U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs

Subcommittee News

Thursday, September 03, 2009

Wexler Urges Swedish Prime Minister to Repudiate Anti-Semitic Newspaper Article

(Washington, DC) Today, Congressman Robert Wexler (D-FL), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Europe, and Congressman Elton Gallegly (R-CA), Ranking Member on the Subcommittee on Europe, sent a letter to Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt in response to an article recently published by the Swedish newspaper, Aftonbladet, accusing the Israeli Army of harvesting organs from dead Palestinians. In the letter, Wexler and Gallegly express their concerns with the Swedish government’s unwillingness to denounce these heinous allegations, especially given the fact that Sweden currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.

“The Swedish government has a responsibility to speak out and denounce falsehoods like those found in this Aftonbladet article – an article that cannot be interpreted as anything less than a blatant act of anti-Semitism,” said Congressman Wexler. “It is essential that this vitriolic article not be used by anti-Semites, anti-Israel advocates, and extremists as an excuse to commit acts of violence and terrorism against the Jewish community in Sweden or internationally.”

A copy of the letter is available for download here.

Congressman Wexler is Chairman of the Subcommittee on Europe and a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Judiciary Committee. Recently, Wexler served as an advisor on Middle East issues to President Barack Obama during his 2008 presidential campaign.