Antisemitic image shared by Swedish MP provokes international condemnation

Swedish MP Lorna Delgado Varas caused a political and international storm in recent days after she shared a post with strong anti-Semitic content on social media.

The post, which has since been removed, included an illustration showing a threatening Israeli hand wielding an American hand with strings, which controls a line of toy soldiers carrying the flags of Ukraine, Germany, France, Britain and Canada.

The caption below the illustration claimed that the Zionist Jews rule the world, and continued with a monologue that included conspiratorial statements, threats, and hate speech.

The image is reminiscent of the classic anti-Semitic propaganda from Nazi Germany, in which illustrations of Jewish hands or giant octopuses appeared at its center as a symbol of global Jewish domination. This kind of propaganda was consistently used by the Nazi machine, laying the ideological ground for the systematic persecution of Jews.

Following the publication of the post, David Lega, head of government relations at the Union of Jewish Organizations in Europe and a former member of the European Parliament, called on the leader of the Swedish left-wing party, Nosy Dedegostar, to force Delgado Varas to publicly apologize. He said that if she did not do so, the party would have to remove her from office.

In a statement issued by the Union of Jewish Organizations, it was said that the very sharing of such an image by an elected official is a particularly serious act. The organization expressed deep concern about the fact that content of this level of hatred is being disseminated by a member of parliament in Sweden, even if it was quickly removed. According to them, this is not an innocent keyboard emission, but rather the dissemination of a classic image of hatred, which originates from a familiar and violent anti-Semitic ideology.

According to the organization, this is crossing a red line that requires unequivocal condemnation from the Swedish political system. The post, even if deleted, was broadcast to a wide audience of followers, and gives dangerous legitimacy to anti-Semitic content.

As of now, the Swedish government has not issued an official response.