Human rights organization issues travel advisory because Jews in Sweden “have been subject to anti-Semitic taunts and harassment.”

This story is from 16th of December 2010. But it fits in the picture, with the new enforcement of Sharia Laws in Swedish sports.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Los Angeles-based human rights organization, has taken the unusual step of issuing a travel advisory about security concerns in Sweden because of growing anti-Jewish discrimination.

During a meeting on Tuesday with Sweden’s Justice Minister Beatrice Ask in Stockholm, the associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, and Dr. Shimon Samuels, who oversees the center’s International Relations department, outlined the reasons for the travel advisory.

We reluctantly are issuing this advisory because religious Jews and other members of the Jewish community there have been subject to anti-Semitic taunts and harassment. There have been dozens of incidents reported to the authorities but have not resulted in arrests or convictions for hate crimes”, said the two Wiesenthal Center representatives in a statement.

Cooper and Samuels added that “a contributing factor to this decision has been the outrageous remarks of Malmö mayor Ilmar Reepalu, who blames the Jewish community for failing to denounce Israel.

The advisory aimed at Jewish travelers urges extreme caution when visiting southern Sweden.

It is not connected to this week’s terrorist bombing in the heart of Stockholm. Critics have accused Reepalu of failing to protect Malmö’s tiny Jewish population from anti-Semitic violence and stoking hatred of Israel.

Writing earlier this year in The Wall Street Journal Europe, Daniel Schwammenthal , an editorial writer for paper, noted that “faced with these attacks on the city’s Jewish population, Malmö’s mayor, Ilmar Reepalu, seems curiously unperturbed by, if not sympathetic to, the attackers.”

While screaming “Sieg Heil” and “Hitler, Hitler” in 2009, a violent mob of Swedish Muslims launched bottles and stones at a pro-Israel demonstration attended by a small number of Jews in the central square of Malmö. Media reports have documented widespread harassment of Jews and Jewish children have routinely been called “dirty Jews.”

Many of Malmö’s Jews have fled the city because of the ubiquitous anti-Semitism. In 2009, there was a 50 per cent increase of anti-Semitic attacks when compared to 2008. Approximately 20% of Malmö’s 290,000 residents are Muslims, most of whom are Swedish Arabs.

The Jewish community registered under 700 Jews earlier this year but the number has steadily decreased due to anti-Jewish hostility and a local government, which, according to critics, foments modern anti-Semitism.

Source: Jerusalem Post

Contributed by Ivar