The Dutch government has defended the right to boycott Israel, in a rejection of Israeli efforts to outlaw such political activity. In response to questions from Green Left MP Rik Grashoff on Israel’s threats against human rights defenders active in the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, Foreign Affairs Minister Bert Koenders said that “statements or meetings concerning BDS are protected by the freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, as enshrined in the Dutch Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights.” According to Koenders, Israel regularly raises the topic of BDS in bilateral meetings with the Dutch government. The minister said that while the government itself does not support the boycott of Israel, “endorsing BDS falls under freedom of expression.” The Netherlands is the second European Union (EU) state to publicly state that support for the Palestinian-led BDS campaign should be protected under the principle of freedom of expression. In Mar...

Seventy Palestinian refugees have been evicted from a camp formed in protest at how the Swedish authorities have denied them the right to asylum. The camp had been deemed illegal by the local council in Malmö, a city in southern Sweden. After two weeks of threats, the camp was dismantled on Thursday morning last week. Nine people were arrested and three shipping containers of personal possessions were confiscated by police. The Palestinian refugees had traveled to Sweden from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, Iraq, Libya and Saudi Arabia. Their protest has been taking place outside the applications unit of the immigration authority in Malmö. Despite attempts by the police to make their protest impossible, the refugees are determined to keep fighting for asylum. The protest is continuing, albeit without tents or shelter. Temperatures are dropping daily in Malmö as the Nordic winter approaches. “I will take down my tent, we will take down our camp,” said Aaed al-Shalabi, a Pa...

President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday inaugurated the new headquarters of the embassy of Palestine in Sweden. The ceremony took place in the presence of Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstroem together with other government officials and foreign ambassadors. Abbas praised Sweden for its recognition of Palestine and said the country took a "brave step" which should be emulated by other members of the European Union. "Such recognitions do not mean that we don't want to negotiate with Israel," Abbas said. "We call upon the Israeli government to start negotiations on the basis of international legitimacy and to halt the procedures and sanctions it has taken against the state of Palestine by withholding Palestinian money." Abbas said that the PA would negotiate regardless of international recognition by states or the United Nations Security Council. more

RAMALLAH (AFP) -- Sweden's decision to recognize a Palestinian state is "courageous," senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said Friday, calling on other EU states to follow suit. "We salute the announcement by the Swedish prime minister," said Saeb Erakat in the West Bank administrative capital of Ramallah. "We hope that all countries of the European Union will take the same courageous and remarkable decision ... as there is no reason not to recognize the Palestinian state." Nabil Abu Rudeina, spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, said "the time has come for the entire world to recognise the Palestinian state." And foreign minister Riyad al-Malki welcomed what he called Sweden's "historic" commitment to freedom, dignity and human rights. Earlier, Sweden's new prime minister said in his inaugural address to parliament that "a two-state solution requires mutual recognition and the will to co-exist p...

Sweden’s new centre-left government is to recognise the state of Palestine, in a move that will make it the first major European country to take the step, the prime minister, Stefan Löfven, has said. The UN general assembly approved the de facto recognition of the sovereign state of Palestine in 2012, but the European Union and most EU countries have yet to give it official recognition. “The conflict between Israel and Palestine can only be solved with a two-state solution, negotiated in accordance with international law,” Löfven said during his inaugural address in parliament on Friday. “A two-state solution requires mutual recognition and a will to peaceful coexistence. Sweden will therefore recognise the state of Palestine.” For the Palestinians, Sweden’s move will be a welcome boost for its ambitions. With its reputation as an honest broker in international affairs and with an influential voice in EU foreign policy, the decision may well make other countries sit up and pay at...

Paul Hansen's winning image 'Gaza Burial' A Swedish photographer who won the 2013 World Press Photo award has denied claims his image was faked with Photoshop. Paul Hansen’s picture of two Palestinian children killed in an Israeli missile strike being carried to their funeral, secured the accolade in what is one of photojournalism’s most prestigious contests. The picture, named 'Gaza Burial' was shot on November 20 and shows a group of men marching the dead bodies through a narrow street in Gaza City. The victims, a brother and sister, are wrapped in white cloth, with just their faces showing. On Monday Extremetech.com published claims by forensic image analyst Neal Krawetz, suggesting the image is a composite of three different photos, with various limbs spliced together from each of the pictures and further manipulation of the mourner’s faces. It adds: “Basically, Hansen took a series of photos – and then later, realizing that his most dramatically situ...

