Published 18 July 2024 at 11.45
Domestic. The liberal debater Fredrik Segerfeldt asks in Expressen why his liberal friends are suddenly ethno-nationalists – when it comes to Israel.
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To be strong Israel-friendly has long been an important marker among liberals in Sweden.
This has become clear during the ongoing war in Gaza, when some have even gone so far as to defend the bombing of children in SVT.
Defended bombings of women and children – now released SVT:
After the program with Alice Teodorescu.
"It could be that you put an artillery shell in a kindergarten." https://t.co/awiVDpJqws
— Fria Tider (@friatider) April 5, 2024
The liberal writer and debater Fredrik Segerfeldt, who is tied to Timbro, has made himself known for demanding free immigration and open borders. In a debate article in Expressen, he now expresses concern about the actions of his like-minded people.
The headline reads: “Israel is a country on stolen land”.
“For a certain part of the Swedish debate corps, the core of the political commitment seems inexplicably to lie on another continent: western Asia. Equally difficult to understand is the predictable and tiresome tribalism that the conflict in the Middle East brings out. It is especially strange that my liberal friends suddenly think that ethnonationalism is kosher,” writes Fredrik Segerfeldt.
The problem with Israel, according to Segerfeldt, is that it is “an ethnically defined state in a territory where people of another ethnicity mainly lived”.
“The land is stolen”, he continues.
Swedish liberals often support Israel on an ethnic nationalist basis, while usually being in favor of population exchange in Sweden and often not even recognizing the Swedish people. Fredrik Segerfeldt says that he once asked an “Israel fan” if the person in question would accept a democratic Israel with a constitution that cannot be changed and free return for the Palestinians who were expelled in 1948.
“He answered: No , Israel must be a Jewish state. So it is ethnic, not democracy, that is decisive.” made up around five percent of the population in Palestine, while the Muslims made up around 80 percent.
“The only way forward for the Middle East is a mental change in Israeli society,” writes Fredrik Segerfeldt in Expressen.