I söndagens nummer av den israeliska tidningen Ha’aretz skrev Tom Segev en redaktionell kommentar med anledning av stormen kring Aftonbladets artikel om misstänkt organhandel. Han skrev bland annat så här:
The diplomatic scandal that Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman stirred over the article in the Swedish daily Aftonbladet is wrong since the government of a state that respects the freedom of the press is not responsible for what newspapers publish. That there was a demand for the Swedish government to ”condemn” the article in question suggests Lieberman must still be thinking in Soviet terms.
The comparison between Sweden’s refusal to condemn the article and its alleged silence during the Holocaust will not further Israel’s foreign policy any more than the racist ideology of Yisrael Beiteinu.
Yisrael Beteinu är som bekant utrikesminister Avigdor Liebermans parti som gjort sig känt för sin rasistiska hållning till Israels arabiska invånare.
Segev konstaterar vidare i sin artikel att Sverige precis som en rad andra europeiska länder kunde ha gjort mer för Tysklands förföljda judar under 30-talet. Ändå finns det verkligen ingen anledning att svartmåla Sveriges hållning under andra världskriget:
It may well be the Swedes would have been able to look themselves in the mirror of history with greater pride had they decided at the time to join the war against the Nazis. Either way, Swedish neutrality enabled the various rescue organizations, including Jewish groups, to base themselves in Stockholm and work from there in support of the persecuted. The main rescue efforts were carried out with the acknowledgment of the Swedish government, and some even as a result of its initiatives.
In October 1943, Sweden permitted nearly 8,000 Jews to enter the country, and thus saved their lives. In the summer of 1944, the Swedish embassy in Budapest issued documents to some 4,500 Hungarian Jews. These documents served to save thousands of other Jews. The Swedish banker Raul Wallenberg, who later disappeared in a Soviet prison, is best known for this operation.
The White Bus Operation, during the last weeks of the war, was made possible in part as a result of the negotiations between the SS Commander Heinrich Himmler and the Swedish Count Folke Bernadotte, who was later murdered in Jerusalem because of the peace plan he had proposed.
Sweden is one of the few countries that has passed special legislation against anti-Semitism. In January 2000, it also hosted an important international conference that gave a major boost to the global struggle against Holocaust denial.
Läs hela artikeln här. I ljuset av det som hänt den senaste veckan är det lätt att förstå den franske presidenten Sarkozys odiplomatiska fråga till premiärminister Netanyahu vid deras möte i juni: ”Varför gör du dig inte av med Lieberman?”
PS – uppdatering:
Till och med Claes Arvidsson på Svenska Dagbladets ledarsida anser att det israeliska agerandet mot Sverige är korkat. En av den israeliska regeringens traditionella försvarsbastioner i Sverige vacklar.