(Parents of Israeli activist, Elik Elhanan, protest with other activists outside the Ashdod police station, after three Israeli activists were arrested on the Estelle ship on their way to Gaza, October 20, 2012 - Photo: Oren Ziv/ActiveStills) Oct. 22, 2012 - by Ship to Gaza Sweden The Israeli activists detained on board the Estelle were released Elik Elhanan: excessive force was used against us, without any reason Electric shocks by taser out of vengeful hatred A Greek MP was beaten by Shabak Security Service interrogators "I am now on my way home, but I keep thinking of my shipmates, my fellow activists from abroad who are still imprisoned under harsh conditions and undergo interrogation by the Shabak Security Service, among them Parliament Members from several countries," said Elik Elhanan, one of the Israeli activists who had sailed aboard the Gaza-bound Swedish ship "Estelle". Today, the court ordered his release and that of two other detained Israe...

It is a great honour to be able to accompany the Swedish sailing ship Estelle for a few days, from Barcelona to Ajaccio (Corsica), on its way towards Gaza to challenge the illegal and inhuman blockade which has lasted now for more than five years. The Estelle in a 90 year-old three-masted schooner purchased from a Finnish fair-trade organization by Ship to Gaza Sweden in April and renovated for this sea voyage. She began a Swedish coastal tour in June, with solidarity and information events in communities to raise awareness about the blockade in Gaza. From Sweden she traveled to ports in Norway, France, Spain and will stop in Corsica and two Italian ports before continuing towards Gaza. The educational value from the hundreds of people who visited the ship in different harbours has made thousands of connections with the Estelle and her mission of solidarity. The beauty of a tall ship coupled with the pace of sail power (which the skipper and crew prefer to motors wherever possi...

Estelle, a ship voyaging to break the Gaza blockade has begun its journey from Sweden. This latest attempt to break the siege is organised by the Swedish based Ship to Gaza initiative which is being aided by a coalition called Freedom Flotilla III. Organisations aiding the Ship to Gaza-Sweden umbrella organisation include organisations in France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Canada, the United States, and Australia. Mikael Löfgren, the media coordinator for the initiative has said that there are organisations “from all over the world but the main coalition is with organisations along the way.” Estelle is now in Norway after arriving there on Friday. The ship is expected to reach Gaza “sometime within October” said Löfgren. Throughout its journey the ship will raise awareness of the Gaza blockade. Estelle will make several stops on its way to Gaza in which there will be “speakers, concerts and public festivals providing information about the situation in Gaza.” more

(pic: Swedish author Henning Mankell took part in Freedom Flotilla 2 and has vowed to join the next effort) From Swedish English-language site The Local The website of Swedish Ship to Gaza [the site was still down at time of posting] has been subjected to a cyber attack, in the latest setback to befall the aid and protest convoy the Freedom Flotilla II. The group were forced to shut down their website on Friday after a so-called overload attack which forced their server company to pull the plug. "Since Friday morning our server supplier has been under attack, which means that our website is down. We can't say for sure if it is directed against us, but it is obviously an advanced attack," Ship to Gaza wrote in a statement. The organisation shifted their information feed to a temporary blog and are considering whether to report the matter to the police, while they sought to play down the impact of the attack. "The effects of the attack were not those desired," Sh...

From BDS Movement On the 12th of June, Sweden played Israel in a European Championship qualifying match in handball in Karlskrona, southern Sweden. Several organisations participated in a peaceful protest rally held outside the stadium, calling for the Israeli national team not to be welcomed to Sweden as long as the occupation is continuing and the Palestinians are prevented from exercising sport, unless the Israeli team or its covenant openly rejects the occupation. more See also report on Swedish english-language site The Local

STOCKHOLM — Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell will take part in the next international flotilla that will attempt to bring aid to Gaza at the end of June, organisers said Wednesday. Mankell, the author of the popular Wallander series of detective novels, will be among a total of 20 Swedish participants in the "Freedom Flotilla 2," Ship to Gaza Sweden said in a statement. "Interest in participating in the Freedom Flotilla has been enormous and we have been forced to turn down many people who wanted to show their solidarity with practical actions," the organisers said, providing the names of eight of the Swedes scheduled to take part. more

Haaretz published an interesting piece on the impact of the economic boycott, bemoaning the fact that the Chilean parliament has just passed support for an economic boycott, in addition to moves by pension and investment funds in Sweden and Norway to divest from Israeli defence industry firm Elbit Systems . Laughably the growing influence of the BDS movement is put down to an alliance between the far left and Islamists - apparently the Islam side provides the money and the lefties the troops. What a load of nonsense. The Haaretz journalist twists the obvious fact that it is Israel's actions itself that is driving the movement forward, with the spurious argument that if only Israel had not been a 'light unto nations' in the first place it may have avoided 'disappointing' those supporters now. There's another boycott, an international one, that's gaining momentum - an economic boycott. Last week the Chilean parliament decided to adopt the boycott of Israeli p...

