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Swedish tabloid cleared over Israel organ claims
www.thelocal.se ^ | 09/20/2009 | AFP/The Local

Posted on 09/21/2009 2:17:35 PM PDT by WesternCulture

A Swedish tabloid newspaper has been cleared of racism charges by the country's senior legal official over a story alleging that Israeli soldiers stole and sold body parts of dead Palestinians.

The Swedish Chancellor of Justice, Göran Lambertz, was asked to probe whether the report in the Aftonbladet tabloid last month amounted to inciting racial hatred and violated freedom of expression laws.

The TT news agency said the Chancellor of Justice had decided not to open a preliminary investigation into the case.

The Chancellor of Justice, who was unavailable for comment on Saturday, is a government-appointed official who acts as an independent judicial watchdog and is the only prosecutor in Sweden who can take legal action in cases concerning freedom of speech.

Aftonbladet alleged in a story in August that Israeli soldiers had been involved in the illegal harvesting and trafficking of human organs.

The claims sparked outrage in Israel and prompted senior figures in the Israeli government to demand that Sweden condemn the report.

But Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt rebuffed the calls, stressing a free press is an integral part of democracy.


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: antisemitism; israel; jewhatingmoron; media; mhmmdnsm09212009; sweden; troll
This affair is continuing to draw major attention.

One reason is that of Israel still refusing to formally apologize for the assassinationt of Swedish diplomat Folke Bernadotte.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folke_Bernadotte

1 posted on 09/21/2009 2:17:35 PM PDT by WesternCulture
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To: WesternCulture

About Folke Bernadotte:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folke_Bernadotte


2 posted on 09/21/2009 2:18:21 PM PDT by WesternCulture
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To: WesternCulture

Is this the same Sweden that allowed the Nazis free reign to their country whilst remaining “neutral”, and were paid for their exports to Germany in gold and silver looted from dead Jews? Yeah, I thought so.


3 posted on 09/21/2009 2:21:42 PM PDT by QBFimi (When gunpowder speaks, beasts listen.)
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To: QBFimi

“The Swedish Chancellor of Justice, Göran Lambertz”

If they have a Chancellor of Justice who thinks that this bit of nazi propaganda isn’t hate speech, then there is no justice in Sweden...


4 posted on 09/21/2009 2:27:45 PM PDT by CondorFlight (I)
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To: QBFimi

When your country has been completely surrounded by Nazis and still refused to have anything to do with them, maybe you’ll have the right to get all moralistic.

In fact, as I presume you are an American, you are a member of a country that intentionally allied itself with the USSR, a country which murdered something in the neighborhood of two to five times as many innocent people as Nazi Germany.

No Swedish Jews were surrendered to Germany. In fact, almost every Danish Jew was smuggled into Sweden and their lives were thereby saved.

Gold and silver was looted from all kinds of people all over Europe by the Nazis. Do you expect the Swedes to somehow have had a way of tracing the ownership history of precious metals?

The USA has never been in the horrible strategic situation Sweden was in during WWII. Until we have been and resisted all compromise with the enemy, I suggest a little humility.


5 posted on 09/21/2009 2:31:25 PM PDT by Sherman Logan ("The price of freedom is the toleration of imperfections." Thomas Sowell)
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To: WesternCulture

Government officials can express their disagreement with published material. They have no right to shut down or punish those who print unpopular, even demonstrably inaccurate, material.

Free press, you know.


6 posted on 09/21/2009 2:33:31 PM PDT by Sherman Logan ("The price of freedom is the toleration of imperfections." Thomas Sowell)
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To: WesternCulture
Aftonbladet's editors most likely spread the story because they didn't get a response to their blackmail warnings.

No doubt they intended to make money on this deal.

7 posted on 09/21/2009 2:40:41 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: CondorFlight

“If they have a Chancellor of Justice who thinks that this bit of nazi propaganda isn’t hate speech, then there is no justice in Sweden”

- Why should a Chancellor of Justice interfer with what newspapers write?

Furthermore, how do you wish to define “Nazism”?

We Swedes never will forgive the assassination of Folke Bernadotte, a member of our royal family.

Such sentiments have NOTHING to do with Nazi sympathies.

Israel simply have made fools of themselves.


8 posted on 09/21/2009 3:05:44 PM PDT by WesternCulture
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To: Sherman Logan
Point(s) taken. That having been said, there remains controversy about Sweden's sales of iron and goods to Germany. She also allowed Germany to use her railways, which aided in the invasion and occupation Norway. On your next visit to Norway, I suggest you should find a few old geezers and ask what they think about Sweden's actions in WW2. You might be surprised; Sweden could have stood by Norway's side instead of profiting from the war.

...Sweden supplied iron ore without too many scruples as to its use ... [P]aid in gold and foreign currency, clearly of sinister origin, and no questions were asked. ... As time went on, there could be less and less doubt that some of the payment in gold and currency was coming from the safes, bank accounts, jewellery boxes - and teeth - of concentration camp victims. The German Century by Michael Stuermer, Barnes & Noble, 1999

As for my reference specifically to the Jews, the grandchildren of the involuntary "gold donors" are presently at odds with the Swedish on this matter.

9 posted on 09/21/2009 4:21:24 PM PDT by QBFimi (When gunpowder speaks, beasts listen.)
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To: QBFimi
Sweden could have stood by Norway's side instead of profiting from the war.

While this would no doubt have been the morally correct thing to do, its only practical result would have been the invasion and conquest of Sweden.

How this would have helped the Jews, or the Norwegians for that matter, is beyond me. It most certainly would not have been helpful to Swedish Jews or the Norwegian and Danish Jews who had taken refuge there.

10 posted on 09/22/2009 4:33:32 AM PDT by Sherman Logan ("The price of freedom is the toleration of imperfections." Thomas Sowell)
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