Media in Sweden and the Israel-Hamas war

Swedish media and politicians often fail to describe Israel's war against the civilian population in Gaza as a violation of the laws of war or as genocide. Even the most flagrant war crimes, such as when Israel demolished a fertility clinic with at least 4,000 frozen Palestinian embryos, are either ignored or published as a minor news item. Meanwhile, Palestinians who celebrated the Hamas attack are demonized, even though the worst atrocities were not known on the afternoon of October 7. 
 
7,500 tons of unexploded ordnance, which will continue to claim the lives of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza long after the war Israel is waging against the civilian population in Gaza ends. Konkret is one of the few Swedish media sites to report on the consistent destruction of all primary schools, colleges, and universities.
 
Additionally, journalists and aid workers are subjected to targeted attacks, resulting in a higher mortality rate among these professional groups compared to the rest of the population. A fertility center with 4,000 frozen Palestinian embryos is bombed and destroyed, a deed whose symbolism cannot be misunderstood.
 
Israel consistently violates the agreement on the laws of war, which is part of international law. It also fulfills some criteria that fall under the definition of genocide. This week, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague (ICC), Karim Khan, requested the arrest of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's Defense Minister Gallant, and the three top leaders of Hamas for crimes against humanity.
 
 "The evidence we have collected, including interviews with survivors and witnesses, video, image and audio material, satellite images, and statements from the suspected perpetrators, shows that Israel has deliberately and systematically deprived the civilian population in Gaza of means essential for survival," the prosecutor writes on the court's website.
 
At the same time, we have a Swedish government whose representatives repeatedly assert that "Israel has the right to defend itself." With few exceptions, the analysis showing that Israel's government has consistently benefited Hamas because it is the perfect enemy for a fascist and racist government is lacking. However, established media and representatives of the Swedish government focus more on dehumanizing and demonizing the Palestinian diaspora in Sweden rather than calling what is happening for what it is – genocide against the Palestinian population in Gaza.
 
But let's rewind to October 7, 2023, the day the war began with Hamas' attack inside Israel. Malmö has over 360,000 residents, about 50,000 with a Muslim background, and of them, around 10,000 identify as Palestinians. Yes, there were some Palestinians and sympathizers with the Palestinian cause in Malmö who celebrated the attack. This has been commented on and condemned countless times by editorial writers in established media. Without the slightest understanding of the reaction, only unanimous condemnation. And no understanding that those who celebrated often have ancestors, close relatives, and friends who have been subjected to Israel's oppression of Palestinians for decades.
 
But what did those who celebrated know? Yes, Hamas had attacked a state that has consistently persecuted, displaced, and discriminated against the Palestinian people who live or remain in Israel and the land occupied by Israel. And not just there. What they knew was that Hamas had fought back; the atrocities that were later reported were not known on the afternoon when the attack was celebrated.
At the same time, unfortunately, humans tend to become perpetrators if they have been subjected to abuse. This is, of course, no excuse but an explanation. There is no doubt that Hamas is a terrorist organization that oppresses the population in Gaza both religiously and politically. But how much does Israel have on its conscience?
 
Many Palestinians still remember the massacre in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in 1982. At least 700 children, women, and men were murdered by Lebanese Phalangists on Israel's orders. At that time, Israel was still something that could be likened to a state of law, and an Israeli commission determined that Defense Minister Ariel Sharon was ultimately responsible for the massacre. He was forced to resign but was not convicted for what he had done.
 
But there is also a historical amnesia among Swedish journalists and politicians regarding the background to the formation of the state of Israel and the condemnation of Hamas. The Zionist paramilitary terrorist organization Stern Gang, which contributed to the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, is rarely mentioned. Stern Gang aimed to combat the British administration with weapons to form a Jewish state in Palestine. They considered terrorism a legitimate method to achieve this goal. They committed several terrorist acts both within and outside Palestine from 1940 to 1948. The most notorious are the murder of British Minister Lord Moyne in 1944 and the murder of UN envoy Folke Bernadotte in 1948, as well as massacres of Palestinian villagers.
 
Another significant factor in the displacement of Palestinians from the area known as the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920-1948 is Yosef Weitz. At that time, the area was populated by about 10 percent Jews, who owned two percent of the land. Weitz, a Zionist bureaucrat, was the architect behind the ethnic cleansing that involved the displacement and massacres of the Palestinian and Arab populations, aiming to create an Israel where Jews were the majority. Weitz succeeded, and for many Israelis, he is still a hero.
 
But back to what I mentioned at the beginning. Unexploded ordnance. According to the UN, it could be about 7,500 tons of everything from grenades, rockets, bombs, and missiles. That is, ten percent of all bombs, etc., that Israel has dropped on Gaza's civilian population. NPR, an American public service company, has done a detailed report on how unexploded grenades, rockets, bombs, and missiles will take at least 14 years to neutralize. They take as an example a Palestinian family who returned to their demolished apartment in Gaza where only the bathroom was intact. There was a jar that one of the family's boys opened. The fuse in the jar exploded, and the boy lost his arm.
 
Then we have the attack on the fertility center in Gaza, where 4,000 embryos were destroyed. Arwa Mahdawi has written a column in The Guardian, which is very worth reading. Among other things, she asks how the reactions would have been if 4,000 Israeli embryos had been wiped out in a bomb attack. It is not hard to draw parallels to the Holocaust. Still, Western media and political leaders have dehumanized the Palestinian population, hence the indifference regarding this blatant war crime.
 
Hamas's current leader, Yahya Sinwar, was imprisoned in Israel for 22 years. During his imprisonment, it was discovered that he had a brain tumor. He was subsequently operated on and recovered. In 2011, he was released, along with over 1,029 other Palestinian prisoners, in exchange for the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
 
For Netanyahu, Hamas under Sinwar has been the perfect enemy. Hamas, unlike the Palestinian Authority, is entirely against a two-state solution, just like Netanyahu. Many observers believe that Hamas's attack on Israel was precisely what Netanyahu wanted. With low numbers in opinion polls, it is a well-tried and known trick to go to war. And this time, it was not enough to terrorize Palestinians in the occupied West Bank – Netanyahu finally got a reason to virtually obliterate all of Gaza.
 
Swedish media's and government representatives' actions in this genocide can be explained by the guilt that still exists in our collective memory. We were neutral when Nazi Germany was creating its thousand-year Reich. The then government demanded that Jews with German passports be stamped with a J in their identification documents. And the Jews we received as refugees were those persecuted for belonging to a party, mainly German Social Democrats, not those who were sent to gas chambers because of their ethnicity.
 
This is an explanation but not an excuse for not condemning Israel for its ongoing genocidal actions. The laws of war are the part of international law that regulates the conduct of warring and neutral states during war and occupation. They include, among other things, that civilians must not be attacked and must be protected, something the international community has agreed upon.
 
Non-civilians present among civilians do not mean the group can be considered a legitimate target. The civilian population must not be used as human shields to defend against attacks. The unique protective emblem of medical care must be respected, and the warring parties must do what they can to facilitate humanitarian efforts.
 
The intention must be to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racially determined, or religious group. The five acts included in the convention are as follows:
 
Killing members of the group
 
Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group
 
Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life is calculated to bring about its physical destruction, in whole or part.
 
Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group
 
Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
 
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