The Scandalous Sanctimonious Sinister Swedish Socialist Blood Libel

UPDATINGS 8-25-2009 & 2-1-2010 at bottom

The big scandal behind the agitprop blood libel article in the Swedish pro-government rag, the tabloid yellow journal Aftonbladet, is that the government of Sweden, a country so often seen as "progressive," "enlightened," tolerant, caring blah blah blah, is promoting primitive Judeophobia based on medieval Judeophobic themes. What else but a blood libel can we call a mish mash of claims that Israeli soldiers took the body parts of Arab young men whom they had killed because there was a shortage of organ donors coming forward about 1992, when Olmert was health minister by the way? The author of the recent article in Aftonbladet, Bostrom, heard claims from an Arab family back then without any proof. Simply a lurid tale based on supposition and what Bostrom and other Swedish progressives, apparently, wanted to believe. The claim did not even come from the PLO's spokespersons, who are not shy about making up atrocity stories to smear Israel with. The way in which Aftonbladet published the article also raises questions about the Swedes' intent. The offending article was illustrated with photos of very religious Jews in their characteristic black garb, although no connection was demonstrated to Israeli soldiers allegedly killing Arabs for their body parts back in 1992.

Now Bostrom first wrote up these body parts claims in a "book" that he wrote in 2001. That book necessarily missed the recent arrest of a Jew from New York supposedly on charges of trading in body parts, although murder was not mentioned and the man has not been indicted. Bostrom "updated" his tale so to speak in his recent article by adding this recent arrest to the story of Israeli soldiers back in 1992, although no link between the man and murderers for the sake of body parts in Israel was mentioned by the American press coverage. Needless to say, the man from New York has not been convicted for any crime connected with body parts. What is scandalous in the Bostrom/body parts affair is that the Swedish foreign ministry subsidized publication of Bostrom's book. Hence, the Kingdom of Sweden pays to promote Judeophobic blood libels medieval in nature.

Yesterday, the foreign ministry [of Sweden] refused to respond to the publication in Ma`ariv that the ministry helped to finance Bostrom's book, Inshallah. The author himself said yesterday that he "don't really know why the name of the Swedish foreign ministry appears" [in the book] [Ma`ariv, 24 August 2009; in Hebrew see here]

אתמול סירב משרד החוץ השבדי להגיב על הפרסום במעריב, שלפיו המשרד סייע במימון ספרו של בוסטרום "אינשאללה". הסופר עצמו אמר אתמול כי הוא "לא ממש יודע למה מופיע שמו של משרד החוץ השבדי [בספר] [מעריב 24 אוגוסט 2009

Since the Swedish govt paid to promote these libels, it is not surprising that Carl Bildt, Swedish foreign minister, not only refused to condemn the blood libel published in Aftonbladet but his ministry scolded the Swedish ambassador to Israel who had indeed criticized the article strongly and removed her statement from the embassy's website. It seems that Bildt did not and does not want to condemn notions, such as the blood libel, that his own ministry helped to promote.

Instead Bildt and other prominent Swedes have raised claims about "freedom of speech." This claim is hypocritical on Bildt's part and that of his ministry. For instance, Israeli Foreign Minister Lieberman pointed out that the Swedish foreign minister a few years ago, a woman, had strongly condemned the Muhammad cartoons which were not published in Sweden but in Denmark. So if a condemnation would violate the free speech/free press rights of the Swedish paper, then didn't the condemnation of the Muhammad cartoons violate the free speech/free press rights of the Danish newspaper and the Danish cartoonists?? Furthermore, Bildt himself coordinated a campaign to shut down Swedish web sites that featured the Muhammad cartoons [mentioned in an article on Ma`ariv].

On the other hand, much more substantial allegations of killing people for organ snatching were made by Carla del Ponte, the prosecutor of the Hague Court for war crimes in former Yugoslavia. Carla del Ponte, a respected Italian-Swiss jurist, can be taken more seriously than a journalist who is a feverish political partisan. However, del Ponte's allegations were made against Muslims, against Kossovo Albanians. They are much better grounded than Bostrom's hate effusions. His writings on the matter show the frenzied imagination of a bigot working overtime. But Aftonbladet and Carl Bildt have not shown much interest, if any, in the well grounded accounts of organ trafficking and murders for body parts in Kossovo by Muslims. Moreover, I am not aware that the Swedish foreign ministry has been excessively disturbed by the refusal by the Sudan to extradite for prosecution the Sudanese Arab Muslim tyrant, Omar Bashir, who is subject to an international arrest warrant for genocide issued by the International Criminal Court. After all, Sweden has a pro-Muslim policy, not a pro-human rights policy, although the Swedish social democrats put on a show that what motivates them is human rights, civil liberties, and the like.

