Sweden’s third largest city, Malmö, is often mentioned as the capital of European anti-Semitism. The perpetrators of the many anti-Semitic acts committed there are almost all Muslims. Hannah Rosenthal, at the time the U.S. government’s special envoy for combating anti-Semitism, visited the town in 2012. She spoke out about anti-Semitic statements made by then-Social Democrat mayor Ilmar Reepalu. Rosenthal also remarked that under this mayor Malmö had become a “prime example” of “new anti-Semitism,” as anti-Israeli sentiment serves as a guise for Jew-hatred.
A record number of complaints about hate crimes in the city from 2010 through 2011 did not lead to any convictions.
The Swedish Social Democrats are hardly the only European socialists who have become indirect allies of Hamas and Hizbullah. They are, however, certainly among the most egregious.
It is thus not surprising that the major 2013 study by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights found that 51 percent of Swedish Jews considered hostility to Jews in the streets and public spaces to be a fairly large or very large problem. Thirty-four percent of Swedish Jews always avoid wearing, carrying, or displaying things that might help identify them as Jews in public places; another 26 percent frequently avoid such acts of self-identification. Those are the highest figures for any country covered by the study.