“The radical reinterpretation of incitement against Jews by the Chancellor of Justice in Sweden.”

EJP publishes an Opinion written and signed by four Jewish Swedish personalities about the “radical reinterpretation of incitement against Jews by the Chancellor of Justice in Sweden.”


Discussions about the limits of freedom of expression are running high right now, not least because of the Muhammed cartoons in Danish Jyllandsposten. The EU Council states in a controversial message on the 27th February, that it acknowledges and regrets that these cartoons were considered offensive and distressing by Muslims across the world and=2 0that a spirit of respect for religious and other beliefs should prevail. . It is a crime in Sweden to express derogatory statements about ethnic, racial, national, religious and sexual minorities or to incite hatred and violence against them. Simultaneously the limits of what one can express in Sweden against Jews are being expanded gradually. All Jewish institutions in Sweden are being continuously guarded because of threats directed to Jewish individuals as well as to Jewish institutions, and the Jewish communities spend 25% of their budget on security.

The hate website Radio Islam continues to spew forth its coarse Anti-Semitism, spread lists of Jews (real or imagined) and conspiracy theories on its site without the security police or the prosecuting authorities doing anything about it. When the radical right-wing party the Sweden Democrats on the other hand, had one of the Muhammed cartoons on its web-site, it was closed down after a quick and direct intervention by an official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

At the beginning of this year, the Chancellor of Justice*, Goran Lambertz, discontinued his preliminary investigation against the great mosque in Stockholm. Cassette tapes had been sold in the bookshop of the mosque with a violently Anti-Semitic contents. After a couple of broadcasts on the 26 and 27th November la st year, the Stockholm mosque was reported to the police.

In his decision to discontinue the preliminary investigation Lambertz wrote that “the lecture at hand20contains statements that are strongly degrading to Jews, among other things, they are throughout called brothers of apes and pigs.” Furthermore a curse is expressed over the Jews and “Jihad is called for, to kill the Jews, whereby suicide bombers - celebrated as martyrs - are the most effective weapon”.

The Chancellor raises the question whether the statements “should be judged differently, and be considered allowed, because they are used by one side in a continuing profound conflict, where battle cries and invectives are part of everyday occurrences in the rhetoric that surround the conflict.” Lambertz thought that the “recently mentioned statements in spite of their contents are not to be considered “incitement against an ethnic group according to Swedish law”. His conclusions were that the preliminary investigation should be discontinued because this case of incitement against Jews could be said to originate from the Middle East conflict. That is, in spite of the calls for ”killing the Jews”, these statements are not a crime in the legal sense in Sweden, because of the current conflict in the Middle East, according to the Chancellor of Justice. The logical conclusion is clear. If one mentions Palestine in hate speeches and calls for massmurder against Jews, one risks nothing in Sweden.
Andres Carlberg

What are then the situation for the Jews of Sweden? The Jewish communities spend 25% of its budget on security measures. No Jewish events, social, religious and cultural, can take place without extensive security measures. One wonders what the appointment of the Jews of Sweden to be a national minority according to the European Council Convention, together with Samis, Romas, Swedish Finns and Tornedal Finns?
Official Sweden wants to cut down on the little aid there is, to Jewish institutions for security; schools among others, and refuse absolutely to take over any responsibility for the security measures that even security police reports deem necessary. Jewish cemeteries in Stockholm and Malmoe have been vandalized recently.
The Chief of police in Stockholm wants to remove the cement impediments in front of the great Synagogue of Stockholm.
Jews are being harassed and persecuted in certain suburbs of Stockholm only because of their Jewishness and many have been forced to move to get away from the harassment.

In May last year the Minister fo r Justice, Thomas Bodstrom, stated in Parliament that the police and the prosecuting authorities should give top priority to hate crimes as e.g. incitement against Jews. The rei nterpretation of the law by the Chancellor of Justice gives the absolute opposite message. If this interpretation will turn into practice the threshold for the expression of hatred and incitement against Jews will be nearly eradicated.

The most frightening thing about this decision is the resounding silence that it has generated.


*The Chancellor of Justice is the Government's counsellor in legal matters. It is not a political post. One of his tasks is to ensure that the limits of the freedom of the press and other media are not transgressed and to act as the only public prosecutor in cases regarding offences against the freedom of the press and other media.

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