05 October, 2009

Anti-semitism in Sweden

The following is a story from Stockholm news. It is just another instance where Anti-Semitism is becoming a pre-ordained ideology in Sweden. I may move out of this country soon.

A foreign family with two small children moved to Sweden in 2007. After a long time of problems with their neighbours, there was a housebreak into their apartment and they had to move out. The family has had difficulties in getting help and support from the local authorities and now they are forced to live in a small cabin in a camping ground. The smallest child is three months old.
Irina and Alex met on the internet in 2002. Irina (originally from Russia) was living in Australia and in 2004 she moved to Alex who lived in Iceland. In 2007, they moved to Sweden and settled down in Charlottenberg in Värmland, western Sweden. It is located close to the Norwegian border. (see map)

It became however soon clear for the family that this was going to be problematic. They live a life very conscious about their health. They eat healthy food, they drink no alcohol and they do not smoke. According to the mother Irina, their neighbours on the other hand live a life full of drugs, alcohol and smoking.

The frictions between the newcomer family and the locals started almost directly. When Irina told off a young girl for smoking too near her baby son, the tensions became stronger.

The first real incident was when the family had their car-window smashed after a while and they tried to get the police attention for this but with no results. The family decided to rent a house in Norway for a while to get away from this but then again they met some problems when the house was sold.

Back in Charlottenberg the problems continued. Irina gave birth to their second child three months ago and felt she was treated badly by the hospital nurses. The peak of the problems came when there was a break-in to their apartment. The flat was vandalized with red paint spread out on the walls and on different personal belongings.

The break-in was preceded by a dispute with their landlord, Gert-Ove Axelsson. The house keys were lost or stolen at some point. The keys were found and returned to the family but they suspected that they had been taken and copied. When the family demanded that the locks should be changed, he is supposed to have told them that keys cannot be copied in Sweden so they should not worry.

The family moved out after the break-in. Their landlord did, according to Irina, promise them to arrange a new flat for them but nothing happened. So now they live in a small cabin in a camping ground in the area.

The family has met difficulties each time they have turned to the local authorities for help. When the turned to the social service after they lost their home, they were told that they were not poor enough and the insurance company could not compensate them.

All these issues together shows that coming to a small municipality in Sweden as a foreigner can be really difficult if conflicts arises with neighbours and other people in the area. It is difficult to speak with authorities because of language and cultural differences.

This situation on the other hand indicate that it is something more behind than only problems related to culture or language. This family has gone through a lot of difficulties with seemingly harassments from neighbours but has gotten a passive or even cold response from the local authorities.

According to Irina the cold treatment from for example the social service is connected to the fact that the family has a Jewish background. The general perception is often that Jewish people are business-men with a good economy. Irina felt that this was the attitude when she appealed for help from the social service centre.

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Note: Stockholm News has tried to reach the police in the area without result. We also called the landlord Gert Ove Axelsson but he had no time to speak with us.


Readers' comments

2009-10-05 21:04 Irina wrote:
lancelot , thank you! I will be contacting them tomorrow. I also opened a blog where I will tell the story from the start and will be posting any updates, pics or docs as often as I can (hopefully at least once a day) If anyone is interested you are most welcome http://sweden-as-is.livejournal.com P.S. Mr Axelsson is away until next week hunting for moose.

2009-10-05 20:44 Shira wrote:
Irina, Alaon is right. There is no point in staying in a country whose governement is unable to take distance from Anti Semitic stries. You will be more welcomed in Israel.

2009-10-05 01:08 lancelot wrote:
Irina, if you have tried all other options you could try to contact Centrum för Rättvisa (Centre for justice). They might be able to support you legally. Go to www.centrumforrattvisa.se there is an English version available

2009-10-04 21:39 Irina wrote:
Hi guys, thank you for the comments. As we found out a day ago our landlord Mr Axelsson who promised us a 2 bedroom apartment gave it to a man who will move into the old place which is being renovated after the vandalisation. So a single man is living in a large 3-room apartment while we are squashed into a small cabin at a camping site. I don´t even understand what my babies did to Mr Axelsson to deserve such treatment... I also do not believe that every Swede is like that.

2009-10-04 16:38 Alon wrote:
To Irina:Why you want to stay in a country which is Anti Semitic and uses their "Freedom-of-Speech" to lie about your nation.Leave Sweden!It is a dead country!Us,the Jews and Israelies,will never forget to Sweden the past and the present.Sweden is a country of Hamas!

2009-10-04 10:38 Lars wrote:
Something is rotten in the Kingdom of...Sweden

2009-10-04 08:40 John, London wrote:
Irina´s description is heartbreaking. It seems also to be very honest. Is there no way and no one to help? What kind of people are the Swedes?

2009-10-03 11:41 Irina wrote:
4) The description of the stolen things could have been used for the investigation in case they turn up somewhere but the police was not interested. 5) Our family needs just a little help to be back on the feet, but the local authorities have been extremely hard to communicate with and it has been two weeks now since the incident, we are still living at the camping site - we invite anyone to visit us to see this with one´s own eyes (the social workers refused to do it).

2009-10-03 11:36 Irina wrote:
I am that very same Irina from Charlottenberg in Eda. I just wanted to clarify some things: 1) neither my husband, nor me have been ever on any unemployment benefits in our entire lives. 2) There are many facts there were not mentioned in this article but it is the eight way for journalists to stay objective but I am open to any questions. 3) Some things were stolen but the police closed the investigation without letting us know or asking us a single question.

2009-10-03 06:16 Thor wrote:
Quote: " According to Irina the cold treatment from for example the social service is connected to the fact that the family has a Jewish background. The general perception is often that Jewish people are business-men with a good economy. Irina felt that this was the attitude when she appealed for help from the social service centre." Really disgusting discriminatory attitude.

2009-10-03 00:03 Ron wrote:
Come to Israel and put an end to your suffering from anti Jewish behaviour in Sweden.

What the hell is going on here? This is just ridiculous and creates so much animosity. The only reason for this is that the people involved in this are not only anti-semites but aniti-immigrants no matter where they are from. This is the more probable scenario I think. I guess people will have to make their own minds up.

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