In a first for European labour unions, a week long boycott of ships carrying Israeli goods continues in Sweden. Above US dockers explain why they refused to unload an Israeli ship following the flotilla massacre. These are massive steps forward for the boycott, sanctions and divestment movement. The Swedish Dock Workers Union (Hamnarbetarförbundet) on Wednesday launched a blockade of Israeli cargo in protest against the deadly raid on the Gaza-bound freedom flotilla last month, union representatives have confirmed. The blockade, which also applies to Israeli ships, was launched "because of the assault on the Ship to Gaza (flotilla), that we supported before they took off ... and the blockade of the Gaza strip, which affects the civilian population," union spokesman Rolf Axelsson said. The dock workers' protest is set to take place in all unionised Swedish ports, and is scheduled to and ends at midnight on June 29th. Union chairman Björn A. Borg added the union called for ...

Swedish fashion chain H&M opened its first store in Israel on Thursday morning, but not everyone seems to be happy about it. The Swedish organization for solidarity with the Palestinians and the Palestinian association in Stockholm have called for a boycott H&M over its decision to open six more stores in Israel and urged the company to postpone the opening until Israel "respects international law." According to a statement issued by the organizations, "The familiar red H&M sign will be visible in the Azriel Mall in Tel Aviv and, a few days later, in the Malcha shopping centre in Jerusalem, a city gradually cleansed of its Palestinian population to be replaced by Jewish-Israeli settlements." more

After accusing the Swedish press of anti-semitism the truth has finally emerged. Israel has indeed been harvesting the organs of dead Palestinians. This is truly horrendous news, reported in the UK's Guardian newspaper this morning, following the airing of a TV documentary at the weekend. This is a public relations disaster for Israel and their future denials of atrocities are even less likely to be believed. Contrary to the original report in the Swedish press, no evidence has so far emerged showing that the Israelis deliberately killed Palestinians to harvest organs. Israel has admitted pathologists harvested organs from dead Palestinians, and others, without the consent of their families – a practice it said ended in the 1990s – it emerged at the weekend. The admission, by the former head of the country's forensic institute, followed a furious row prompted by a Swedish newspaper reporting that Israel was killing Palestinians in order to use their organs – a charge that Isra...

The New York Times confirms what we have been saying on this blog for some time: After Gaza, Israel grapples with crisis of isolation JERUSALEM — Israel , whose founding idea was branded as racism by the United Nations General Assembly in 1975 and which faced an Arab boycott for decades, is no stranger to isolation. But in the weeks since its Gaza war, and as it prepares to inaugurate a hawkish right-wing government, it is facing its worst diplomatic crisis in two decades. Examples abound. Its sports teams have met hostility and violent protests in Sweden, Spain and Turkey. Mauritania has closed Israel’s embassy. Relations with Turkey , an important Muslim ally, have suffered severely. A group of top international judges and human rights investigators recently called for an inquiry into Israel’s actions in Gaza. “ Israel Apartheid Week ” drew participants in 54 cities around the world this month, twice the number of last year, according to its organizers. And even in the...

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-Jewi...

As we reported last week the Stop the Match movement in Malmo, Sweden succeeded in forcing the Sweden v Israel Davis Cup to be played with no spectators. But demonstrators still gathered today in their thousands to try and prevent the match happening at all.

Scandinavia has a long tradition of supporting the Palestinian people. Norway probably witnessed the largest demonstrations of any country in the world, measured as a proportion of the population, against the Israeli massacres in Gaza. Now the Swedes are preparing to protest against the visit of the Israeli Davis Cup tennis team due to play in Sweden next Saturday. Viva Malmo! STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Around 1,000 police officers will be on duty at the Baltic Hall in Malmo when Sweden host Israel in next week's Davis Cup first round tie, Swedish police said on Thursday. The March 6-8 tie is being held behind closed doors due to security concerns . Police said between 8,000 to 12,000 people are expected to hold a demonstration next Saturday against Israel's participation in the men's team competition... ...Last week Shahar Peer was denied entry into the UAE, which has no diplomatic ties with Israel, for a women's tournament in Dubai. After worldwide condemnation, the Gulf s...