Friday’s parliamentary debate on the war in the Middle East was held at the initiative of the Left Party, which demands that the government put greater pressure on Israel.
The Left Party’s foreign policy spokesperson Håkan Svenneling believes that after the killing of leading figures within Hamas and Hezbollah, we are now in a new situation.
– The right-wing extremist Netanyahu’s genocide must be stopped, he says in the debate.
The Social Democrats also went hard against the government. Several times, the party’s foreign policy spokesperson Morgan Johansson accused the foreign minister of lacking the power to act.
– Unfortunately, the Swedish government has been remarkably passive and silent. It is time to break that silence and act, he says.
The opposition’s common demand is that Sweden should pursue the issue of labeling Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist, and work for the EU to freeze its trade agreement with Israel, until the country is deemed to live up to international law.
“Do everything in our power”
But Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard dismisses the criticism and believes that the government has, for example, pushed for several current restrictions against Israel.
– The government has increased humanitarian aid by over half a billion since the war broke out. We constantly use our voice to gain humanitarian access. We are doing everything in our power to alleviate the situation, she says after the debate.
Anti-Semitism within V
The government and the Sweden Democrats also raised the issue of anti-Semitism in the Left Party. After the Jewish Central Council decided last week to no longer invite the Left Party to its commemorations, the party board has decided to exclude member Kristofer Lundberg, who did not want to distance himself from the terrorist-classified Palestinian PFLP.
According to the foreign minister, there are more examples of anti-Semitism within the party.
– If you can’t clean up your own ranks and keep a straight line against your own variants, then the Left Party and the intended red-green government basis that you are talking about, have no credibility in these matters, says Malmer Stenergard.
For its part, the Left Party believes that there is no doubt about what applies in the party.
– We are extremely clear that we do not tolerate anti-Semitism and have also excluded people as a consequence of their statements, says Håkan Svenneling.