Sweden's Free-Speech Charade

Benjamin Birnbaum: The Stockholm Syndrome: When Free-Speech Laws Are Only Free for Some

(CBS)  Benjamin Birnbaum is a reporter-researcher for The New Republic.

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When Zvi Mazel was summoned to the Swedish Foreign Ministry back in January 2004, he knew he was in trouble. As Israel's top diplomat in Stockholm, the 64-year-old had just done something markedly undiplomatic--not exactly rare for Israeli envoys.

No, he hadn't remarked upon the "yellow skin and slanted eyes" of Asians. No, he hadn't taken part in a child-pornography ring. And no, he hadn't been found wallowing in his backyard--drunk, naked, and strapped in sexual bondage gear.

Mazel's offense was of a different order, the sort that would turn him into a national hero, not a national embarrassment. Attending a Stockholm art exhibit, he'd come across an unusual piece: "SNOW WHITE AND THE MADNESS OF TRUTH." The Snow White in question was a 29-year-old Palestinian woman who'd recently blown up herself and 21 Israelis at a restaurant, and her smiling photo draped a mini sailboat drifting about a rectangular basin of blood with Bach's Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut ("My Heart Swims in Blood") playing in the background. An enraged Mazel unplugged the display's power chords, toppled one of its spotlights, and was promptly escorted out of the museum.

In the ensuing fracas, Mazel enjoyed the full-throttled backing of Israeli officials, who defended his act as a suitable response to the glorification of a mass murderer. But the Swedish government treated Mazel's behavior differently, as an inexcusable assault on the nation's sacrosanct value of free expression.

Fast forward five-and-a-half years, and the two countries find themselves in a similar kerfuffle. The month-old spat began with the now-infamous "organ-harvesting" article in Aftonbladet, Sweden's largest newspaper, which accused Israeli soldiers of extracting kidneys from dead Palestinian combatants (and somehow transporting them to rabbis in New Jersey). To Jewish ears, the charge sounded suspiciously familiar, like a 21st century version of the blood libel that sparked pogroms in Europe from 1144 to 1946 (and that has lately gotten a new lease on life in the Muslim world).

The Israeli government, not to mention Jewish organizations worldwide, immediately called on the Swedish government to condemn the "organ libel." But after Sweden's ambassador to Israel initially distanced her countrymen from the article, the Swedish foreign ministry proceeded to distance itself from her.Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, and other government officials have all since repeated the mantra that Swedish laws and norms prevent them from interfering in--or even opining on--a media matter. And polls show that an overwhelming majority of Swedes stand behind them. A headline in the Swedish English-language daily The Local managed to capture the popular perception of this imbroglio in just seven words:"Sweden's free speech tradition draws Israeli ire."

This is the self-portrait Sweden has painted, one of a free-expression paradise where citizens can say or publish whatever they please without consequence.

It's a lovely image. It's also a lie.

Now, Reinfeldt and Bildt aren't lying, per se, when they tell you that freedom of the press is enshrined in the Swedish Constitution. It is. But so are explicit restrictions on that freedom.Chapter 7 of the relevant section catalogues 21 types of "offences against the freedom of the press." Some, like #4 ("unauthorized trafficking in secret information") and #17 ("threats made against a public servant"), are standard even in the most libertarian democracies. Others are more draconian, like #15: "insulting language or behavior, whereby a person insults another by means of offensive invective or allegations or other insulting behavior towards him."

There's also #11, a form of which can be found in almost every Western democracy but America: "agitation against a population group, whereby a person threatens or expresses contempt for a population group or other such group with allusion to race, color, national or ethnic origin, religious faith or sexual orientation."

Swedish judicial authorities have repeatedly invoked this clause and similar regulations in the country's penal code to investigate, charge, and fine or imprison Swedes who vilify minorities.

The most famous such case involved Lutheran pastor Åke Green, who in June 2004 was sentenced by a district court to a month in prison for a sermon that called homosexuality "a deep cancerous tumor in the body of society."

After 17 months of appeals, during which the Green case became an evangelical cause célèbre, the Supreme Court reluctantly acquitted the clergyman--not on Swedish legal grounds, the Court noted, but in deference to the religious-freedom provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Others haven't been so fortunate. 30-year-old white supremacist Björn Björkqvist, for example, has already served multiple jail terms for his incendiary writings against essentially every non-Aryan minority in Sweden.

Even Aftonbladet has run afoul of Swedish hate-speech laws, albeit not for anything the newspaper itself has published. At least twice in recent years, the tabloid's editor has been found liable for failing to censor the ravings of a commenter on one of its website's chat forums.
As for Swedish legal action against anti-Semitism, context is key. In January 2002, for instance, a district court sentenced neo-Nazi Fredrik Sandberg to six months in prison for publishing a Third-Reich-era pamphlet ("The Jewish Question"). But four years later, the official who initiated that case (Swedish Chancellor of Justice Göran Lambertz) discontinued an investigation into the Stockholm Central Mosque regarding its distribution of tapes that encouraged Muslims to kill Jews, described therein as "the brothers of apes and pigs." His legal justification? "[Such statements] should be judged differently--and therefore be regarded as permissible--because they were used by one side in an ongoing and far-reaching conflict where calls to arms and insults are part of the everyday climate in the rhetoric that surrounds this conflict."

