza War, 2009

·      Condemned Israel in a Fatah congress in Bethlehem and expressed her support for the Palestinians,  2009

·      Participated in an anti-Israeli rally in response to the War in Gaza where “where the Jewish state's flag was burned while those of Hamas and Hezbollah were waved”, 2009

·      Defended Malmö’s Mayor Ilmar Reepalu’s anti-Semitic remarks concerning the Jews in Malmö, 2010 

Given Mona Sahlin’s record, as she has always been a strong opponent of Israel, her resignation can be nothing but positive for future political relations between Sweden and Israel.