Updated 13.21 | Published 13.16
Save the article
The Left Party has participated in aid projects that financed activities in Palestine.
Participating in one of the projects is the Palestinian party DFLP, which claims to have participated in the attacks on Israel.
– We are surprised that the DFLP participated in the attack, says the Left Party’s party secretary Aron Etzler.
The Left Party’s aid organization, the Left International Forum (VIF), has for several years contributed to a project that includes the Palestinian party DFLP.
According to VIF, the DFLP has stated that it participated in the attacks against Israel on October 7 together with Hamas.
According to the aid organization Sida, it is about two million kroner that was paid out between 2013 and 2019 to a project in the West Bank. The project was completed in 2022.
The investment must have concerned “peace, democracy and human rights”. Through a Palestinian platform, called AlMuntada, young people from three political parties gather: DFLP, PPP and FIDA, according to Sida’s press service.
It is thus the DFLP that claims to have participated in the attacks against Israel.
– As far as we understand, the money has not gone to any kind of activities linked to violence, Sida’s press service writes in an email to Aftonbladet.
According to VIF, the money for the DFLP went through a collaboration with the Danish party Enhetslistan, which in turn sent the money on to Palestine.
– Of course we didn’t see this coming, but now we need to review what has happened. The important thing now is that there is nothing to indicate that the funds used in the project have gone to anything other than the project. It’s about strengthening Palestinian youth in human rights, democracy and equality, says Nike Dalskog, secretary general at VIF.
What image did you have of DFLP when you entered the project?
– We follow Sida’s regulations and our own values. We are not involved in projects where we have any reason to believe that their value base would not rest on democracy, peaceful methods, human rights. We have made the same assessment as the EU and the USA, they are not on any terrorist list.
Now Sida is opening an investigation into what has happened.
– Sida will ask for a report from the International Forum of the Left where they develop the background, what happened and the type of cooperation with the Palestinian parties. We will then see if this causes any consequences, Sida writes in the email to Aftonbladet.
The Left Party’s party board is VIF’s highest decision-making body and the Left Party’s foreign policy spokesperson Håkan Svenneling sits as a substitute on VIF’s board.
When Aftonbladet reaches Svenneling, he does not want to answer any questions.
– I am a spokesperson for foreign policy, but I do not intend to answer these questions, he says.
The Left Party’s party secretary Aron Etzler instead answers questions about what happened.
– We think that VIF is doing very important work and that this has been a good project. We are surprised that the DFLP was involved in the attack, he says.
– We are starting an investigation to find out how exactly we ended up in this situation. It is important to us. It should be possible to demand that parties in Sweden not in any way, either verbally or in other ways, encourage attacks on civilians. It is an important question.