The matter of the Swedish newspaper article that accuses Israel’s army of kidnapping and killing Palestinians in order to steal their organs continues to reverberate within diplomatic channels. After the report was published last week, Sweden’s ambassador to Israel condemned the newspaper Aftonbladet for running the story. Sweden’s Foreign Minister Carl Bildt wrote in his personal blog that stories such as the one published lead to hate crimes. But neither Bildt nor anyone else representing the Stockholm government would issue an official condemnation of the story. Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt was quoted by the Swedish news agency as saying that, "No one can demand that the Swedish government violates its own constitution. Freedom of speech is an indispensable part of Swedish society.” That refusal has infuriated Israeli leader arguably as much as the article itself. Over the weekend, multiple arms of Israel’s government applied pressure to the Swedes, each demanding an official condemnation of the article, which has been called a “blood libel” by some Israeli officials. The Israeli daily Haaretz now reports that following a conversation between Israei’s ambassador and Bildt, the Swedish Foreign Minister revised his blog entry to include a condemnation of anti-Semitism and a call for closer ties to Israel. The Foreign Ministry later linked the blog to its official website, providing the Israelis with some sense of satisfaction.
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