The sporting boycott of Israel has taken a great leap forward with events in Sweden over the weekend. The Stop the Match campaign was able to force the authorities to hold the match without any spectators and on the day of the match 12,000 demonstrators almost succeeded in shutting down the event altogether.
So it's not surprising therefore that the Jerusalem Post this morning is in uproar at this attack 'on Jews', publishing an article entitled Sweden's anti-Israel apartheid policy is about more than sport. Yes - you've got it, the pro-Palestinian events were another manifestation of antisemitism from the Europeans. Indeed, Sweden is now being painted in Israel as a country drenched in anti-semitism, and Malmo in particular being held in thrall to its sizable Muslim community.
What is the evidence offered for this charge against Sweden, a country I have visited often and have found to be one of the most tolerant of minorities in Europe.
Anti-Israeli (not anti-Jewish) grafitti near the Israeli Embassy; a poll, with no reference, claiming that nearly a third of young people doubt whether the holocaust took place; the refusal of Sweden to allow in an Israeli tae kwondo team; anti-Israeli statements from left, and some right-wing, politicians; comparisons of Gaza with the Warsaw ghetto (which I think are way off the mark but hardly anti-semitic) and an allegedly anti-semitic radio station called Radio Islam that apparently spouts this brand of racism over the air but has somehow avoided being ensnared by Sweden's tough anti-racist laws.
Now I'm sure there are anti-semites in Sweden as there are in the rest of Europe; there are even some in Israel - remember the Jewish Nazis skinheads who were allowed to emigrate to Israel and are now in prison for going on a racist rampage (I must admit I found it difficult to get my head around that one). But this old and tired tactic of labeling anti-zionism as anti-semitism is getting seriously tiresome, and I would respectfully suggest that from the zionists' point of view it is counter-productive.
Instead of writing off a whole country as a bunch of anti-semites why not try answering some of the charges against the apartheid Israeli state?
Certainly, as Rabbi Abraham Cooper points out at the top of his article, Sweden's supposed neutrality during World War Two was a sham. They allowed German troop movements through their country and exported critically important ball-bearings to the German war industry. But do the actions of the state and big business mean that all the people of the country are complicit? Does the writer not know that the Bush family made their money by supplying goods to Nazi Germany or that General Motors was a key exporter of vehicles to the Wehrmacht. Does that make the US an anti-semitic country.
The zionists need to become a little bit more sophisticated or they risk pissing off their dwindling circle of friends in places like Sweden. But to be honest trying to defend the indefensible is always going to be a loser.
A secular state in historic Palestine for Jews and Arabs is the only solution to the conflict. Zionism is a dead end for Jewish people, as increasing numbers are realising, and a hell for Palestinians.
By way of a bit of background read Dan Mayer's excellent article on zionism:
Socialism or Zionsim: a tale of two grandads
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