EJP

Anti-Semitism in Sweden : Ambassador acknowledges that his country failed to protect the Jewish community  

Last month, the synagogue of Gothenburg was attacked with petrol bombs.

JERUSALEM—“This is the reality of the Jewish community and it’s a failure, it’s not something that should be allowed to happen,.” Sweden’s ambassador to Israel, Magnus Hellgren said as he acknowledged that his country failed to protect the Swedish community in the wake of anti-Semitic incidents.

Last month during protest demonstrations against the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in the cities of Gothenburg and Malmo, cries about killing Jews were heard and demonstrators attempted to torch a synagogue.

The synagogue, which was hosting a party for Jewish youths, was attacked by around 20 masked men with petrol bombs.

Police officers who heard the cries to shoot Jews during the Malmo rally would have intervened, but the cries were in Arabic and the “officers simply didn’t understand,” Hellgren said in an interview with Israeli daily Makor Rishon.

Commenting on the fear of Swedish Jews to be seen wearing a kippah on the street due to security concerns, Hellgren said: “If a single Jew feels this way, we have failed.”

 

 

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