Swedish legislator: Prime Minister's recognition of 'Palestine' illegal
Benny Weinthal reports that a Swedish legislator claims that his Prime Minister's recognition of the imaginary state of 'Palestine' is illegal.
In a telephone interview with The Jerusalem Post on Monday, Swedish
deputy Annicka Engblom, from the center-right Moderaterna (Moderate)
party, said she filed a complaint with the parliament’s Committee on the
Constitution because the prime minister “violated the law.”
There
is a way to handle “issues which have a great impact Swedish foreign
policy,” she said. There are procedural steps that must be “taken to
recognize a state, especially in a conflict of this magnitude.”
According
to Engblom, [Swedish Prime Minister Stefan] Löfven should have sent the proposal to recognize a
Palestinian state to the Advisory Council on Foreign Affairs, which
functions under the parliament and is chaired by the king.
Löfven bypassed the council on Friday, prompting outrage in the parliament.
Some
of the deputies “jumped in our seats as we heard the prime minister,
because his decision was stated as already made,” Engblom said.
The
Committee on the Constitution will convene a hearing in the spring on
the prime minister’s recognition of a Palestinians state. If he is found
to have violated Swedish law, the committee could reprimand him, and
“politically, this is very severe in politics,” Engblom said.
Now that he's been called on it, Löfven and his representatives are claiming that they did not recognize 'Palestine.'
Legislator Marie Granlund, from the prime minister’s Social Democratic
Party and deputy chairwoman of the parliament’s Committee on European
Union Affairs, did not immediately respond to Post telephone and email
queries. She told the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper that Löfven’s
recognition of “Palestine” was not a decision but a declaration of
intent. When the time comes, the decision will “of course” be brought to
the Advisory Committee for Foreign Affairs for discussions, she said.
Unfortunately, that has all the effect of a New York Times 'correction' where the original headline is on page 1 and the 'correction' is on page 29.
Maybe they think we harvested their kidneys or something
You might recall that five years ago, the Swedish daily Aftonbladet accused Israel of harvesting 'Palestinians' organs as part of questioning. For those who have forgotten, let's go to the videotape.
Now, Sweden is investigating the fate of Swedes on the Mavi Marmara terror ship, which sailed a bit more than four years ago. Oh yes, the anti-Semitic, Israel-obsessed Swedes have had an awakening.
Sweden launched a preliminary investigation on Thursday to determine
whether Israel acted illegally against its nationals who were involved
in 2010 and 2012 flotilla efforts to break the blockade of Gaza.
A
complaint alleging aggravated assault, illegal threats and theft in
international waters was filed in Sweden in 2013 by the Ship to Gaza
group on behalf of some 20 Swedish nationals who were either on ships
that joined the Mavi Marmara in the 2010 flotilla, or another ship that
set sail in 2012.
Israel arrested and deported participants in the flotillas.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Israel had no comment on the matter.
Unbelievable: Swedish 'artist' uses ashes from Holocaust victims in 'painting' (UPDATED)
A Swedish 'artist' has used ashes from Holocaust victims at the Majdanek death camp (pictured) in a 'painting' (Hat Tip: HaDaR).
A Swedish artist has caused outrage among
Holocaust survivors by using ashes taken from a concentration camp
mausoleum to create his artwork, according to media reports.
The reports say Swedish artist Carl Michael
von Hausswolff combined the ashes with water to create gray lines in a
painting currently on display in Lund, Sweden. He reportedly collected
the ashes from the mausoleum at the Majdanek concentration camp on the
outskirts of Lublin, Poland, during a visit in 1989.
This revelation caused outrage and shock in
Sweden's Jewish community. Salomon Schulman, a Jewish community leader,
said he had lost relatives to the Nazi death machine, and called the
painting “revolting.”
"Who knows? Maybe some of those ashes belonged
to my relatives. No one knows where they were taken," Schulman wrote in
a letter to a popular Swedish newspaper. "I will never go to that
gallery [that is displaying Hausswolff's work]. I am appalled by this
artwork and his obsession with necrophilia."
Hausswolff argues that the ashes contain the "memories
and souls" of the people who were tortured and killed. In a statement to
the press, the artist invited the public to view his artwork and judge
for themselves.
