Different Antisemitisms: On Three Distinct Forms of Antisemitism in C | Page 23

One may wonder why this is so? Could it be that Jews in Sweden are more able than Jews in
the other countries to distinguish anti-Zionism from antisemitism? Or is it that Jews in
Sweden have internalized the rather hegemonic and frequently voiced anti-Zionist and also
anti-Israeli public discourse in their country more than Jews in the other countries? Sweden is
so far (2016) the only one of the eight countries that has officially acknowledged Palestine as
a state; the present Swedish Foreign minister representing the Social Democratic Party,
Margot Wallström, has also publically accused Israel of carrying out extra-legal executions of
Palestinians, etc.
In any case, there is no doubt that, regardless of their individual stand on Israel, the
sense of security and degree of acceptance the Jews feel they have in all of the eight European
countries involved in this study, is to a considerable degree affected by events in and around
Israel and by the national and international reactions to these events.
“Aufklärungsantisemitismus”
Whatever the reason that Jews in Sweden diverge from the way Jews in other European
countries regard critique of Israel, this is not the only aspect of more or less anti-Jewish
discourse in which the situation in Sweden differs from the general picture in Europe.
Figure 23 illustrates that proposals to prohibit core Jewish traditions and practices such
as brit mila (circumcision of new-born baby boys) and shechita (slaughtering of animals
according to religious prescriptions) are more often heard in Sweden, the most modernized
and secularized country in this study (and perhaps in the world), than in any other country.
Interestingly, in Hungary, the country in the study with the largest proportion of citizens
holding classic antisemitic attitudes, these kinds of anti-Jewish suggestions are much less
heard than in the other investigated countries.

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