Left Party (former Communist Party) MP Lorena Delgado Varas will not be charged with a hate crime for sharing a Jew-hating post on social media, Swedish prosecutors have decided.
Delgado Varas shared a post saying “Zionist Jews” control the world in the text below an image of a dark hand with an Israeli flag steering puppet hands with a U.S. flag which, in turn, controlled the movements of soldiers with German, British, French, Canadian, and Ukrainian flags. Her defense was that she had not seen the entire text beneath the image before sharing it—only the illustration where Israel secretly controls the U.S.
The MP, a well-known apologist for the Palestinian cause, has also repeatedly ignored directions from Speaker of Parliament Andreas Norlén for breaking the dress code by wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh in parliament.
According to prosecutors, claiming to not having read the entire post is enough for the MP to avoid an investigation.
“She did not read the entire post before sending it. She concentrated on the picture and the criticism directed at the USA, but not the text under the picture,” Chief Prosecutor Joakim Zander told daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet.
A former Sweden Democrat politician, however, who shared Islam-critical social media material, including satire, was convicted of ‘incitement against an ethnic group’ and fined SEK 17,000 (about €1,500). Among the material considered as evidence is content from Sweden Democrat MEP Charlie Weimers.
In the interrogations leading up to the trial, the man was asked, “Do you understand that it feels derogatory for someone belonging to a certain ethnic group to see things like this?”—to which he responded, “You should be able to express yourself in different ways without … I think freedom of expression should be more absolute than it is.”
So, sharing an image with a baby in a onesie with an Israeli flag telling a baby decked out in an outfit with a Palestinian flag, “Dude, you f***ing started it” constitutes a crime in Sweden, while saying “The Zionist Jews control the world through intimidation Intel on individuals and countries blackmail financing media banking control of Congress Senate government officials City officials and murder” is—not.
As long as you don’t read the whole thing before reposting it.
