World Jewish Congress Executive Vice President Maram Stern, World Jewish Congress Nordic representative Petra Kahn Nord Central Jewish Council of Sweden Chairman Aron Verständig, and Central Council of the Jewish Congregations in Finland Chairman Yaron Nadbornik published a joint op-ed in the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet on 6 December calling on the Sweedish government to ban the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement party.
The government’s parliamentary commission on banning racist organizations is currently examining whether to ban racist organizations within the framework of the current constitution. The results of the investigation will be ready in February 2021, and the importance of the investigation's conclusions cannot be overemphasized.
In recent years, racist and Nazi organizations have become increasingly active. The number of reported hate crimes is increasing, more activities are being carried out by these organizations all over Sweden and racist propaganda is becoming more common on the internet.
During Yom Kippur 2020, the holiest day of the year in the Jewish calendar, the neo-Nazi organization Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM) carried out well-planned antisemitic actions in dozens of cities across Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. In several Swedish cities, NRM put up posters and distributed leaflets with classical antisemitic myths that accused Jews of genocide, were planning world domination, and described Jews as sexually perverted and bloodthirsty. In the Swedish city of Norrköping, uniformed Nazis stood outside the city's synagogue. In other places, memorials to Holocaust victims were vandalized. The same kind of antisemitic ideas more than 70 years ago led to the Holocaust and the murder of six million Jews.
Last year, on the day of the anniversary of the Kristallnacht, similar actions were carried out against Jewish institutions; specific Jews were publicly described as traitors. The year before, the Jewish Association in Umeå decided to shutter its operations after receiving regular threats from NRM for a long time. In 2018, a politician with a Jewish background in the southern city of Lund was subjected to an arson attack.
It is not only the Jewish minority that is threatened. Earlier this year, a man suffered life-threatening injuries when a bomb was detonated at a refugee accommodation in Gothenburg; three men with links to NRM we convicted of the act. In 2019, the LGBTQ café Bryggeriet in the of city Uddevalla was vandalized by members of the same organization. Among other acts, notes with threatening slogans were put up on the café's doors. In 2018, the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights, the LGBTQ association, canceled its participation in Almedalen week due to the fact that their members received threats from members of NRM. In September 2017, NRM organized a large demonstration in Gothenburg in connection with the book fair, and a riot broke out. The list goes on.
By now, it should be known to all that the NRM is a Nazi, racist and pro-violence organization that poses a threat to our open democracy. The group's mere presence in the public space leads to concerns about psychological and physical violence against individuals.
In 1971, Sweden ratified the UN International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Under Article 4 (b) of the Convention, each State Party undertakes to declare and prohibit organizations and all other propaganda promoting and inciting racial discrimination and to criminalize participation in such organizations or activities. Despite this, a ban has not been introduced, which has led to Sweden being repeatedly criticized for allowing racist organizations.
On 21 March 2020, the Swedish UN Federation wrote a letter to Minister of Justice Morgan Johansson in which the federation points out that activities carried out by white-supremacy movements have more than doubled in the past ten years (Expo, White Power 2018). In the letter, the union emphasized that the police do not intervene to the extent they should and that demonstration and meeting permits are given to organizations without an overall assessment of the consequences for vulnerable groups and minorities.
Admittedly, a ban could be seen as a restriction on the freedom of demonstration and association. However, the constitution and in its governmental system, already contain an exception that allows for a ban on associations that "involve persecution of an ethnic group due to ethnic origin, skin color or other similar relationship" (Chapter Two, 24th paragraph).
In Finland, NRM has been banned since 2018. After the ban was confirmed by the Supreme Court of Finland in September this year, right-wing extremist actions have almost completely ceased in Finland, which has made the Jewish minority feel safer. When NRM carried out its action on Yom Kippur this year, Finland was the only country in the Nordic region that was spared. There are thus good reasons for Sweden to follow the Finnish example.
When a group seriously threatens democracy, it is of the utmost importance that the democratic society vigorously reacts. If Sweden wants to take a serious stand against racism and antisemitism, Sweden should follow Finland's example and ban racist and Nazi organizations such as the Nordic Resistance Movement. Such a ban would signal what kind of society we want to be, meaning that society clearly takes a stand against racist and Nazi organizations. A ban would also make it significantly more difficult for NRM and similar organizations to organize and spread their hate propaganda and march through our cities.
In October next year, Sweden will host a major international conference, Malmö International Forum for the Remembrance of the Holocaust and the Fight against Anti-Semitism. It would be devastating for the Swedish government if Nazis could at the same time march undisturbed on Swedish streets and squares.
