Sweden investigating Israeli death threats against its foreign minister

Ali Abunimah 29 January 2016

Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström.

Ryan Brown UN Women

Swedish security officials are investigating Israeli death threats directed at their foreign minister Margot Wallström.

Last week, Zvi Zameret, a former official of Israel’s education ministry, published an article in Hebrew implying that Wallström deserved the same fate as Count Folke Bernadotte, a Swedish UN diplomat murdered by a Zionist militia in 1948.

“There are security people looking at this issue and we have no more comment than that,” Wallström’s spokesperson Kristian Brangenfeldt told the Swedish publication Etc.

“But I know which article you mean,” Brangenfeldt added in reference to Zameret’s op-ed, “and it felt very strange.”

The Swedish foreign ministry did not respond to a request for additional comment from The Electronic Intifada.

Persona non grata

Wallström has raised the ire of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for suggesting that there should be an investigation into Israel’s frequent killings of Palestinian youths that human rights groups term extrajudicial executions.

The Israeli leader recently denounced Wallström’s comments as “outrageous and stupid.”

Wallström also angered the Israelis by connecting the kind of radicalization behind the November attacks in Paris that killed 130 people to the situation in the Middle East, “where not least, the Palestinians see that there is not a future.”

Sweden was already in Israel’s bad books for announcing in 2014 that it would recognize the “State of Palestine” (I strongly criticized this action, but for other reasons).

Earlier this month, Wallström cancelled a visit to Israel after officials said they would refuse to meet her.

“Inspiration”

The article by Zvi Zameret, headlined “Margot Wallström’s source of inspiration,” was published in Makor Rishon, a paper owned by US billionaire Sheldon Adelson, a major financier of the Republican Party and anti-Palestinian organizations.

Folke Bernadotte was a Swedish aristocrat and diplomat who helped rescue thousands of Jews and others from Nazi death camps during the Second World War.

Later, he became the UN mediator for Palestine. He was assassinated in Jerusalem on 17 September 1948 by the Stern Gang, the Zionist armed group among whose leaders was Yitzhak Shamir, a future prime minister of Israel.

In the article, translated for Mondoweiss by Jonathan Ofir, Zameret lists Bernadotte’s supposed transgressions in the eyes of the Zionist movement and then turns his fire on Wallström: “The Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström, with her characteristic covert anti-Semitism, with her arrogance, ignorance, and her interest-bound speculation regarding her future Muslim voters – she too seeks to fight the foundations of the State of Israel. I am convinced and certain that her intentions will smoulder, just as all of the undignified count’s [Bernadotte] intentions did.”

Zameret has denied that his article was an implicit endorsement of violence against Wallström, but Swedish officials will be concerned because of high profile assassinations of the country’s political leaders in recent decades.

In 2003, Wallström’s predecessor Anna Lindh was murdered while out shopping in Stockholm. Her killer, Swedish citizen Mijailo Mijailović, is serving a life sentence.

In February 1986, the country’s Prime Minister Olof Palme was shot dead while walking home with his wife from a cinema in the Swedish capital.

His murder has never been solved, but among the many theories pursued by investigators over the years is that it was linked to South Africa’s apartheid regime, of which Palme was an outspoken international critic at the time.

Incitement

Zameret’s article came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had turned his anger on Wallström.

It also comes amid an atmosphere of incitement against domestic and international critics of Israel’s violent repression against Palestinians.

Last month, the Israeli right-wing group Im Tirzu released a report calling on the Israeli government to shut down human rights organizations that receive foreign funding and criticize Israeli policies.

Im Tirzu also released a video that labels the heads of four major Israeli human rights groups as traitors who aid terrorists at the behest of their foreign bankrollers.

It should be recalled that rising incitement preceded the 1995 assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by the Jewish militant Yigal Amir. This included Rabin frequently being called a traitor for signing the 1993 Oslo accords with the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Many in Israel still feel Netanyahu himself played a direct role in this incitement.

Now, a 2012 video has come to light titled “PM Netanyahu’s message to ‘Im Tirtzu’ supporters.” It features the Israeli prime minister praising the group and urging donations to support it.

Chemi Shalev, the US editor of the Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz, tweeted the video on Friday with this comment: “Making the rounds (and turning stomachs) 2012 Netanyahu appeal in English to support proto-fascist Im Tirzu.”

It is one more indicator that incitement and extremism in Israel are not marginal phenomena but are nurtured at the very top.

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Comments

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Hans Coché replied on

Israel has been a rogue state since its inception and has assassinated many westerners and has killed many by blatantly killing, bombing etc. They should be completely boycotted by all countries.

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Ziyad replied on

Whenever these Zionist thugs are questioned about their illegal and immoral acts, they lash back with anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. Let not the world be deceived by this, and judge by their criminal acts. They try all means to legititimate land grab and expel Palestinians. This process is now exacerbated by Netanyahu, who is a known racist leading the illegal enterprise with his fascist ideologues. They should be confronted with all means, as they are a threat to humanity. The time has come to use brute force to kick them out from stolen land. Let the whole world declare they will not get an inch of their illegal settlements they are trying to legitimize.

