"Due to the failure of the police and the judiciary to take action against the perpetrators of antisemitic hate crimes, our 'travel advisory' on Malmo will remain in place".
Malmo, Sweden, 15 November 2018
In 2010, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre had imposed its “Travel Advisory” on Malmo, in view of the constant antisemitic attacks on Jewish targets, mostly perpetrated by young islamists.
“The advisory has remained in placed due to the lax intervention of the city’s police force,” stated Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the Centre, headquartered in Los Angeles.
Malmo Rabbi Moshe David HaCohen pointed to a growing Jewish-Muslim cooperation, but also the increasing volume of drug-related crime in the city.
In an independent meeting with the Roma Information and Knowledge Centre (RIKC), the Chair, Mujo Halilovic, observed “since last contact with the Wiesenthal Centre, the situation is now worse as police attention focuses on Roma beggars from Eastern Europe as pariahs.”
The Wisenthal Centre delegation together with Sweden-Israel Friendship Association representatives and the leadership and social workers of RICK
Rev. Bo Sandahl, Dean of the Diocese of Lund and President of the International Council of Christians and Jews (ICCJ), spoke of violence in the community, acknowledging the positive effects of the insertion programme fostered by Malmo Mayor Katrin Stjernfeldt-Jammeh.
(from left to right) Dr. Shimon Samuels, Rev. Bo Sandahl, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Maria Halkiewicz (Chairperson of the Sweden-Israel Friendship Association) and Alex Uberti of the SWC-Europe, meeting at the Swedish Church Diocese in Lund, Sweden
At the opening ceremony of the exhibition, Rabbi Cooper advised municipality officials present, that the travel advisory would be removed only when there would be hard evidence, following antisemitic attacks, of the police willing and equipped to make arrests and have the perpetrators arraigned.”
He added his gratitude to the Sweden-Israel Friendship Association, which organized the event, attended by over 400 visitors.
The Centre’s Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, spoke of the exhibition as a memorial to the late Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden, Per Ahlmark - an undefatigable champion against antisemitism and for human rights.
(left) Rabbi Cooper And (right) Shimon Samuels, Addressing A Heterogeneous Public At The Europaporten
Samuels traced examples of a thread of human rights, a code of ethics that runs through “People, Book, Land: the 3,500 Year Relationship of the Jewish People with the Holy Land.”
The speakers recalled the assault by NMR neo-Nazis, on this exhibition during its display at the Almedalen Festival in Visby. Once again, these Christian righteous showed courage in defending the exhibition.
The proceedings began with the Hymn of Hope “HaTikva” and concluded with “Next Year in Jerusalem.”
For further information, contact Shimon Samuels at +33 147 237 637