Something very bad appears to be happening in Europe. An ancient hatred – the vilification of Jews – the familiar, reliable, evocative icon of a millennial prejudice seems to have pushed its way once again into the parameters of civil discourse.

Anti-Semitism ended once and for all, we thought, we imagined, we hoped with the discovery of the unfathomable evil wrought by the Nazis during World War II.

We were wrong. Alas.

Reports of anti-Semitic incidents in Europe and in North America have become frequent reading fare. Just two weeks ago, Kenneth Jacobson, deputy national director of the Anti-Defamation League in the United States told a New Jersey audience that he sees an “explosion” of anti-Semitism around the world, centered in Europe and the Arab world.”

As reported in the New Jersey Jewish News “Jacobson ticked off incident after incident, from boycotts of Israel in Europe to violence against Jews in France.”

Jacobson said that during the three weeks of the Gaza War last winter he counted 113 violent incidents in France, including a Molotov cocktail being thrown into a synagogue and 220 anti-Semitic incidents in Great Britain.

The rise in anti-Semitism worldwide has been well-documented by the many dedicated monitoring agencies on behalf of Jewish communities around the world. No further elaboration is necessary here.

Many experts suggest that the waves of hostile behaviour towards Jews are propelled by Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians. Most readers, unfortunately, are sufficiently experienced and sufficiently sophisticated to discern legitimate criticism of Israel from good, old-fashioned anti-Semitism. We rather believe the conflict is more pretext than cause of anti-Semitism.

The shocking episode last week involving Sweden’s largest newspaper Aftonbladet is illustrative.

As reported in this week’s issue of The CJN, an article appeared prominently in Aftonbladet claiming that Israeli soldiers killed Palestinians in order to harvest their organs. “They plunder the organs of our sons,” read the headline in the two-page story.

Relying on unfounded, unproven, untested and unreliable Palestinian sources, the reporter, Donald Boström, drew a direct link with the IDF’s alleged organ harvesting practices and the recent arrests in New Jersey of a ring of individuals – that included many Jews – who bought and sold human organs.  

Not surprisingly, Israelis took great offence with the story. The Foreign Ministry reacted angrily to the report. Ministry spokesperson Yigal Palmor said the newspaper’s decision to publish the story is “a mark of disgrace,” calling it a “dark blood libel out of the Middle Ages.”

Sweden’s ambassador to Israel, Elisabet Borsiin Bonnier agreed. She quickly condemned Boström’s calumny in a statement she posted on the embassy’s website. She described the offending article “as shocking and appalling to us Swedes as it is to Israeli citizens. We share the dismay expressed by Israeli government representatives, media and the Israeli public. This embassy cannot but clearly distance itself from it,” the ambassador wrote. “Just as in Israel, freedom of the press prevails in Sweden,” Bonnier said. She added, however, that “freedom of the press and freedom of expression…carry a certain responsibility.”

Unbelievably, Ambassador Bonnier’s response itself evoked an outcry of extreme umbrage and outrage from much of the Swedish establishment

The editor of Aftonbladet, Jan Helin, excoriated Bonnier, calling her denunciation of Boström’s article an infringement on freedom of the press. In a signed editorial, Helin stood by his reporter and his dubious reporting. And then, he wrote: “It’s deeply unpleasant and sad to see such a strong propaganda machine [Israel and the Jews] using centuries-old anti-Semitic images in an apparent attempt to get an obviously topical issue off the table.”

In the wake of the Aftonbladet’s editor’s response, the Swedish government disavowed its own ambassador’s statement. “The condemnation was solely the judgment of the embassy [in Tel Aviv], and designed for an Israeli audience.” (My emphasis).

The editor’s response was a red herring. No one complained about the right of the reporter to write his fiction. The complaint was about properly responding to that fiction.

The Swedish government’s response was disgusting. As of this writing, the Foreign Minister of Israel is seeking an official condemnation or repudiation of sorts of the content of Boström’s article. Israel’s Defence Minister is mulling whether to seek damages for defamation on behalf of the IDF.

The sordid Aftonbladet episode has some of the ingredients of the anti-Semite’s classic engagement with the world:

Calumny. A vile, vicious lie is propagated, intended to rouse emotions against the Jews, in this case the Jewish state. What can rouse emotions faster than a blood libel? Palestinians are killed in order to sell their body parts!

Conspiracy. The Jews conspire with each other in a world wide network of deception and dishonesty. Hence the reporter tied the allegations against the IDF to the indictments in New Jersey.

Something very bad is happening in Sweden. It is an Elul shofar blast calling us to awaken, to arise from our complacency.

Jews must respond without fear.