Have to let some steam out...

This is not, and will never be, a political blog. Nevertheless, politics is part of life and this becomes even more clear when your base is in the middle of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. There is no way around it. And it did not even start there for me. From the first day when I came back to Malmö from having met Yoram for the first time, I have constantly found myself in situations where I have to defend having a friendly relation to the state of Israel. In Malmö there is a strong tradition of having a very biased attitude when it comes to this conflict and the anti-Israeli movement and the anti-Semitism is certainly not negligible. If you don't actively look up the non-biased news sources, you will be left with a very one-sided propaganda machinery, which in my point of view constitutes a great threat to democracy. People get desensitised and cannot anymore perceive what is actually going on around them. The same person can in one moment agree with me about the repulsive nature of the growing anti-Semitism, while in the next moment attend a folk festival with kids and clowns and barbecue, where they somewhere in the program have squeezed in a small manifestation from the "stone-throwing faction" who wants to eradicate the state of Israel...

The Social Democratic Mayor of Malmö, Ilmar Reepalu, was interviewed by a representative for the magasin "Judisk Krönika", and after a talk about the ways that the Davis Cup game in Malmö was handled (which Ilmar wanted cancelled all-in-all), the interviewer asked how he would react if Sudan wanted a sports exchange with Sweden. Ilmar replied like this (free translation from Swedish):

"I have only read a little about Sudan and I don't know exactly how it is in Darfur. But on the other hand I know a lot more about what is going on in Israel. I have been there with the family and also worked there ... I had the impression that Jews were talented people who have the most Nobel Prize awards in the world, and then I got to see how they treated the Arabs on the construction site. During breaks, the Israeli construction workers sat in tents in the shadow, while the Arabs had to sit on the ground in the sun. A very uncomfortable experience for me."

Not only does he admit that he has no clue about the situation in Darfur, where you really can start using terms like genocide! (By the way, many of the refugees found an exile in Israel). He also draws a direct parallel to Israel/Palestine. He continues with placing stereotypic characters on the Jews and you are just waiting for the next step where he mentions a big nose and a huge d**k... Then he explains how this aversion against Israel and the Jewish people originated, namely after a case of discrimination at a construction site, which does not differ much from what you can see frequently both in Sweden or any other place. Don't get me wrong, discrimination is a plague that needs to be fought, wherever it occurs, but one would think that you could expect a slightly more noble and juste character from a people's representative, but clearly not. No wonder the people in the street cannot separate things properly...

This is the core issue that preserves the conflict, the increasing polarisation. Every time I have to defend having a good relationship with the state of Israel, and its inhabitants, I feel sadness and pity. Trying to decide how to solve a conflict through evaluating historical events, or discussing who did what, where or when, is a dead end street. There will always be a counter-argument since every coin has two sides. The solution must be to look forward instead of backwards and rise above the surface. The huge amount of trauma that has fallen over the native Israeli and Palestinian people have made them cynical and it is understandable that it is hard for them to see things with an objective eye, or even with any hope at all. Therefore, we have an obligation from the rest of the world to be this neutral mediator and supply unity and love and not more separation and hate, offering constructiveness instead of destructiveness. That is more cosmically correct. My sweet friend Assi calls me a hippie, and I take that as a great compliment. What if there was no faith left in the goodness in people? I might be a hippie who looks for the good in people, but don't mistake that for being naive. I have strong opinions about things and I will kick in the direction necessary! Just ask my Israeli friends...