The Forward has an important story this week on Jews leaving Malmo, Sweden, because they are being targeted by Muslims there. The incidents that the piece describes are largely harassment, threats, expressions of rage.
And of course most of them turn on Israel:
Malmo, Sweden’s third-largest city, with a population of roughly 293,900 but only 760 Jews, reached a turning point of sorts in January 2009, during Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. A small, mostly Jewish group held a demonstration that was billed as a peace rally but seen as a sign of support for Israel. This peaceful demonstration was cut short when the demonstrators were attacked by a much larger screaming mob of Muslims and Swedish leftists who threw bottles and firecrackers at them as police seemed unable to stop the mounting mayhem.
The piece reflects the usual understanding in official Jewish circles about why people criticize Israel: “Criticism of Israel is a great way to express your anti-Semitism in an indirect way.”
Then there is this about free-floating Islam:
Swedish experts agree that integration of Muslims into Swedish society has failed, and this undermines the development of a more diverse society. Many pupils in heavily Muslim schools reject the authority of female teachers.
“We are Swedish but second- or third-class citizens,” said Mohammed Abnalheja, vice president of the Palestinian Home Association in Malmo. The organization teaches children of Palestinian descent about their bond to a Palestinian homeland. “We have a right to our country, Palestine,” he said. “Palestine is now occupied by Zionists.” Abnalheja was born to Palestinian parents in Baghdad and came to Malmo with his parents in 1996. He has never been to the place he calls Palestine…
"The place he calls Palestine" is unfortunate and insulting. Also, the Forward piece characterizes the Gaza rally as a "peace rally" that angered leftists. That rally was held as Israel was snuffing the lives of 400 children, and pouring white phosphorus on schools. No wonder it angered leftists.
This is actually what anti-Zionists said would happen, 65 years ago, when they warned that the creation of a Jewish state would sow discord. Or as the late Robert Lovett, architect of the Cold War, wrote when he was in the State Department under Truman (emphasis mine): “a number of people of the Jewish faith… hold the view that the present zeal of the Zionists can have the most dangerous consequences, not merely in their divisive effects in American life, but in the long run on the position of the Jews throughout the world.”
And lo, this has come to pass. Jews feel threatened because of the claims of Jewish nationalism.
As for the Muslim angle, let’s not forget that Israel was the answer to anti-Semitism in Europe, Herzl was responding to Christian anti-Semitism. Jews were not then persecuted in the Muslim world. They were often second-class citizens, but they weren’t persecuted. And remarkably–though Arab leaders told the west in the 40s they absolutely did not want a Jewish state in Palestine, and have warred against the Jewish state on a few occasions–Arab countries have on a couple of occasions offered to make peace with Israel, lately with the 2002 initiative.
And yes, I know that Arabs have a role in the cycle of violence. But who has been relentlessly expansionist in historical Palestine? Herzl promised to extraterritorialize Jerusalem when he was planning the Jewish state, and what has become of that promise? Jewish extremists have swallowed the city. A recipe for unending conflict.
Or as another U.S. Under Secretary of State, George Ball, wrote 20 years ago, "So long as Israel retains the Occupied Areas and discriminates against the resident Arabs, the frightened and angered Arab communities that surround them will never make peace."
My heart goes out to the Jews of Malmo. I fear that there will be anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S., again tied to Israel’s conduct. The Forward piece is more evidence of the urgency of Jews taking on Zionism in the Jewish community, denouncing the human rights abuses Israel perpetrates, and thereby stepping away from the anti-Islamic attitudes, and clash, that Zionism is now propagating.
