Swedish cabinet member compared Israel with Nazi-Germany

[Little Tich]

Source: Svenska Dagbladet

A political scandal is brewing in Sweden, posing a threat to the country’s Minister of Housing and its relations with Israel, after it was revealed that the Cabinet member, Memhet Kaplan, dined with leaders of extremist rightwing groups. And in a video, published by SvD, Mr Kaplan made comments that now have critics accusing him of antisemitism.

NEW YORK. The Swedish Green Party, Miljöpartiet (MP), which rules the country in cooperation with the Social Democrats, finds itself in crisis after damning revelations about Mehmet Kaplan, a Green Party member and Sweden’s Minister of Housing. Mr Kaplan showed a severe lack of good judgement, critics say, when he attended a dinner with leaders of rightwing extremist organizations last summer.

Mr Kaplan’s situation deteriorated on Sunday. In a video, shot in 2009 and published by SvD, Mr Kaplan compares Israel’s actions against Palestinians with the treatment of Jews in Hitler's Germany.

In the video, Mr Kaplan is seen discussing the historic background of today’s islamophobic tendencies in Europe and elsewhere.

”There are similes to what many Jews have testified about,” Mr Kaplan says in the video.

He goes on by stating that ”Israelis treat Palestinians much in the same way as Jews were treated in Germany during the 1930s”.

Read more: http://www.svd.se/swedish-cabinet-member-accused-of-antisemitism

Note: Svenska Dagbladet (svd.se) is a mainstream Swedish Daily. This story is breaking in Sweden, but Israeli media hasn't caught on yet.

[Little Tich]

1. Update: Swedish housing minister to resign after comments on Israel

Source: Jerusalem Post

Mehmet Kaplan will step down following comments where he likened Israel's treatment of Palestinians to what happened to Jews in Nazi Germany, says Sweden's PM.

STOCKHOLM - Sweden's Housing Minister Mehmet Kaplan will resign following comments where he likened Israel's treatment of Palestinians to what happened to Jews in Nazi Germany, the prime minister said on Monday.

The comments that daily Svenska Dagbladet first reported last week were made in 2009, before Kaplan entered the newly formed center-left government to represent the minor coalition partner the Green Party in 2014.

The resignation comes amid reports of tensions within the center-left minority coalition government of Prime Minister Stefan Lofven's Social Democrats and the Green Party.

The coalition had already been strained by an asylum crisis last year. Deputy Prime Minister Asa Romson of the Greens was close to tears when tougher asylum policies were presented late last year and criticism from within her party has been fierce.

http://www.jpost.com/International/Swedish-housing-minister-to-resign-after-comments-on-Israel-451577

[ericson00]

2. GOOD

the Palestinian population has skyrocketed in recent history. Not the case with the Jews in Occupied Europe, in which Sweden was "neutral."

[Little Tich]

3. Most Swedes are actually proud that their country stayed out of the war.

Most Swedes have no idea that it was excellent Swedish steel that kept the Nazi war machine going, and that the steel was paid for in gold, some of it melted down gold fillings.

This has nothing to do with the OP, however.