A Lebanese-born MP with links to Hamas and belonging to the left-leaning Social Democrats has caused waves in Swedish politics this week by announcing his resignation from the party. The decision comes in the wake of a rumbling scandal over his participation in a conference hosted by a known Hamas donor. He also faces accusations of attempting to influence an asylum court case involving an Egyptian imam.
Jamal El-Haj, an MP for the Malmö region, will now sit as an independent in the Swedish Parliament, the Riksdag, after publicly resigning from the Social Democrats on Monday citing a lack of trust expressed in him by the party leadership.
A vocal antisemite born to parents of Palestinian heritage, El-Haj has represented the centre-left party in parliament since 2018, including serving on the foreign relations committee. He came under fire in May for speaking at a Palestinian solidarity conference with strong ties to the militant group Hamas, despite senior Social Democrats urging him not to. In photos from the conference, he is seen embracing Amin Abu Rashid, currently in custody in the Netherlands on suspicion of raising close to €6 million for the terror organisation. More recently, El-Haj made headlines when, in an interview with Dagens Nyheter, he stated that “one cannot kill civilians, even if they are Jews.”
The final straw for the party came last week when it was revealed that El-Haj had contacted the Swedish Migration Agency in 2017 to personally assist a hardline Egyptian imam popular among Islamists to remain in the country. In response, party leader Magdalena Andersson pulled support from the controversial MP over the weekend.
In his resignation letter, El-Haj stated that he had reached a “critical point” with the Social Democrats and that he would continue to serve as an independent MP due to the wishes of his constituents. He added that he will continue to be “loyal to Sweden and the Swedish people and to the Palestinian people.”
This is not the first time the Swedish Left has been accused of harbouring Islamists. Last year, a report highlighted efforts by the Muslim Brotherhood to infiltrate left-wing municipal politics. Also, an overtly Islamist party, Partiet Nyans, has stood in recent elections, catering primarily to Turks.
El-Haj’s exit can be seen as just another symptom of a crisis within the Social Democrats caused by migration and demographic changes. It is the party that ruled Sweden for most of the 20th century and the birthplace of the country’s extensive welfare state and lax asylum policies.
Rather ironically, El-Haj’s resignation has been cited as an example of institutional racism in Swedish politics.
El-Haj’s home constituency of Malmö has become notorious due to its spiralling rates of immigration-fueled gang violence. Various Swedish cities have been rocked by Islamist violence in recent years, prompting authorities to suggest calling in the military to assist police in migrant districts.
The Swedish Social Democrats’ struggle with the issue of identity and Islam is echoed by a similar incident experienced by the British Labour Party this week when it was forced to withdraw support from a high-profile Muslim candidate for the Rochdale by-election after he repeated the antisemitic conspiracy theory that Israel “permitted” the October 7 massacre to happen.
https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/sweden-hamas-linked-mp-splits-from-social-democrats/