![AnnaLindh030911050808[2].jpg](../../images/articles/86/AnnaLindh030911050808[2].jpg)
Sweden’s
popular
foreign
minister
Anna Lindh
is the third
high-ranking
Swedish
political
opponent of
Zionism to
have been
murdered
since 1948,
which raises
the
question:
Was Lindh
assassinated
because of
her
outspoken
opposition
to Israel’s
occupation
of
Palestine?
When
Sweden’s
foreign
minister
Anna Lindh
was brutally
stabbed by
an unknown
assailant
while
shopping in
an upscale
Stockholm
department
store, it
marked the
third murder
in 55 years
of a
high-level
Swedish
opponent of
Zionist
aggression
in
Palestine.
While the
controlled
press was
quick to
point out an
unidentified
suspect,
later
released,
with alleged
ties to
“neo-Nazis,”
it has
virtually
ignored the
historical
precedents
that suggest
that the
killing of
Lindh may
have been an
assassination
aimed at
silencing an
influential
political
opponent of
the Zionist
extremists
who control
the Israeli
government
and wield
great
influence in
Washington.
Anna Lindh’s
Sweden “has
had more of
an impact on
Palestinian
history than
closer or
greater
powers
throughout
the world,”
Hanan
Ashrawi, the
Palestinian
professor
and
negotiator,
wrote after
the murder.
The death of
Lindh and
the late UN
representative
in Baghdad,
Sergio
Vieira de
Mello,
represents
the loss of
“two voices
who called
with
determination
for
salvaging
the UN’s
role in Iraq
and for
implementing
its
resolutions
in
Palestine,”
Bouthaina
Shaaban, a
minister in
the new
Syrian
government,
wrote in The
Daily Star
(Lebanon).
Shaaban
noted that
Lindh had:-
· Called
upon the
European
Union, on
April 3,
2002, to
sever ties
with Israel
in protest
against
Israeli
practices;
· Called on
US President
George W.
Bush to deny
Sharon
unconditional
support, as
this would
inflame the
Middle East;
· Stressed
that the
only
solution in
the Middle
East rested
in ending
the Israeli
occupation
(otherwise
everybody
would become
a hostage to
the
conflict);
· Played an
important
role in
shaping the
EU’s
decision to
adopt a
policy
toward
Palestinian
President
Yasser
Arafat
different
from that of
the U.S.;
· Confirmed
the
importance
of Arafat as
a partner in
the peace
process,
rejecting
Washington’s
claims that
he supported
terrorism;
· Stood
firmly
against the
war on Iraq;
· And warned
of the
dangers of
changing
another
country’s
regime
without the
support of
international
law.
Regarding
weapons of
mass
destruction,
Lindh called
for the
creation of
a Middle
East free of
such
weapons,
including
Israel.
Lindh
strongly
opposed the
Anglo-American
aggression
and
occupation
of Iraq.
Sweden’s
effect on
the Middle
East “has
been
consistently
constructive,
positive,
and human
with a
deep-seated
tradition of
fairness,
justice, and
peaceful
intervention,”
Ashrawi
wrote,
“Unfortunately,
three such
Swedish
champions
had met with
violent and
untimely
deaths, each
a tragedy
unto itself,
but a
national and
global loss
in the
larger
scheme of
things.”
On the
ill-fated
day Lindh
had gone
with a
friend to
Nordiska
Kompaniet (NK)
a few blocks
from the
parliament
building on
Sept. 10 to
buy an
outfit for
an upcoming
televised
debate on
the European
common
currency,
the Euro.
Lindh’s
image had
appeared on
posters in
Sweden for
the “yes”
campaign she
supported.
Although
there was no
recognizable
leader for
the “no”
side,
opinion
polls before
the Sept. 14
referendum
showed 53
percent of
Swedish
women
remained
opposed to
the Euro,
with only 29
percent in
favor.
When Lindh
died on
Thursday,
Sept. 11,
after more
than 6 hours
of surgery,
Sweden’s
prime
minister
called off
campaigning
for the
Sunday
referendum
on the Euro.
With the
“no” vote
strongly
ahead of the
“yes” vote
there was
some
speculation
and wishful
thinking
that Lindh’s
murder would
boost the
“yes” side.
The Euro
referendum
went ahead
and with
more than 80
percent of
the Swedish
electorate
having cast
ballots, the
“no” side
won by a
large margin
of 14
percent: 56
percent
opposed and
42 percent
in favor.
