Pro-Palestine protesters, raising chants of “Free Palestine”, staged a demonstration outside the only praying site of Jews, a synagogue, in Sweden’s Malmo city on Saturday (4th November). The protesters also gave anti-semitic calls, including chants to “bomb Israel”, while waving Palestinian flags. As per Swedish media, one of the demonstrators also burned an Israeli flag while slogans to bomb the Jewish nation were also heard during the demonstration, which was caught on camera.
Chairman of the Jewish Central Council of Sweden, Aaron Verständig captured the incident where a demonstrator could be seen burning the Israeli flag and calling to ‘bomb Israel’. He shared the video of the protest on X, which has gone viral on the internet. Condemning the incident, Verständig said, “Such acts of hatred towards the Jewish community in Malmö by extremists are utterly reprehensible.”
Footage of the incident showed the absence of any police presence at the synagogue, which has been subjected to numerous incidents of vandalism over the years.
Earlier, in 2011, Malmo City witnessed massive anti-Israel demonstrations and antisemitic rioting merely after it had plans to host Israel’s tennis team. Moreover, the city’s only synagogue has also faced arson attacks at least on two occasions, which is why several Jewish organisations have called out Police and authorities for their inaction and not providing security from violent threats from Pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
The spokesperson for the Jewish Community of Malmo, Fredrik Sieradzki, criticised police for not preventing the actions of the protesters and called their apparent failure to intervene “reprehensible.”
Calling out ‘blatant antisemitism’, the European Jewish Congress on Sunday (5th November) condemned the incident. The Jewish organisation tweeted, “We are deeply appalled by the recent Pro-Palestinian protest, which involved the burning of an Israeli flag in front of a synagogue in Malmo, Sweden. Intimidating the Jewish community and blaming them for the events in the Middle East is blatant antisemitism.”
However, the press department of The Swedish Police Authority has not responded to the allegations that it failed to provide adequate security and take action against pro-Palestine demonstrators who gave calls to ‘bomb’ the Jewish state or burnt the Israeli flag.
On 7th October, more than 3,000 Hamas terrorists launched a surprise attack involving rocket barrages and ground assault on Southern Israel, killing more than 1,400 people, maiming some 3,000, and abducting 240 more.
Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, the entire western world has witnessed dozens of anti-Israel and anti-semitic protests.
Evidently, the German police suspect that some unidentified assailants had tried to torch a synagogue. In Paris, police arrested a man who allegedly torched the front door of a Jewish couple. Similarly, in Lyon, a woman was stabbed in her home on Saturday (4th November), according to police officials, they suspect that the stabbing was an antisemitic assault. As per the news site 20minute.fr, the victim suffered minor injuries that required a few stitches to her abdomen.