Manama: The mayor of a Swedish city has come under Israeli fire for equating Zionism and anti-Semitism and calling both "unacceptable extremism".
"Malmö does not accept anti-Semitism and does not accept Zionism. They are extremists who put themselves above other groups, seeing others as something lesser," Ilmar Reepalu said on Thursday in an interview with Skanska Dagbladet newspaper.
Reepalu was asked whether he considered a public condemnation of anti-Semitism in Malmö.
Charlotte Wiberg, of the Swedish Committee against Anti-Semitism told Yediot Aharonot that "Reepalu chose not to show solidarity with Jews facing danger in Malmö, but rather, with the people who wish to marginalise a religious group because of Israel's policy."
George Braun, the president of the Jewish community in Gothenburg, about 250 kilometres from Malmö, told Israeli daily Haaretz that Reepalu's statements and "other events in Malmö are making the Jewish community feel very uncomfortable."
"Some people, especially the young, are leaving the city," he said.
However, Reepalu rejected the charges against him, saying that it was "terrible" that Jews felt "so insecure in Malmö that they felt compelled to leave."
The mayor said that local Jews assumed some responsibility for the attitude towards them, noting that "they have the possibility to affect the way they are seen by society".
Reepalu had urged Malmo's Jewish community to "distance itself" from Israeli attacks on Gaza's civilian population.
"Instead, the community chose to hold a pro-Israel demonstration," he said, adding that such a move "may convey the wrong message to others," Israeli daily Ynet News reported.
"A city-centre demonstration in solidarity with Israel by local Jews stirred up feelings against them. I wish the Jewish community would distance itself from Israel's violations of the rights of the civilian population in Gaza," he said.
The mayor also urged Muslims to be cautious in their attitudes.
"I wish that representatives of Muslims in Malmö would clearly say that the Jews in Malmö shouldn't get mixed up in the Israel-Palestine conflict," he said.
Malmö's Jewish community has complained about harassment by extreme left-wing and right-wing activists, but mostly by radical elements from the city's Muslims, who make up about 15 per cent of the population, Haaretz said.
When Greek MP returned gift
Manama: An e-mail is circulating in the Arabian Gulf referring to a letter reportedly written in December 2008 by 70-year-old Theodoros Pangalos, a Greek Member of Parliament, as he returned a gift from Israel's ambassador to Greece Ali Giachia.
Text of the alleged letter:
Dear Mr Ambassador,
Thank you for the three bottles of wine that you sent me as season's greetings. I wish to you, your family and everybody in the Embassy a happy new year. Good health and progress to you all.
Unhappily, I noticed that the wine you have sent me has been produced in the Golan Heights. I have been taught since I was very young not to steal and not to accept products of theft. So I cannot possibly accept this gift and I must return it back to you. As you know, your country occupies illegally the Golan Heights which belongs to Syria, according to the International Law and numerous decisions of the International Community.
I take the opportunity to express my hope that Israel will find security within its internationally recognised borders and the terrorist activities against Israel territory by Hamas or anybody else will be contained and made impossible, but I also hope that your government will cease practicing the policy of collective punishment which was applied on a mass scale by Hitler and his armies.
Actions such as those of these days of the Israel military in Gaza remind the Greek people of holocausts such as in Kalavrita or Doxato or Distomo and certainly in the ghetto of Warsaw. With these thoughts allow me to express to you my best wishes for you, the Israeli people and all the people of our region of the world.
Athens, 30/12/2008
