WSJ har en ledare om vårt stolta lands beslut att acceptera Palestina som stat.. en liten inblick i hur vi ter oss från utsidan ... WALL STREET JOURNAL - OPINION Sweden’s ‘State of Palestine’ Offense Before the rest of the European Union follows suit, members may want to consider the Swedes’ history. By BARRY A. FISHER And PETER SICHROVSKY Nov. 16, 2014 6:14 p.m. ET Sweden’s new Social Democratic-Green Party coalition government on Oct. 30 officially recognized “the State of Palestine,” over the opposition of Israel, the U.S. and other nations. Sweden did so even though the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians is founded on the tenet that a lasting peace must be the result of a negotiated settlement, not unilateral actions. Nor does Palestine meet the traditional criteria for recognition as a state, such as exercising effective and independent governmental control over a defined territory and population. Sweden is now the first European Union member to recognize Palestine. No doubt the controversial step drew added attention because of Sweden’s image as a principled, evenhanded nation, a leader in international policy. Is Sweden’s recognition of Palestine consistent with this image, or does it reflect a less benign historical reality? The latter appears closer to the truth. In 1937, as Jews were fleeing persecution, Sweden enacted an anti-Jewish law prohibiting kosher meat preparation—a law that is still on the books. In 2001 Sweden passed a law limiting the Jewish practice of ritual circumcision of newborns—a move that the World Jewish Congress called “the first legal restriction on Jewish religious practice in Europe since the Nazi era.” In 2010 the Jewish Daily Forward in New York reported that Swedish Parliament members attended rallies where anti-Semitic and anti-Israel displays were in evidence, including the burning of Israeli flags and the waving of banners for the terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah. In 2012 Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, said that Sweden had become “a center of anti-Semitism.” A 2013 report by the Coordination Forum for Countering Antisemitism, a clearinghouse established by the Israeli government, found “a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents reported in Sweden,” including a 40% rise in the first half of the year. For the spring and summer of 2014, CFCA reports, for example, that a youth center in southern Sweden was vandalized and sprayed with anti-Semitic graffiti, a Jewish man in Malmo was beaten with iron pipes for hanging the Israeli flag from his window and a Jewish woman in a suburb of Uppsala was severely beaten for wearing a Star of David. During World War II, the country served as a haven for Jews evacuated from Denmark in 1943. Jews have long honored Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, posted in Budapest, for saving many of Hungary’s Jews during World War II. Yet Sweden’s treatment of Jews up to and during World War II was often anything but principled and accommodating. In 1685, King Charles XI prohibited Jews from residing in Sweden “on account of the danger of the eventual influence of the Jewish religion on the pure evangelical faith.” By 1800 Jews could live in Sweden, but under numerous restrictions. Equal-rights legislation didn’t come until 1910. Formally neutral, Sweden became a de facto ally in the Nazi war effort. Like Switzerland, it was a recipient of Nazi-looted gold. One of Nazi Germany’s biggest trading partners, it was a large supplier of high-grade iron ore to the German steel industry, and of war-critical manufactures like ball bearings. Switzerland allowed its territory to be crossed by the Nazis for shipping war supplies to and from Italy and for Jews from Italy being sent to their death. Sweden similarly permitted transit for German armies on their way to fight in Russia and to occupy Norway. The Swedish navy escorted German military supply ships, while Swedish industry helped the Germans make up for the losses suffered from Allied bombing raids. Germany had interests in Swedish companies during the war, and Sweden enforced their Jewish employment exclusion. Even after the war, Sweden dragged out negotiations with the Allies to restore looted gold. Arguing that it was not accountable for gold acquired before a 1943 declaration invalidating wartime asset transfers in occupied countries, Sweden was able to postpone until 1955 millions of dollars in Dutch gold restitution. The lawyers (including a co-author of this piece, Barry A. Fisher) and organizations involved in bringing lawsuits in the U.S. against Swiss banks and others for their Holocaust-era activities also had Swedish Nazi-profiteering industry as a target for litigation. But controversies about the Swiss, German and Austrian industries cases and their eventual settlement resulted in decisions to leave Sweden alone. Its undeserved image of purity remained largely intact. In this context, perhaps Sweden’s recent willingness to officially recognize the “state” of Palestine is not so surprising. In the past few weeks, French socialist lawmakers have reportedly begun preparing a bill to recognize Palestine, and Britain’s House of Commons passed a nonbinding motion urging government recognition of a Palestinian state. The Spanish Parliament is expected to do the same this week. Britain, France and Spain would do well to ponder the Swedish example before following it. Mr. Fisher, a human-rights attorney, was a lawyer in the Swiss, German and Austrian Holocaust-related U.S. litigation. Mr. Sichrovsky, a former diplomat and European Parliament member, is an Austrian journalist and writer online.wsj/articles/barry-fisher-and-peter-sichrovsky-swedens-state-of-palestine-offense-1416179645
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 16:45:57 +0000
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