Of course, we should quote from the original article, albeit in the HaArets translation, to get the flavor of its devotion to facts and real evidence:

"'Our sons are used as involuntary organ donors,' relatives of Khaled from Nablus said to me, as did the mother of Raed from Jenin as well as the uncles of Machmod and Nafes from Gaza, who all had disappeared for a few days and returned by night, dead and autopsied," writes author Donald Boström in his report.
. . . .
Boström also cites an incident of alleged organ snatching from 1992, during the time of the first Palestinian intifada. He says that the IDF seized a young man known for throwing stones at Israeli troops in the Nablus area, who was shot in the chest, both legs, and the stomach before being taken to a military helicopter which transported him to "a place unknown to his loved ones".

Five nights later, Boström says, the young man's body was returned, wrapped in green hospital sheets.

"The sharp sounds from the shovels were mixed with the occasional laughter from the soldiers who were joking with each other, waiting to go home. When Bilal was put into his grave, his chest was revealed and suddenly it became clear to the present what abuse he had been put through. Bilal was far from the only one who was buried cut-up from his stomach to his chin and the speculations about the reason why had already started," he writes. [HaArets, originally published 8-19-2009]

This is quite dramatic, indeed lurid. So Bostrom has a talent for something. Eyewitness testimonies from interested parties who were not exactly eyewitnesses and provide unlikely details. Why was the body returned at all if such a crime had been committed?? Wouldn't the perpetrators have wanted to conceal the crime? Why "green hospital sheets"? Wouldn't the hospital sheets indicate that the something might have been done to the body in a hospital, whereas criminals usually want to conceal the evidence?

Another Swedish newspaper explains why the article is suspect:

...the liberal Sydsvenskan - southern Sweden's major daily - had harsh criticism for the rival paper, running an opinion piece under the headline "Antisemitbladet" (a play on the name Aftonbladet).

"We have heard the story before, in one form or the other. It follows the traditional pattern of conspiracy theory: a great number of loose threads that the theorist tempts the reader to tie into a neat knot without having been provided with any proven connection whatsoever," writes leading columnist Mats Skogkär of Sydsvenskan.

"Whispers in the dark. Anonymous sources. Rumors. That is all it takes. After all we all know what they [the Jews] are like, don't we: inhuman, hardened. Capable of anything," the opinion piece says. "Now all that remains is the defense, equally predictable: 'Anti-Semitism' No, no, just criticism of Israel." [HaArets, ibid.]

Indeed.
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UPDATING 8-25-2009 Family of man killed in 1992 denies telling Swedish reporter that the body parts were taken [here].
Comments on a Kultur blood libel by Petra Marquardt-Bigman. She refers to Iranian and Turkish films with similar themes [here].
Corriere della Sera's summary [qui] with quotes from an Israeli petition to boycott the Swedish firm Ikea and from HaArets criticizing Foreign Minister Lieberman for supposedly making too much of the incident [as if subsidies by the Swedish foreign ministry for publishing such blood libels were a trivial matter]
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It should be noted that there never were many Jews in Sweden and Jews were not allowed to live there permanently and legally until the reign of King Gustav III [1771-92]. A more liberal law, a royal decree, allowed Jews to live in several cities in Sweden and become Swedish nationals [1838] but this decree was modified by popular Judeophobic demand. So even today, most Swedes have never met more than a few Jews if any. The basis of Swedish Judeophobia [we know that there are exceptions] lies in the heritage of the Lutheran church which from its beginnings in Germany held views of Jews more hostile than those of the Roman Catholic church.

Something is rotten in the state of Sweden. Such lies as propagated by Donald Bostrom, by Aftonbladet, and by the Swedish foreign ministry are an obstacle to peace.
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UPDATING February 1, 2010 A comprehensive account of the Aftonbladet scandal by a Swedish historian [here], published by the Institute for Global Jewish Affairs of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.