Swedish youth politician defends anti-Zionist chant

“You can't take anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism and stick an equal sign between them,” Electra Ververidis, the new chair of the local district of the Social Democrat youth wing SSU, told Sweden's state broadcaster SVT.

 

The performance of the chant-like song, which is repeats the words 'Long Live Palestine, Crush Zionism” was condemned on Wednesday by Svante Weyler, Chair of the Swedish Committee against Anti-Semitism. 

 

“The idea that you want to abolish the state of Israel is an antisemitic idea,” he told SVT. 

 

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Ververidis's defence of the song reversed a rapid apology given earlier in the week by the youth movement's national chair Philip Botström. 

 

“I understand and take seriously all the criticism against our local unit in Malmö,” he wrote on Twitter after a recording of the song being sung was circulated on Wednesday. 

 

“There should be no doubt over where SSU stands on this question. We distance ourselves from all forms of antisemitism.” 

 

He asserted that the youth movement would not sing the song in future. 

 

But Ververidis said no such decision had been taken, explaining that SSU's Malmö branch had yet to discuss whether singing the song would be appropriate during future demonstrations. “We have not yet had time to consider that,” she said. 

 

She criticised Botström's condemnation of the song. 

 

“It is very unfortunate that Philip Botström is now mixing up apples and pears. This chant has been sung for ages and is about criticism of Israel's occupation policies and nothing else. This is something Botström himself well knows.”