Last Sunday I participated in a rally by the Zionist Federation at Raoul Wallenberg's square in Stockholm. Main speaker was Yair Lapid, party leader for Yesh Atid ("There is a future") in Israel, one of the leading opposition parties. Concerning the name of the location Mr Lapid told us that his own father was one of the Jewish children saved by Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest. It wasn't very nice to listen to the counterdemonstrators shouting "boycot Israel" and "Israel, murderers". The message of Mr Lapid was also exactly what the sign above says: "We love Israel". Not AGAINST something, but IN FAVOUR of the Jews having their own country in the State of Israel. Israel is the only true democracy in the Middle East and a country which at the same time having a lot of other traditions and influences still stands as a good representative of our western values such as Democracy, Human value and Freedom of Religion and of Speech.
What is striking when I recently wrote about Violent extremism is that of the three groups in Sweden identified by the Government accepting violence as a mean of activism, all three groups are in some way or another against the State of Israel. Sometimes it is a matter of antizionism but often simply antisemitism, that brings left wing extremists, right wing extremists and islamists.
Some say that they clearly defy antisemtism ("I have nothing against Jews"), but believe it as totally just being an antizionist. But what does that actally mean? Zionism is a movement for the establishment of a Jewish homeland (in Israel / Palestine), and after this homeland was established a support for this state, and a continuous work to support and help Jews who want to make "aliyah" / immigrate to Israel.
If you are antizionist - does that mean that you do not beleive the State of Israel has the right to exist? In that case antizionism is almost as severe as antisemitism.
If the definition of antizionism on the other hand is criticism against the Government of Israel, their doings and policies, then you are partly on the same side as the opposition in Israel, for example the above mentioned Yair Lapid. But then this definition is wrong, which is illustrated by the name of the new big leftwing party in Israel - the Zionist Union which is a union (2014) between the former Labor-party, the Greens and Hatnuah with partyleader Tsipi Livni. "Zionism" is thus a broad ideology that most parties in Israel identify with.
The leader of my party, The Christian Democrats, Ebba Busch Thor also made a speech at the rally. (in an article in the paper Expressen she clarifies her participation - also see the interview). We all have to counter Antisemitism and antizionism in Sweden - if we do not manage to keep Clean in this area it is yet another example of the Value Crisis we currently see in Sweden, and the western World.
Ebba wrote an article in Dagens Nyheter this week and it is very important for us to start debate which values should govern Sweden - much of the confusion today is due to a lack of fundament on what is Right and what is Wrong.
During the Writing of this article I came across MP Haneen Zoabi - of "Balad". She is a good example of Israel being a very tolerant state with a well functioning democracy and full Human Rights for the Citizens.
Being elected to the Knesset in 2009 she refused to participate in the singing of the national anthem Hatikvah at the opening ceremony, she is favoring the onestate-solution (which oddly enough also the President of Israel, Reuven Rivlin advocates!), and she also participated in the Ship-to-Gaza convoy.
During the Writing of this article I came across MP Haneen Zoabi - of "Balad". She is a good example of Israel being a very tolerant state with a well functioning democracy and full Human Rights for the Citizens.
Being elected to the Knesset in 2009 she refused to participate in the singing of the national anthem Hatikvah at the opening ceremony, she is favoring the onestate-solution (which oddly enough also the President of Israel, Reuven Rivlin advocates!), and she also participated in the Ship-to-Gaza convoy.
