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June 6, 2010

The Changing Climate in Sweden

By Phil Boehmke

Things are definitely heating up in Sweden these days. The changing climate here and around the globe has caused the Swedish Port Workers Union to call for a boycott. No, this has nothing to do with AGW mythology or rising sea levels, this is about the rising tide of anti-Semitism.

Swedish Port Workers Union spokesman Peter Annerback said that "if an Israeli ship would come we would just leave it and not work on it." The union is an active supporter of the radical pro-Hamas group "Ship to Gaza" and is organizing the June 15-24 boycott of Israeli shipping in response to what it calls "the unprecedented criminal attack on the peaceful ship convoy in Gaza." The Swedish Port Workers Union (an IWW affiliate) has also launched a propaganda campaign to persuade other unions and organizations to join the boycott.

The union can use the recent Marmara incident to justify their boycott, but this is really just part of a frightening trend in Sweden. The UK Telegraph reports on recent events in Malmo, Sweden.

In 2009, a chapel serving the city's 700-strong Jewish community was set ablaze. Jewish cemeteries were repeatedly desecrated, worshipers were abused on their way home from prayer, and "Hitler" was mockingly chanted in the streets by masked men.

Judith Popinski a Nazi concentration camp survivor who has lived in Malmo since her rescue from Auschwitz 65 years ago said "I never thought I would see this hatred again in my lifetime." The new wave of anti-Semitic violence is being perpetrated by Sweden's growing Islamic immigrant population as well as members of the country's Neo-Nazi organizations.

For decades Mrs. Popinski was invited to area schools to talk to the students about the Holocaust as a living witness of the atrocities committed against the Jewish people. But in recent years.

"Muslim schoolchildren often ignore me now when I talk about my experiences in the camps," she said. "it is because of what their parents tell them about the Jews. The hatreds of the Middle East have come to Malmo. Schools in Muslim areas of the city simply won't invite Holocaust survivors to speak anymore."

Malmo's mayor Ilmar Reepalu and the city's police have done little to protect the Jewish community. Swedish politicians routinely ignore the outrages committed by the Muslims in an attempt to curry favor with their growing constituency. The small Jewish population (around 18,000 nationally) simply doesn't have much political clout.

"Jews came to Sweden to get away from persecution, and now they find they no longer have a safe haven," said Rabbi Shneur Kesselman, 31. "That's a horrible feeling."

One who has had enough is Marcus Eilenberg, a 32-year-old Malmo-born lawyer, who is moving to Israel in April with his young family.

Mr. Eilenberg and his family had given serious thought about moving to Stockholm, but felt that in time they would be no safer there.  He said.

"This is happening all over Europe. I have cousins who are leaving their homes in Amsterdam and France for the same reason as me."

In light of the despicable statement made by Hearst Newspapers' White House correspondent Helen Thomas at the recent Jewish Heritage Celebration where she said that the Jews in Israel should "get the hell out of Palestine" and return home to Poland or Germany, a frightening picture of global anti-Semitism is coming into focus. Are we witnessing the tragic repetition of history?

After seeing members of Malmo's Jewish community being "attacked by a screaming mob of Arabs and Swedish leftists," while the city's police "looked on," Judith Popinski made this terrifying statement, "It reminded me of what I saw in my youth."

The Swedish Port Workers Union boycott is just another anti-Semitic episode disguised as a "peace protest."
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