It is difficult to think of a worse desecration of the bodies and memories of Holocaust victims. If he had taken the body of a dead Muslim terrorist and done this, there would be millions of Muslims in the streets protesting, and the West would be taking their side. But in Sweden, where new blood libels against Jews are issued every day, thisand other disgusting displays are considered 'art.'
This 'artist' deserves to die a slow and painful death starting now. The 'museum' that is displaying this 'art' should be ground into dust. And after those Jews who wish to leave have left, Sweden ought to be napalmed. There is simply no excuse for this, and there are no limits to the Swedes' anti-Semitism.
Martin Bryder, who owns a gallery in Lund, told Sverige Radio that he
“sees no moral problem or flaw with exhibiting” a painting which the
artist Carl Michael von Hausswolff made from ashes of Holocaust victims
from the Majdanek extermination camp.
According to a local
newspaper, Sydsvenskan, Von Hausswolff had collected the ashes more than
20 years ago. The exhibition is scheduled to open at the Martin Bryder
Gallery in Lund on Dec. 15, according to the radio station.
Salomon
Schulman, a teacher of Yiddish and member of Lund’s Jewish community,
wrote in the same local newspaper that he found the display “disgusting”
and called it “a desecration of Jewish bodies.”
He added:
“Nowhere was the Third Reich more popular than among the educated
academics. Today, the Holocaust and racism are still part of their salon
talks.”
...
The directorate of the museum at
Majdanek is outraged by the art. "We are deeply shocked and outraged by
the information that the painting allegedly was made with the ashes of
Majdanek victims. This action is an artistic provocation deserving only
to be condemned," said a statement published on Wednesday by the museum
staff.
"In addition, it is certain that the Swedish painter did not enter into possession of the ashes legally."
Andrzej
Fijolek of the Lublin police told JTA that the police have not opened
an investigation into how the artist came into possession of the ashes,
since no complaint has been filed.
These Swedes are so dense it's amazing.... If I took a Swede's body, burnt it and put the ashes on display in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, do you think they might get it?
Norwegians and Swedes attempting to break Gaza blockade
Well, here we go again. A group of Norwegians and Swedes is attempting to open Gaza for weapons import by breaking Israel's sea blockade of the Islamic militancy.
"We have the same goal as the previous flotillas, to put an end to the blockade of Gaza by challenging the Israeli navy," said Torstein Dahle, the leader of the Norwegian section of the activist group "Ship to Gaza."
"This time around it will be an easy task for the Israelis to stop us because we will be so few and strictly non-violent," Dahle told Reuters at Oslo harbor.
If that's how they feel, you have to wonder why they're bothering. Of course, one cannot rely on claims to non-violence. The Mavi Marmara claimed to be non-violent too.
The SV Estelle, a 53-metre vessel backed mainly by Swedish and Norwegian groups, will sail from Oslo on Tuesday, and organizers hope several other ships will join it during its journey before it reaches waters off Gaza in October.
Who the heck is supporting these people? Can you take two months off from work like that? I can't.
The Government of Sweden has funded a 32-page glossy anti-Israel brochure called Colonialism and Apartheid. The cost of the brochure was a bit more than $100,000.
According to the report, the Swedish government transferred NIS 390,000 (roughly $104,600), under the guise of humanitarian aid, to a Swedish-Palestinian solidarity group for the creation of the ornate 40-page booklet.
The brochure's authors accuse Israel of racist legislation, ethnic cleansing, racial segregation, establishing an Apartheid regime in the territories, and bombing Palestinian civilian homes. Furthermore, the brochure calls for a boycott of the Jewish state.
Israel and the Jewish community in Sweden condemned the measure. Sweden's foreign aid minister joined the criticism.
And you wonder why Israel is considering banning and/or heavily taxing foreign government contributions to NGO's. You can find the brochure (in Swedish) here.
The taxpayers of Sweden have just funded a visit to their country of 'Palestinian' terrorist Leila Khaled.
In 2002, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, The European Union through its European Council decided to include the PFLP on its list of terrorist groups.
The people of Israel are all too familiar with the savagery of the PFLP. It took responsibility for the 2001 assassination of Tourism Minister, Rehavam Zeevi. On Friday night, March 11th 2011, two PFLP members butchered the Fogel family in Itamar, including four-and eleven-year-old children and a three-month infant.