Alas, such unabashed double standards aren't confined to Swedish judicial proceedings.

Green Party elder statesman Per Gahrton, for example, was among the first Swedish politicians to publicly castigate Ambassador Elisabet Borsiin Bonnier for her Aftonbladet condemnation, demanding that she be recalled from Tel Aviv and "taught the basics of Swedish freedom of speech." Yet just five months ago, strangely enough, Gahrton scolded new NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen--the Danish prime minister during the country's blasphemous-cartoon bout with the Muslim world--for "failing to condemn the Jyllands-Posten Mohammed caricatures." Confronted with the contradiction, Gahrton backtracked ("condemn" was a poor word choice, he admitted).

Aftonbladet hasn't even acknowledged its record of hypocrisy. As most European publications stood in solidarity with Jyllands-Posten and other Danish newspapers during the 2006 controversy, the Swedish tabloid branded Denmark "the most prejudiced, bigoted and narrow-minded country in Western Europe." But now that its own work is under attack, Aftonbladet has embraced the free-speech defense (and unlike Jyllands-Posten, which apologized for its slight, has expressed no regrets).

And then there's Prime Minister Reinfeldt, who faced his own cartoon crisis less than a year after taking office. In August 2007, the regional newspaper Nerikes Allehanda published an editorial on freedom of expression and, to illustrate the point, included a caricature of the Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog--a drawing initially slated for a Stockholm art exhibit before it was jettisoned at the eleventh hour by the hosting museum (and subsequently rejected by others) for fear of violent reprisals.

As the cartoonist submitted himself to 24/7 police protection after receiving death threats, including a $100,000 bounty on his head from Al Qaeda in Iraq, Prime Minister Reinfeldt moved swiftly to prevent a Swedish sequel to the Danish affair, which claimed over 200 lives. While he resisted Muslim pressure to prosecute the offender--blasphemy, unlike group defamation, is legal in Sweden--he invited Muslim ambassadors and local community leaders to a summit. Algerian envoy Merzak Bedjaoui hailed Reinfeldt's proposed get-together as "an excellent initiative taken in a spirit of appeasement." And that spirit pierced the air as the prime minister addressed the gathering: "I regret if people have taken offense or feel offended," he said. "I personally would never intentionally act in a way that could be perceived by other religions as provocative or offensive."

This time around, Reinfeldt has professed no regrets, nor has he expressed any desire to defuse the situation by meeting his Israeli counterpart. (Foreign Minister Bildt already cancelled a scheduled visit to Jerusalem.)
How, then, does Sweden handle hate speech? When does it prosecute the offenders, when does it merely apologize for them, and when does it rally to their cause while pretending that that's what the country always does? In short, whenever Sweden pleases and for whatever reasons suit the moment.

[wardead]

During an interview with Al-Jazeera in 2002, late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat accused Israel of murdering Palestinian children and harvesting their organs for transplant operations. ?They murder our kids and use their organs as spare parts. Why is the whole world silent? Israel takes advantage of this silence to escalate its oppression and terror against our people,? said an angry Arafat.

During that interview, which took place on 14 January 2002, Arafat held up pictures of the bodies of some children killed and badly mutilated by the Israeli army.

[wardead]

isreal never does anything wrong huh ********

[jeremiahjones]

Jimmy C. ... I'm afraid you don't see.

Your information is neither current nor have you properly interpreted what's in front of you.

The Swedes recently had an election--within the past couple of weeks. The opposition party--their equivalent of our right-wing Republicans--suggested the slightest modification in their health care-health insurance system. That party was roundly trounced at the polls.

You write that you have lived in Sweden for 6 months and you understand it now? I have lived in different countries for six months and longer and I do not pretend to understand the various complexities. One can live in a place for a lifetime, and not understand it, if one does not have an open mind and heart and sound judgment. Recall the Biblical warning: They have eyes, but they do not see; they have ears but they do not hear.

[babooph]

More simply free speech against Israel is not allowed-same as in the States.

[saoir--2008]

This is a bizarre tirade based on an irrational justification. I cannot help but think that this current phase of Anti Europeanism that is sweeping through some sections of the media in the US is out of some kind of inferiority complex - some kind of lashing out at others because the US is embarrassed at it's loss of power and loss of moral leadership.
Sweden is a fine country with fine principles. It doesn't agree with the US on everything. Why does that make it somehow deserving of such a tirade of vilification ?
The US has chipped away at it's own free speech with it's KGB style "Patriot Act".