The
un-elected
president of
the European
Commission,
Romano Prodi,
clearly at a
loss for
words in an
interview
with CNN
after the
vote,
pooh-poohed
the very
idea of
using a
referendum
to decide
whether a
nation
should adopt
the Euro.
The Swedish
results,
Prodi said,
were “worse
than I
expected.”
Charles
Hodgson of
CNN reminded
Prodi that
in every
nation where
the people
had decided
on the Euro
in a
referendum,
it had been
rejected.
Sweden’s
rejection of
the Euro,
however,
clearly does
not bode
well for the
Euro in
other
European
nations that
have
retained
their fiscal
sovereignty,
primarily
Great
Britain and
Denmark,
where
similar
referenda
will be held
in the
future.
Lindh was
shopping
without
bodyguards
at the
upscale NK
department
store, when
she was
savagely
stabbed in
the stomach,
chest and
arm, just
before 4
p.m.
Hanna
Sundberg, an
eyewitness,
told The
Associated
Press that
she saw a
man chase
Lindh up an
escalator
from the
ground floor
to the first
upper level
into a store
called
Filippa K.
"She fell on
the floor
and the man
was stabbing
her in the
stomach,"
she said.
"She laid on
the floor
and it
looked as if
a tall man,
wearing a
peaked cap,
was hitting
her," she
told AP.
"But when he
ran away, he
threw away a
knife."
Sundberg ran
to Lindh,
who said:
"God, he has
stabbed me
in the
stomach!"
Another
witness,
Anna
Lekander,
who had been
in the
boutique,
where there
were “only a
handful of
shoppers at
the time,”
said she had
not noticed
that Lindh
was there as
well.
Lekander
said nothing
about a man
chasing
Lindh up the
escalator.
Lekander
told the BBC
that she had
learned from
others who
were present
that Lindh
had entered
the shop
together
with a
friend,
seemingly
with "no
bodyguards
or
anything.”
Soon after
leaving the
shop,
Lekander
heard people
shouting
from inside,
"Catch him,
catch him”.
"It happened
very
quickly, I
could see
people
running and
I went back
into the
shop,"
Lekander
said.
"I could see
a person
lying on the
floor, but I
didn't know
it was her,”
Lekander
said. "There
was blood
everywhere.”
The attacker
fled down
the
escalator
and was able
to flee
without any
resistance
from
security
guards.
Police were
reported to
be searching
for a man
wearing a
camouflage
jacket.
Lindh was
initially
reported to
be serious
condition
but her
injuries
were said
not to be
“life-threatening”
as she
underwent
six hours of
surgery at
the
Karolinska
Hospital.
Doctors said
she suffered
extensive
damage to
her liver
and had
internal
bleeding.
A company
named
Hufvudstaden
owns NK, a
100-year-old
department
store
founded by
Josef E.
Sachs. AFP
asked
Michael
Lorenz,
owner of
Duty
Security,
which
provides
security for
NK, about
the number
and location
of guards at
the time
Lindh was
murdered.
Lorenz would
not say how
many guards
were on duty
or what kind
of security
detail his
firm
provided at
the exits of
NK.
Lorenz also
refused to
answer
questions
about how an
assailant
could attack
a prominent
Swedish
politician
in broad
daylight in
a department
store with
numerous
closed-circuit
video
cameras and
security
guards and
flee without
encountering
any
resistance
or security
personnel in
pursuit.
Ylva Anna
Maria Lindh
was a rising
star in
Sweden’s
ruling
Social
Democrat
Party (SDP).
At age 46,
Lindh was an
intelligent
and
articulate
politician
with more
than 20
years
experience
in
government.
An outspoken
and
attractive
foreign
minister,
Lindh was
expected to
be Sweden’s
next prime
minister.
She has two
young sons,
8 and 13.
As Sweden’s
foreign
minister
since 1998,
Lindh’s
“main
objectives
were to
encourage
dialogue
between the
rich and the
poor worlds,
and to
support the
independence
of the
Palestinian
and Kurdish
peoples,”
according to
Olle
Svenning,
London
correspondent
of the
Swedish
newspaper
Aftonbladet
and personal
friend of
Lindh.