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Lilly Muenster replied on

We Non-Zionists Jews...Moral Jews...will be safer and more respected in this world when Zionism is defeated, just as Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Fascist Japan were defeated.
Zionism is NOT Judaism. Judaism is NOT Zionism, just as the Klan is not Protestant Christianity.
Zionism is FIRST the enemy of Jews who love peace, justice, and civility.
We Moral Jews grieve for the millions who have been murdered by the Zionists.
Join us in the BDS Movement. Speak up for Justice. If you are a moral person, you will oppose the evil which is Zionism.

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Jonathan Atkinson replied on

Zion in a Proper religious term means " The pure in Heart" In my Church The Church of Jesus Christ of latter Day Saints we have Stakes of Zion meaning Geographical areas where LDS members meet. Clearly the Israelis are far from this, not all of them obviously but in my experience the good and decent Jews help or are sympathetic the the Palestinians whether Christian or Muslim. It is America that is the lever that will tip the balance of Israel's influence I just can't understand the average American Tax Payer being so willing to let there hard earned Dollars going to a Fascist (for want of a better word) organization I know that it is public information for people to find out what their state pays out each month or year to that place. I am ashamed that my own country England doe's not Boycott the whole of Israel I object but? where as in America I am sure that action by state by state would have more effect hopefully. To be honest I am quite surprised that the Israelis let anyone in at all as when people experience Israehell they can see through all the Propaganda and BS. No state acting like this will ever last forever it is just a matter of time I just feel so sad for the people having to go through that living hell day after day trying to get through checkpoints etc and all the rest... You know the first ever declaration of peoples right to self determination was in the Garden of Eden when Adam and eve were told not to partake of the forbidden fruit but they had been given a choice to decide to do or not to do as it was given to them. And hear we have a people who last had a Temple well over two thousand years ago and pray every Friday Night for one? In Ezekiel 38 it talks about Cities Without Walls!!!!! Regards to you all Jonathan (From England)

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John Piantanida replied on

Ironically, for some of us non-Jews, what is happening now gives us respect for people like you who stand up to the immoral (or amoral) manifestations of the heritage you belong to as represented by Israeli policy. For me it was being ashamed to be an American as I traveled the world. My country has not been kind to it (or our own for that matter).

Now I see I am not alone, nor is it just an American thing.

As I travel, people tell me "We do not hate you, just your government's actions". Just as I (and others like me) respect you, but not Zionism. You are not the Israel/Zionist government just as I am not American imperialist greed and self-serving amoral standards and policies.

As a group, "we" (and those like us from many different backgrounds) are getting stronger and finding each other.

My hope is this:

"The world is not full of Israelis, Palestinians, Americans, British, Germans, Russians, Turks, Slobovians, or for that matter any one religious preference. The world we live in is full of humans. As varied as we seem (and like to think we are) this aspect joins us all. We need to start thinking on that scale if we are to make any progress in saving ourselves and our future generations. Division has gotten us where we are. Unity in hope and attempts of understanding is our only way out of this mess."

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Zionism Is Not Judaism replied on

It is a divide and conquer racist strategy, implemented and run by useful idiot quisling tools, of criminal imperialism and transnational corporate fascism.

Judaism will survive it, much like it survived the German 3rd Reich and the Romanoffs.

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Rodger Kroell replied on

A prominent Zionist issues a death threat to a Swedish politician who has spoken out in support of international law (and against state-sponsored terrorism). Will he be held liable? Not!

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Peter Loeb replied on

They say that no one is perfect but Israel is doing as much
as possible to be a disaster.

Why don't folks in the rest of the world realize that supporting
Israel first etc. is not much different than supporting any
other fascist/dictatorial regime?

Perhaps Netanyahu is more to be pitied. He lives in a nation
where his hateful screams and "incitements" are
considered to be normal.

Those who support this kind of behavior should be
ashamed of themselves.

[I am not "svensk"...(I am Swedish). I lived
in Sweden for 7 years, never became a citizen.
I was born in Manhattan General Hospital, NY
NY.]

---Peter Loeb, Boston, MA, USA

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A.Ziyad replied on

It is very unfortunate that Zionism has destroyed the coexistence of Jews and Muslims in many ancient lands where Jews have as much rights as their fellow Muslims. It is Zionism that has forced many Jews to abandon their roots and heritage. I think Jews from these ancient lands should re-educate their offsprings to be proud of their heritage and ultimately return to their roots rather than helping an illegal enterprise that will definitely not last.

No humans could ever live under the barrel of guns with a siege mentality. Occupation and subversion is not compatible with human values. There won't be a place of refuge for these Zionist idiots if they continue to thrive with denial of facts. Trying to link Holocaust to a reason for occupying Palestine is proven to have failed.

Ali Abunimah

Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of The Battle for Justice in Palestine, now out from Haymarket Books.

Also wrote One Country: A Bold-Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. Opinions are mine alone.