Jamal El-Haj’s participation in the Palestine conference in Malmö was re-debated. He was criticized for not distancing himself from Hamas, he himself believes that he was exposed to a racist drive, but does not regret attending the conference.
– There has become an unimaginably large focus on me. Bourgeois politicians and Sweden Democrats want to shift the focus from their own failures to dealing with my participation in a conference. My Palestinian and Muslim background has fitted well into a made-up image that there is a romance of violence in the Social Democrats, he says.
“I feel cheated”
The party discouraged Jamal El-Haj and its other representatives from attending the conference. Despite that, he went anyway.
– I did not take the information seriously, says Jamal El-Haj, to SVT’s Aktuell.
El-Haj believes there is a suspicion of Palestinians “when they meet and demonstrate” and thought the warnings about the conference could be a similar scenario.
On the spot, he was seen embracing the chairman of the conference, Amin Abu Rashid. A short time after the conference in Malmö, Rashid was arrested in the Netherlands, where he is now in custody on suspicion of having collected money for terrorist-labeled Hamas.
– I feel cheated by him. He should have informed me more. Before the conference, I asked, among other things, about the financing. I said, “I hope what you told me is true, because otherwise you’re lowering me and you’re lowering my party,” says El-Haj.
Does not regret that he participated
After the conference, the leadership within the El-Haj party forced him to take a one-year time-out from the foreign affairs committee. At the end of the year, he finally left the post.
In the Riksdag chamber, he has also been severely criticized by Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and his party leader Magdalena Andersson has had to come to his defense.
Despite everything, El-Haj does not regret attending the conference in Malmö.
– Had I not participated, I would not have been able to look my mother or my Palestinian friends in the eyes, says Jamal El-Haj.
Among other things, the Social Democrats have been accused of having a “terror romance” in some circles. El-Haj says he loves his party but has a bad conscience towards the party and those who had to defend him.
Jamal El-Haj has distanced himself from Hamas in recent statements. He himself believes that he previously belonged to the Palestinian Fatah, a counter force to Hamas, and that he moved to Sweden five years before Hamas was formed.