A far-right Swedish Member of Parliament said last week that Jewish people can’t be true Swedes unless they abandon their religion.
Björn Söder, the deputy speaker in Parliament and secretary of the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats said in an interview last week that Jews can live in Sweden, but if they want to be considered true Swedish citizens, they should be required to assimilate.
In response to the anti-Semitic comments, Lena Posner Körösi, president of the Official Council of Jewish Communities told the Guardian that “I am appalled that Sweden’s third largest party can express itself in this way about Jews and other minorities,” she said. “We have to take them really seriously. This not a small group of fanatics you can dismiss.”
She said that his language, is “exactly like in 1930s Germany,” which her grandfather had to flee from.
Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven said that he found the comments to be “very, very scary.” He also accused the party of being “neo-fascist.”
Willy Silberstein, the chairman of the Swedish committee against anti-Semitism, responded to the rhetoric that “I am Jewish and born in Sweden. I am just as much Swedish as Björn Söder.”
Last October, Sweden announced its support and recognition of a Palestinian state.
