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IN PICS: Thousands protest in Malmö against Israel’s participation in Eurovision

Thousands of people joined a demonstration in Malmö on Saturday afternoon protesting Israel's participation in the Eurovision song contest.

Published: 11 May 2024 18:07 CEST
IN PICS: Thousands protest in Malmö against Israel's participation in Eurovision
Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT
The protesters gathered at Malmö’s Stortorget Square, with many waving Palestinian flags or wrapping their necks with the Keffiye, the scarf that is a symbol of the Palestinian struggle against occupation.
 
According to police, between 6,000 and 8,000 people took part in the demonstration. 

“Everything as gone according to expectations. Everything is calm and there are no disturbances so far,” Jimmy Modin, the police’s press spokesperson told Sweden’s public broadcaster SVT. 

Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT
 
Some signs reference the disqualification of the The Netherlands’ entry Joost Klein, even though the European Broadcasting Union has asserted that the member of the production team who has accused him of threatening behaviour was not connected to a national delegation in any way. 
 
 

Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT
 
The youth wing of the Left Party carried a sign saying, “Genocide: Nul points — no occupying powers at Eurovision”. 
 

Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT
 
The protesters than moved in a procession down Södergatan and Södra Förstadsgatan, Malmö’s two main pedestrianised shopping streets, to the the Triangeln shopping, before moving down towards Slottsparken, the park where the protest is due to finish. 

 

Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT
 
Members of other communities in Malmö carried banners, such as this one saying “Latinos for Palestine”. 

Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT
 
Some of Malmö’s Jewish community also joined the march, with one protester carrying a Jews for Palestine banner.  
 

Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT
 
Danish police had provided riot vans to help Swedish police control the protest, but at the time this article was posted, there had been no reports of violence. 
 

Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT

Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT

Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT

Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT
 
When the protest reached the Triangeln shopping centre it dispersed and spread out over the square in front.  
 

Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT
 
When The Local was leaving Malmö Arena in Hyllie, there were a handful of demonstrators staging an unsanctioned protest, who police were asking to stop. 
 

Photo: Richard Orange

Member comments

  1. Genocide involves the targeted annihilation on a group of people simply for being part of that group, such as what Germany did to the Jews in the Holocaust. In this case, Israel is making a retaliatory strike against a group designated as a terrorist organization by the EU. That is not genocide. Could Israel do more to protect civilians? Absolutely could, and I support any protest to that affect. Protesting Israel in general though? Nope, Israel has a right to retaliate to unprovoked massacres.

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CRIME

Sweden teen found guilty of taking gun to Israeli embassy

A 15-year-old boy has been found guilty of possession of a semi-automatic weapon while heading to the Israeli embassy in Stockholm in a taxi.

Published: 28 June 2024 07:10 CEST
Sweden teen found guilty of taking gun to Israeli embassy

The conviction came less than a month after Sweden’s intelligence agency accused Iran of recruiting gang members to attack Israeli interests in the Scandinavian country.

The boy was arrested on May 16th when police stopped a taxi in the Tyresö suburb south of Stockholm, en route to the Israeli embassy in the capital. He was carrying the gun in his jacket.

The following night, a 14-year-old boy was arrested after a shooting near the Israeli embassy. That investigation is still under way.

The 15-year-old, who was sentenced to 11 months of juvenile supervision, told the Nacka district court he had been ordered to pick up an item in Tyresö for delivery, according to the verdict obtained by AFP.

He said he thought he would collect drugs and only discovered it would be a gun on the way to pick up the item.

He said he found out he was going to the Israeli embassy when he got in the taxi, which a woman had ordered for him.

The taxi driver confirmed that a woman, whose identity has not been established, gave the driver the embassy address.

The teen told the court he felt tricked but still went ahead with the assignment.

Prosecutors presented evidence from the boy’s smartphone showing that he had looked up the route to the embassy, and the court ruled the youth “knew that the trip was going to the embassy even if he was unable to give the taxi driver an address.”

The fact that the weapon was discovered en route to the embassy meant “the weapon typically could be feared to be used criminally,” the court said.

However, it emphasised that there was “no investigation in the case about what was actually planned to happen” that night. It was not known why police stopped the taxi.

Sweden’s intelligence agency, Säpo, on May 30th accused Iran of recruiting gang members in Sweden, some of them children, as proxies to commit “acts of violence against other states, groups or people in Sweden that it considers a threat.”

It cited in particular “Israeli and Jewish interests, targets and operations in Sweden”.

On January 31st, police found a live grenade in the grounds of the Israeli compound.

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