Swedish public radio apologizes for anti-Semitism question

JTA

Swedish public radio apologized for a presenter’s question to the country’s Israeli ambassador about whether Jews are responsible for anti-Semitism.

“We offer our fullest apologies for this question,” Sveriges Radio said in a statement on its website. “It was misleading and put blame on individuals and on a vilified group.”

The Sveriges Radio reporter in a live interview asked the envoy, Isaac Bachman, “Are Jews themselves responsible for the progression of anti-Semitism?” Bachman responded that he rejects the question, to which the reporter responded, “Why,” the French news agency AFP reported.

The question came in the wake of a shooting attack on a synagogue in neighboring Denmark that left a Jewish volunteer security guard dead.

Along with the apology, which also said, “The Jewish community has suffered a horrible act of terror and has all our sympathy,” the station removed the program from its online archive.

Sweden officially recognized the state of Palestine in October. In response, Israel briefly recalled its ambassador. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas last week inaugurated the Palestine embassy in Sweden.

Meanwhile, in the wake of the attack on the Copenhagen synagogue, Muslims in Norway have announced that they will form a “peace ring” around a synagogue in Oslo this  weekend as part of an anti-violence demonstration, The Local Norway reported Tuesday, citing a report by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corp. NRK.