Expert Analysis
The Star of David and Solidarity
It is widely claimed that King Christian X of Denmark wore a Star of David in solidarity with his country’s besieged Jewish community under Nazi occupation. While history has shown this tale to be apocryphal, a real-life high-level show of solidarity with the Jews of neighboring Sweden took place this month in front of TV cameras.
Against the backdrop of her pink jacket and white blouse, Swedish Education Minister and Liberal Party leader Simona Mohamsson wore a silver Star of David necklace during a debate in advance of national elections. Saying, “I wear the Star of David for the children who do not dare to in today’s Sweden,” Mohamsson underscored the starkness of her country’s antisemitism climate, months after a European Union Fundamental Rights Agency survey found that 73% of respondents felt antisemitism was a problem in Sweden.
A Model for Coexistence in Europe
That Mohamsson would distinguish herself in this way was unusual—all the more so because her father is a Palestinian Muslim from Haifa and her mother is a Lebanese Muslim (Mohamsson herself is a declared atheist.) The Education Minister had already repeatedly spoken out about rising antisemitism in Swedish schools and the difficulty teachers face trying to administer lessons about the Holocaust or contemporary antisemitism. She also has strongly criticized officials in the Left Party for sending letters of support to a jailed Hamas terrorist.
Mohamsson’s example resonates with Jews around the world who often hear violence against Diaspora Jews justified with criticisms of Israeli policies. An Education Minister and human rights champion who condemns antisemitism against school children in her country shows that human rights activism can include opposition to Jew-hatred without invoking Middle East politics. As the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) made clear in its landmark 2004 Berlin Declaration on Anti-Semitism, “international developments or political issues, including those in Israel or elsewhere in the Middle East, never justify anti-Semitism.” Too few human rights activists abide by that principle today.
Anti-Zionist Backlash
Another lesson Mohamsson taught Western politicians is that even in a contentious election season, leadership demands holding firm against the populist urges of a growing anti-Zionist movement. Mohamsson’s own Liberal Party is trailing in the polls, but she opted for principle over political expedience.
Mohamsson has endured a significant backlash from anti-Zionists. Valley Ghanem, Malmo city’s anti-Islamophobia advisor, wrote on social media of Mohamsson, “May she be burned.” But Mohamsson’s steadfastness has shown that leaders from Arab or Muslim backgrounds need not unite behind the banner of Jew-hatred. “It is…important to show a distance from the forces that try to instill fear and who use a conflict to spread antisemitism,” she insisted.
Mohamsson’s defense of Swedish Jewry, declaring that “it is obvious that Sweden should be a sanctuary for Jews” stands as the ultimate rebuke to those who try to use the middle east to justify hate crimes. It is possible for politicians and others throughout the West to condemn antisemitism and include anti-Jewish hatred in the panoply of human rights concerns that must take precedence over politics. Mohamsson has shown a path toward tolerance and empathy; we should hope that other European politicians will follow.
Rabbi Eric Fusfield is B’nai B’rith International’s director of Legislative Affairs and deputy director of its International Center for Human Rights and Public Policy.