Swedish tabloid freed over Israel organ claims

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

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"A Swedish newspaper report alleging that Israeli soldiers stole and sold body parts of dead Palestinians did not constitute inciting racism, judicial authorities have ruled, news agency TT reported Saturday.

Two written requests had been submitted to the Swedish Chancellor of Justice to probe whether the report in the Aftonbladet tabloid last month amounted to inciting racial hatred and violated freedom of expression laws.

TT 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 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."

http://www.javno.com/en-world/swedish-tabloid-freed-over-israel-organ-claims_275898

Especially on the topic of Israel.

Israel is very concerned of how Jews are being treated in Europe. Whenever crap happens in Gaza, half a dozen synagogues are torched, Muslim armies storm Jewish neighborhoods in Berlin, Iranian-sponsored Apartheid movements block the streets of London...just an atmosphere of hostility towards Jewish political causes in so-called "Western" environment is quite disturbing I'd imagine.

If it ever got to a certain level, Israel would evacuate the Jews. Already thousands of French Jews have bought land in Israel because of the environment.

Israel airlifted the Jews of Sarajevo before the Bosnian war erupted, smuggled Ethiopian Jews, and will probably help Jews in Tehran get out in the event that they decide to bomb the place.

Funny, it seems Israel is one of the few countries on Earth that truly values the lives of its people. It blew up half a country for 2 kidnapped soldiers. It released 7,000 Palestinian prisoners for half a dozen dead bodies and 1 hostage. It's sponsoring counter-terror raids in other continents simply to rescue Jews.

If only the Arabs states were this kind to their own people.

I've never realised that because it hasn't blown up half another country that my country just doesn't care about my life. Learn something new every day! ;)

Clarify?

We still had ragged men wandering back from Vietnam 2 decades latter didn't we?

'Funny, it seems Israel is one of the few countries on Earth that truly values the lives of its people. It blew up half a country for 2 kidnapped soldiers.'

It's a bit of a moot point now as the poster who said that's no longer with us...

Or are you commenting on his lack of response?

that were torched during cast lead.

2. Synagogue in Southwest Toulouse

3. Synagogue in Saint Denis suburb of Paris

4. Jewish Community Center in Helsingborg, Sweden

5. Synagogue in Brondesbury, London, UK

6. Jewish burial chapel, Malmo, Sweden

Of course the most serious of these was the Toulose incident where a car was set on fire and pushed into the synagogue while people were inside it.

The other cases include attempted arsons and throwing molotov cocktails into synagogues and other Jewish facilities.

There were countless other acts of vandalism and the like directed against Jewish buildings and facilities around the world during the fighting in Gaza.

Most Europaean countries have bad newspapers. The governments do not control them. They do tend to turn a blind eye to them, partly on high-minded free-speech grounds, but more IMO because they're scared of the papers turning on them.

And it's not just Israel. In fact, the hatred for other foreigners tends to be more consistent.

The countries east of the 'Iron Curtain' are mostly worse, especially with regard to attitudes to Jews, than those on the west.

And with respect, I haven't noticed that the American media are any better than ours, or that the governments ever try to restrain them in any way. Your newspapers may be better, or it might be just that we get to see the better newspapers. Your TV and radio are definitely worse.

Would you agree that the conflict is viewed differently, for the most part, in Europe than in the US?

you get very pro-Israel and very pro-Palestinian people.

I suspect that there are probably more people who don't have a view *at all* in Europe than in America.

The big difference IMO consists in the fact that Israel is a very close ally of America. Therefore a larger percentage of Americans are pro-Israel because of this alliance; but those who are not pro-Israel may be *more* vehement just because of the countries' alliance.

As a parallel, the UK is a closer ally to the USA than most countries in Europe. While I don't think that this particularly affects views of the I/P conflict, it does influence attitudes by the UK and some other Europaean countries to some other issues (e.g. reasons for and against EU membership).

There is an unfortunate misunderstanding by some pro-Israel (and other) Americans that all Brits are boycotting/ favouring a boycott of Israel. This is simply not true. The proposal gets brought up from time to time in various trade unions, but always gets voted down reversed/ simply disappears without trace.