Lindh was an
outspoken
critic of
Israel’s
prime
minister
Ariel Sharon
and his
brutal
policies
affecting
the millions
of
Palestinians
living under
Israeli
occupation:
"Our stand
is firm and
clear,” the
foreign
minister
said in an
October 2001
interview :-
· "Israeli
settlements
on the West
Bank must
go;
· there must
be a
Palestinian
state;
· Israel
must vacate
occupied
areas on the
West Bank
and Gaza
Strip; and
· end all
extra-territorial
executions
and attacks
on
Palestinians.
· This
should be
done
immediately.”
Asked if she
expected
anything
from a
dialogue
with the
Israeli
government
led by
Sharon,
whose
“record of
war crimes”
was
described as
“being
without
parallel in
post-War
history,”
Lindh
replied, “I
agree. It
makes no
sense to
have a
dialogue
with
Sharon’s
government.
There will
be no talks
with him
from our
side.”
In June
2002, the
youth wing
of Lindh’s
Social
Democrat
Party
pressed
charges
against
Sharon of
war crimes
and
violation of
international
law. At the
time Lindh
said she
understood
there was
"both
bitterness
and anger
because the
Israeli
government
is guilty of
violating
international
law."
"Sometimes
the
Israeli-Palestinian
conflict
makes me so
angry that I
kick the
wastepaper
bin in my
office or
throw things
around,"
Lindh said.
She had
described
Sharon as a
“maniac” and
said on
Swedish
television
that she
would not
buy Israeli
goods and
fruits sold
in Swedish
markets.
At a meeting
of European
Union member
states in
April 2002,
Lindh had
called for
the EU to
cut
relations
with Israel
to protest
the
repressive
practices of
Israeli
occupation
forces
against the
Palestinians.
A frequent
critic of
Sharon,
Lindh said
in May 2002
that her
goal was
that
"Israeli
citizens
will turn
against the
military
policies of
Sharon."
“Israel's
government,”
she said,
“has chosen
a course of
action that
risks
placing the
country
outside of
the rest of
the world
community.”
Lindh
criticized
U.S.
President
George W.
Bush for
ignoring the
Palestinian
President
Yasser
Arafat,
saying U.S.
policies
rewarded
“Sharon's
violence.”
“I am very
worried
about this
American
debate,”
Lindh said
on Swedish
radio. “I
think this
discussion
equating
Arafat with
terrorists
is both
inappropriate
and stupid.
It is a very
dangerous
policy.”
“It
contradicts
the entire
peace
process...
and can only
lead to
outright war
in the
Middle
East,” she
said.
At a
gathering of
European
foreign
ministers in
Riva del
Garda,
Italy, days
before she
was killed,
Lindh had
blamed the
U.S. and
Israel for
the collapse
of the
“Roadmap”
peace plan
and
resignation
of
Palestinian
prime
minister
Mahmoud
Abbas.
Lindh said
Abbas had
been given
“the kiss of
death” when
the Bush
Administration
and Israel
had decided
to deal only
with him and
sideline
Palestinian
president
Yasser
Arafat.
“Of course
Arafat's
unwillingness
to give Abu
Mazen (Abbas)
increased
power was
decisive,
but Abu
Mazen's
position
would have
been much
stronger if
Israel had
also
contributed
to the peace
process,"
Lindh told
Swedish
radio at the
meeting in
Italy. Lindh
said Israel
had
continued
building
illegal
Jewish
settlements,
erecting a
wall
separating
Israel and
the
Palestinian
territories,
and
assassinating
leaders of
Hamas.
Lindh’s
principled
and
unequivocal
position on
the
Israeli-Palestinian
conflict was
like that of
the late
Swedish
prime
minister
Olof Palme,
who was
assassinated
in Stockholm
in 1986, and
Count Folke
Bernadotte,
the United
Nation’s
Mediator on
Palestine,
who was
brutally
murdered by
a Zionist
terror gang
near
Jerusalem in
1948.
The
assassination
of
Bernadotte,
“at the
hands of the
Israeli
terrorist
organization…
began a
lethal
Swedish
connection
with
Palestine,”
Ashrawi
wrote.
“Palestine
lost its
first
Swedish
champion,”
Ashrawi
wrote, when
Bernadotte
“was
brutally
murdered,
shot at
point blank,
by three
Jewish Stern
Gang members
in
Jerusalem.”
