In a speech at a pro-Palestinian demonstration at Odenplan in Stockholm, left-wing politician Lorena Delgado Varas, who took a break from parliament after sharing an anti-Semitic post on social media and was reported to the police by the Jewish Central Council, was recently praised. V-leader Nooshi Dadgostar has described Delgado Varas’s sharing as “unacceptable” and stressed that anti-Semitism and racism can never be accepted.
The speech at Odenplan attacked what was called the “Zionist media” and Aron Verständig, chairman of the Jewish Central Council, was targeted with a series of lies and described as “life-threatening.” At its center were classic anti-Semitic tropes about Jewish power and influence. “He has so much power that he can silence a prime minister, and can fire a policeman, and can do whatever he wants in our country,” the speaker declared. “Remember his name,” he urged the protesters, who, as far as is known, did not object to the message.
Screenshot of video from the demonstration at Odenplan in Stockholm.
The consequences of this type of hate speech were illustrated in the United States this week when the residence of Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, was arsoned during the Jewish Passover (Pesach) celebration. In The Atlantic, Yair Rosenberg describes how Shapiro has been subjected to a wave of false claims about his stance on Israeli policy since the 2024 presidential election, attacks in which the fact that Shapiro is Jewish has clearly played a role. According to police information, the perpetrator wanted to kill Shapiro “for what he wants to do to the Palestinian people.”
Attacking an American Jew with reference to Israeli policies is a clear example of anti-Semitism, writes Rosenberg. “The Passover attack is a warning: If we do not deal with the lies about Jews in public, we will see more lies, and more consequences of them,” he emphasizes.
Last year, Ekot revealed that the Iranian regime, strongly characterized by anti-Semitic conspiracy thinking and long involved in attacks against Jews in several countries, was suspected of having planned to murder Swedish Jews, including Aron Verständig.
The excitement at Odenplan is not only unacceptable, it is downright dangerous.
SKMA
