In a move reminiscent of Corbyn’s time in the UK, the Swedish Judiska Centralrådet – the equivalent, I presume, of the Jewish Board of Deputies in Britain – has effectively blacklisted the Swedish Vänsterpartiet (Left-Socialist), for its supposed anti-Semitism, or inadequate response to anti-Semitism; and for its alleged support for terrorist organizations. (See https://swedenherald.se/article/the-jewish-central-council-shuns-the-left-party.)

As a (very inactive) member of Vänsterpartiet, I must say I was as surprised by this as I was by the similar charges made against the Labour Party six or seven years ago, which since then have been pretty conclusively disproven (see Asa Winstanley, Weaponising Anti-Semitism, 2023) – although they’re still dredged up by the Tories occasionally. (Mud always sticks.) In both countries serious studies have shown that anti-semitism is mainly found on the Right of politics, as you might expect, and may in any case often be confused with anti-Zionism, which should be regarded as a different creature. Leftists are almost always against racism in any form. With specific reference to Sweden, the tiny handful of examples I’ve seen cited there (and I’ve not researched the topic in any great depth) have mostly featured Moslem members of the Malmö branch of the Vänster party, who had already been thrown out as a result.

One common feature of both these charges is that they have targeted anti-capitalist parties especially. Make of that what you will; but it’s disturbing. Another may be that neither the Jewish Board of Deputies nor Judiska Centralrådet is necessarily representative of British and Swedish Jews.

In view of the atrocities currently being visited by the IDF on Gaza and Lebanon, we shouldn’t be too surprised that Israel is coming in for criticism and condemnation. There was always the danger of this morphing into a wider and less discriminating anti-Semitism; just as I remember Nazi atrocities – like the Holocaust – sparking Germanophobia in and after World War II. Netanyahu should be aware of that.