Updated 00.32 | Published 00.14
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A misquotation of Ulf Kristersson is spreading around the world.
Something that leads to an increased threat to Sweden, according to Magnus Ranstorp.
– It is the absolute worst thing you can imagine, says the terrorism researcher.
During a question and answer session in Gothenburg, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson was confronted by pro-Palestinian demonstrators who asked questions about the Gaza crisis and the ongoing war between Hamas and Israel.
Kristersson says that Israel has a “right to people” before correcting himself and saying “a right to defence”.
Then protesters in the audience start shouting and asking if he said “Israel has the right to genocide”.
Now the quote has been picked up by Arabic-speaking media, which Today’s news was the first to report on.
Qatari Al Araby writes that Kristersson said that “Israel has the right to commit genocide” and believes that this is a catastrophic misstatement. Also Turkish TRT World and accounts that have been driving behind the attention-grabbing LVU campaign The LVU campaign The LVU campaign is a disinformation campaign and conspiracy theory protest movement that believes that the social services in Sweden are abusing the Act with special provisions on the care of young people in order to, on false or incorrect grounds, forcibly Muslim children. have referred to the quote as a truth.
“Provides fuel”
Terror researcher Magnus Ranstorp states that the quote in combination with the Koran burnings and the LVU campaign contributes to an increased threat image against Sweden.
– We have had a perfect storm of narrative spreading. That Sweden is a Muslim-hostile and Islam-hostile country and on top of that rests the problem with Israel, Hamas and Palestine, he says and continues:
– This gives fuel to the forces that want Sweden badly and to the violent environments. These are incredibly sensitive issues that mobilize very large forces in Western societies and also globally. It is the absolute worst thing you can imagine that this is spreading.
On Thursday evening, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also went out on X, formerly Twitter, and urged not to spread clips with the incorrect translation of Kristersson’s quote.
“Russia will recover”
According to Ranstorp, Turkey and Russia can also try to take advantage of the situation.
– The threat picture is increasing, but it also depends on how much others pick up and spread this. I can promise that Russia will take advantage of this narrative and try to reinforce it in Arabic in order to complicate Sweden’s security situation. Then we’ll see if Turkey will react, it’s a lot about waiting and seeing how it spreads.
How should the government handle the situation?
– You have to be objective, but you can’t do much more. This is beyond the government’s control. On the other hand, the EU can help try to correct this image, that it was not what was intended.