Jewish lobby group continues to boycott Sweden’s Left Party

Recently, the influential lobby organization Jewish Central Council announced that representatives of the Left Party are no longer welcome at the organization’s commemorations and other gatherings – citing the allegedly serious problem of anti-Semitism in its ranks.

Now, the two parties have met to talk and although the chairman of the Jewish Central Council Aron Verständig describes the meeting as “positive”, and welcomes the fact that the party leadership “made a clear statement against anti-Semitism”, the Left Party is still barred from attending the Jewish organization’s ceremonies – at least for now.

– We have not changed our decision here and now. It’s a discussion we need to have in our board, he told state television SVT.

– We need to see the Left Party take action against people who have expressed anti-Semitic views or supported terrorist organizations. But also that they educate about where the line is between criticism of Israel and anti-Semitism, Verständig continues.

The leader of the Left Party, Nooshi Dadgostar, also described the meeting as “good and constructive” and said that “some misunderstandingswerecleared up”.

– We have been critical of the Israeli government and its actions. We see no reason to change that criticism based on this conversation, she said, confirming that the meeting was largely about drawing the line between anti-Semitism and criticism of Israel.

Want to see faster expulsion cases

Since Israel’s invasion of Gaza began, the Left Party has initiated several expulsion cases against local politicians, accused of making anti-Semitic statements or expressing support for terror-classified Palestinian organizations.

However, the Jewish Central Council, which represents the country’s Jewish communities at the national level, believes that these expulsion cases are moving far too slowly, and calls on the party to act much more quickly.

“When it comes to the handling of several individual local V-politicians who have far exceeded the limits of legitimate criticism of Israel, denied the Israeli state’s right to exist and spread anti-Semitic tropes and conspiracy theories, the handling has been very inadequate. Marking and expulsion cases have taken too long. In addition, local party committees have on a number of occasions loyally supported party colleagues who have expressed anti-Semitic views, a press release states.