STOCKHOLM/NEW YORK—A Swedish court of appeals has ruled that a Palestinian migrant who was convicted of hurling firebombs at the synagogue in Gothenburg last December should not be deported.
The court ruled that the man would be in danger from Israel because of his crime if sent to the Palestinian Authority.
The arson at the synagogue took place as a party involving young people was being held at the site. Some 20 youngsters briefly took shelter in a cellar during the attack. The incident took place on the same day as protesters in Stockholm demonstrated against President Donald Trump’s decision to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. During the rally, an Israeli flag was reportedly seen being set on fire. A day earlier, on Friday, around 200 demonstrators chanted anti-Semitic slogans in the Swedish city of Malmo, according to the public broadcaster Sveriges Radio.
The Jewish community in Gothenburg, the country’s second largest city, has sent a letter to the prosecutor in this case, objecting to the court of appeal’s decision.
The Palestinian, who was not named, was sentenced in June to two years in prison and ordered to be deported after serving that term. But whereas the appeals court kept in place the conviction, it overturned the deportation order, the Swedish media reported.
Since the man committed a crime that “could be perceived as a threat to other Jews,” and that Israel “might be interested in the matter,” the appeals court ruled that one “cannot safeguard the man’s fundamental human rights if he is deported to Palestine,” the media quoted the judge as writing in his opinion.
World Jewish Congress CEO and Executive Vice President Robert Singer said the court ruling is ‘’an offensive moral outrage that sets a dangerous precedent for rewarding terrorist violence, antisemitism, and criminal behavior.’’
“Sweden already denied asylum to this man, as he did not have sufficient grounds for the claim that his human rights were threatened in the Palestinian Authority or at the border crossings with Israel. Now, the court of appeals is concerned that this criminal’s fundamental human rights might be violated by retaliation from the side of Israel, and uses this as a justification for him to remain in Sweden, where he obviously constitutes a direct threat to the Swedish Jews,” Singer said.
“We stand with our affiliated community in Sweden in urging the State Prosecutor to examine whether these questionable grounds for withdrawing the deportation stand up to scrutiny, and for this ill-conceived and misguided decision to be immediately reconsidered,” Singer added.