In 1986,
then Swedish
Prime
Minister
Olof Palme
was shot as
he walked
home from
the cinema
with his
wife. As
Ashrawi
noted, Palme
had sought
recognition
for the
Palestine
Liberation
Organization
(PLO) and a
validation
for the
peaceful
resolution
of the
conflict
through
ending the
1967 Israeli
occupation
of
Palestinian
and other
Arab lands.
Palme’s
politics
were based
on
international
legality and
UN
resolutions,
and “a
deeply-felt
commitment
to fairness
and human
decency,”
Ashrawi
wrote.
Ulf Dahlsten,
Palme's
personal
secretary in
1986, said
that Lindh
was the most
important
Swedish
political
figure since
the late
prime
minister. In
her speeches
against the
war in Iraq
and in
support of
the
Palestinians,
Lindh was
seen as
Palme's
natural
heir. There
have long
been rumors
in
intelligence
circles that
Lindh was
the daughter
of Palme.
American
Free Press
asked Ninni
Jonzon, news
editor of
Göteborgs-Posten,
if there was
any
discussion
in the
Swedish
media
comparing
Lindh’s
murder with
the
political
assassination
of
Bernadotte,
or the
unsolved
murder of
Palme.
“Absolutely
not,” Jonzon
said. Asked
why, she
replied, “I
don’t know.”
As UN
mediator,
Bernadotte
had the
mandate to
"promote a
peaceful
adjustment
of the
future
situation in
Palestine"
and to
mediate
beyond the
terms of the
Nov. 29,
1947
Partition
Plan, in
which the
U.N. General
Assembly had
voted to
partition
Palestine
into Arab
and Jewish
states.
The
Partition
Plan, which
gave the
Zionists
more than
half of
Palestine,
led to war
between Arab
and Zionist
forces after
Israel
proclaimed
its
establishment
on May 14,
1948.
Bernadotte's
first action
had been to
arrange a
truce, which
lasted from
June 11 to
July 9.
Bernadotte
put forward
a proposal
for solving
the
conflict,
which
suggested
that
Jerusalem be
placed under
Jordanian
rule, since
all the area
around the
city was
designated
for the
Palestinian
Arab state.
The U.N.
partition
plan had
declared
Jerusalem an
international
city that
was to be
ruled by
neither Arab
nor Jew. But
Jewish
terrorist
groups,
headed by
the Polish
immigrants
Yitzhak
Shamir and
Menachem
Begin, who
both later
served as
Israeli
prime
ministers,
rejected
partition
and claimed
all of
Palestine
and Jordan
for the
Jewish
state. These
Jewish
extremists
saw
Bernadotte
as an enemy
- an
obstacle to
their agenda
- that had
to be
removed.
While no one
was ever
charged for
the murders
of Palme or
Bernadotte,
three
Zionist
terrorists
have been
named in
Israeli and
western
documents as
being behind
the planning
and murder
of
Bernadotte.
Chief among
them is
Yitzhak
Shamir (born
Yezernitsky),
who headed a
Zionist
terrorist
organization
during the
British
occupation
of Palestine
known as
LEHI, or the
Stern Gang.
New York
Times
columnist
C.L.
Sulzberger
reported
meeting two
of Shamir’s
Stern Gang
members on
July 24,
1948. The
Stern Gang
terrorists
said: "We
intend to
kill
Bernadotte
and any
other
uniformed
United
Nations
observers
who come to
Jerusalem."
Asked why,
"They
replied that
their
organization
was
determined
to seize all
of Jerusalem
for the
state of
Israel and
would brook
no
interference
by any
national or
international
body."
Shamir, also
reportedly
sent two
agents to
Egypt to
assassinate
the British
minister
Lord Moyne,
“because he
was an enemy
of the Jews
and the
Zionists.”
Shamir,
however,
never faced
justice for
the murder
of
Bernadotte
and went on
to serve as
Paris bureau
chief the
Israeli
intelligence
agency
Mossad
(1955–65),
member of
the Israeli
parliament
(1973–96),
and as prime
minister of
Israel
(1983–84 and
1986–92).
According to
Michael
Collins
Piper,
author of
Final
Judgment,
Shamir is
also
suspected of
having
played a key
role in the
assassination
of U.S.
president
John F.
Kennedy by
arranging a
French-based
hit squad of
assassins
that killed
the
president, a
foe of
Israel's Ben
Gurion and
strong
opponent of
Israel's
nuclear
ambitions.
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