Ms. Khaled sits on the PFLP Central Committee and has not expressed regret for her involvement in terrorism. Because of her history of aiding and abetting terrorism, a police complaint was recently issued against her in Sweden for gross violations of international law.
But that came too late. During her tax-payer funded visit to Sweden, Khaled spoke at the May Day demonstrations of the Stalinist Swedish Communist Party and the Anarcho-syndicalist Trade Union Federation. She held publicly funded lectures at an Art Gallery and spoke on developments in the Middle East at the publicly- funded Södertörn University College.
Incredibly, Khaled also participated at a seminar on political activism arranged by the Left Party represented in Sweden’s Parliament.
The organizers of her appearances had nothing but praise for the PFLP leader. Anna Ahlstrand, Project Manager at Konsthall C, which is funded by the government’s Arts Grant Committee, declared “she is an icon for many people”. Jonatan Habib Engqvist, Project Manager at the Governmental Arts Grants Committee that financed her tour described the arch terrorist as “a very established feminist thinker.”
...
Unfortunately, Leila Khaled isn’t the first member of a Palestinian terrorist group to get special treatment from Stockholm. In 2006, the Swedish consulate in Jerusalem, in contravention of EU regulations, granted a Schengen visa to Hamas’ Minister of Refugees, Atef Adwan. Such a visa makes it possible for the bearer to travel across 15 European Countries. That decision provoked protests from Israel, which said it lent legitimacy to Hamas, and from France, which had rejected earlier visa requests by Hamas leaders.
So far Sweden’s decision to grant entry to Khaled – a leading representative of an organization deemed a terrorist group by more than 30 countries, including Sweden, all EU Member States and the United States – hasn’t spurred protest from the US or other European countries.
But the decision to allow her into Sweden could have broader consequences. It comes at a time when many European nations want to take back direct control of their national frontiers. Indeed, the European Commission is currently debating the re-imposition of border controls within the so-called Schengen region.
Leila Khalid’s taxpayer-funded trip comes even as Swedish authorities continue to turn a deaf ear to repeated calls from the Jewish Community and the Simon Wiesenthal Center to fund security for Jewish institutions facing increasing anti-Semitism and global Islamist threats.
The irresponsible behavior of Swedish authorities will likely doom any future role in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Back in 2000, following a more even-handed Middle East policy under then Swedish PM Goran Persson, Stockholm did help facilitate Israeli Palestinian negotiations.
I doubt that anyone in Israel would accept a mediation - or any other - role for the current Swedish government in Middle East 'peace process.' We already know too well where the Swedes stand. But Khaled's visit is yet another nail in the coffin of Swedish-Israeli relations.
Sweden returns five asylum-seeking Iraqi Christians
How low can one government go? Sweden is trying to show us. They have decided to return five asylum-seeking Iraqi Christians to Iraq because there is 'relative peace' in that country. This, about a month after a massacre in an Iraqi Christian church.
Even the UN called them out on this one. "Five Iraqi Christians seeking asylum returned from Stockholm. UN protest," from AsiaNews, December 18:
Baghdad (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Harsh criticism of the Swedish government by the United Nations Commission for Refugees after they forcibly returned five Iraqi Christians seeking asylum in Sweden. The five were part of a group of at least 20 people from Iraq. Thousands of Christians have sought a safe haven outside the borders after the massacre of 31 October in the Syrian Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation. According to unofficial sources the authorities justify the refusal by citing a situation of relative peace in the country.
Perhaps those authorities would like to go for a field trip and enjoy the "relative peace" the remaining Christians are living in.
"We have heard many stories of people fleeing their homes after receiving direct threats. Many new arrivals explain that they left Iraq for fear of an attack, after what happened on October 31," says Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for the UN body in Geneva.
One of the people I follow on Twitter often retweets Sweden's infamous foreign minister, Carl Bildt. In one tweet on Sunday, Bildt wrote:
Disturbing reports of security forces gathering in the centre of Minsk. The rights of everyone must be respected also in Belarus!
How about respecting the 'rights of everyone' in Sweden, including the rights of Jews and the rights of those who are foolish enough to arrive in Sweden hoping to escape persecution? Ought that not to be the first concern of the Swedish foreign minister?
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