[anti-global2]

Free speech charade, you mean like when someone questions the numbers given for the holocaust and they are sent to prison? I don't mean denying the holocaust (even though someone should be entitled to their opinion or belief, regardless if they are right or wrong) I mean even questioning if other ethnic groups lost equal or greater numbers to the nazis. you mean like that?

[jeremiahjones]

I've seen more journalistic attacks on Sweden in recent months--alleging various indiscretions and perfidies among the Swedes--than at any time that I can remember these past 50 years!

Por que? Are these incoherent missiles aimed at Sweden supposed to divert us from the fact that that nation has achieved an effective and more or less happy marriage of Socialist and Capitalist values, and that it provides its citizens with a superb health care system (and adequate health insurance to access it!) as well as a social safety net that really works for its citizens? It is not, of course, a perfect society (none exists on earth!), but potshots such as this silly article merely divert Americans' attention from our own deleterious shortcomings!

[jimmyc1955]

Ugh - gee I hate to burst your ill informed bubble but - your statement about happiness with the system isn't true. I have spent probably close to 6 months in Sweden and the people are trying to undo 70 years of ingrained bureaucracy.

Sweden's health care system is bankrupting the country. Real unemployment in Sweden is very close to 15% because nearly 10% of the country is on perminant disability for things like stress or over work. They also have the problem of a diminishing native population due to low birth rates and the highest suicide rate in Europe. In 10 or so years there will not be enough money in the budget to continue the social structures they have.

This is all public record, you can look it up.

[Re-HorakhtyofSweden]

Reading through comments I am wondering: why israelis and jews in general can't condemn the illegal organ trade first, and then explain why shot palestinian body was sewed. That would be a constructive position. Now it seems that they have put themselves way above swedes, not even speaking about palestinians. Not surprisingly, no one likes "uebermenchen".

If middle ages are already mentioned, I would recommend to read prof. Ariel Toaff book "Blood passover": blood rites haven't been just libel, it was actually practised by some ashkenazi sects. And mind you, prof. Ariel Toaff is a jew himself.


Why, if the goal is to steal organs, would soldiers shoot an individual in the chest?"

Because it was not a goal to steal organs. The accusation is that they removed the organs from MORTALLY WOUNDED people. People who were dying anyway and were for some reason transported to Israel for a week to do an autopsy when cause of death is obvious. Medically possible? Of course it is. It's not recommended to do organ transplants of shot people (tetanus risk) but when you're desperate you're desperate.

CBS should be ashamed of itself by allowing this propagandist to spread lies.

Regards,

African in Sweden

[armyoftwelve]

Toaff withdrew the 1st edition and basically excised most of tose passages for the 2nd edition. He still insists that there was some rare ritual use of blood.

[juwboy]

Re-HorakhtyofSweden and kenhamlett:

When Hitler came to power, one of his first acts was the elimination of his political opponents -- Communists, Marxists, Trotskyites, socialists, labor leaders and other left-wingers.

What was the next priority on Hitler`s extermination list?

It wasn`t the Jews.

Or the Gipsises.

Or homosexu@ls.

It was the mentally-retarded and feeble-minded.

Idiots, imbeciles, half-wits, simpletons, morons and cretins.

People just like you, Re-Horakhtyof Sweden and kenhamlett.

[juwboy]

The ingestion of blood is specifically prohibited by the Jewish religion, so only a moron or an imbecile would claim that Jews slaughter other human beings so they can drink their victims` blood or use it as an ingredient in a recipe.

[kenhamlett]

And what is the purpose of this moronic tirade?

While I am really surprised to the The New Republic having a place on CBS News there have been much more coherent articles that they could have used. It looks like an advance piece to announce it will soon be called The Jew Republic.
Sweden does what Sweden does so why is this rant of any importance. One theory is that we are supposed to become hostile to Sweden to bolster the credibility of an agent of our enemies who decided to become an impromptu art critic. The other theory is that our enemies in Israel are whining again and really grasping at straws to claim they are victims.
If you need to publish an opinion, at least make it sensible and avoid rambling. The disjointed nature of this short story is the only thing that draws attention. The content is null and its supposed motivation is a farce.

[jimmyc1955]

Well - it obviously didn't get the message through to an anti-semite like you. The point is simple, in sweden it is approved speach to hate jews, but it is hate speech to even ruffle Islamic sensibilities.

So for people who hate jews (as it would appear you do) this is a perfectly understandable double standard. For most people who have an sense of actual justice you might say that the museum piece was highly insulting and not justified, or say that both pieces are protected by free speech. What Sweden now has is free speech for some and not for others.

[mnbrant]

I like it. Heh Sveeden. If its so great, why did my great great grandpa and grandma leave it? Its basically frozen tundra. That and fishing.