Sweden accused of persecuting civil servant for pro-Israel views

[Snoshi]

An employee of the Swedish Migration Board sued the organization last month for what he considers unlawful demotion for his support of Israel and the U.S., which he expressed in his personal Web site. The parties met last week at the Goteborg District Court for a first hearing on the case.

Lennart Eriksson, 51, told Haaretz by phone that his boss, Eugene Palmer, had demoted him last September from the position of manager of an asylum assessment unit - which he had held for six years - to manager of one of the board's shelters. Eriksson maintains that in effect, the demotion constitutes dismissal.

The board - the government body handling immigrants - disagrees with this.
Eriksson, who is not Jewish, also said he viewed his demotion as a form of political persecution.

According to Eriksson, Palmer told him he had seen Eriksson's Web site and that Eriksson's views were both "unusual and controversial." According to Eriksson, Palmer told him he was being demoted because of the Web site, and that running such a site was inappropriate for a senior official of the migration board.

He said his site "does not and has never contained hateful or acrimonious ideas."

The board's press officer, Marie Andersson, said the board "strongly denies that it persecutes any of its employees." She added: "Under the Swedish Secrecy Act [Sekretesslagen], the board is not at liberty - and we do not find it appropriate either - to discuss one of our employees and the specifics of this particular case."

The board had confirmed in previous queries by the Swedish media that Eriksson had been "transferred" as a result of the opinions he expressed on his Web site. Andersson said the board finds it "crucial to preserve people's confidence in the organization."

This, she says, makes it essential "for employees to not show that they are in favor of one side in a conflict which leads people to seek refuge in Sweden." It is particularly important for staff in leading positions to "show impartiality," she said.

But Eriksson says that at least one of his former colleagues, Arne Malmgren, is a veteran pro-Palestinian activist working against human rights violations in the West Bank and Lebanon. Malmgren and his wife, Birgitta Elfstrom - who also worked at the board until retiring recently - are quoted in the international media in this context.

The board never approached Malmgren on this issue and has even recently promoted him, says Eriksson. Press officer Andersson would only say on this issue that "Mr. Malmgren has not been promoted to a position as head of any unit."

Israel's former ambassador to Sweden, Zvi Mazel, said he was not surprised by the incident.

"The people who fired Eriksson took the lead from a prevalent anti-Israel atmosphere in Sweden's corridors of power," he said. Dr. Mikael Tossavainen, a Swedish-born researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, said he considered the incident a danger to free speech.

Upon hearing about the case, the vice chair of the Sweden-Israel Friendship Society, Ilya Meyer, launched a public campaign to raise awareness about what he calls political persecution apparent in Eriksson's case.

"If someone from another country had suffered the treatment to which Eriksson has been subjected, the victim would be granted political asylum in Sweden on the grounds of political persecution," Meyer said.
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/956205.html

[orange]

I'm not surprised at all by this.

Although I do belive that it is inappropriate for a high ranking official in the "Migrationsverket" to publicly choose sides and express their own ideas openly, the fact that it is overlooked that Malmgren chose the other side and did not get reprimanded sort of illustrates our general "open mindness" here in Sweden.

Blows!

[ozumn]

Snoshi fishing news all the time, is that your job?

[Snoshi]

Snoshi fishing news all the time, is that your job?

Oh.. I am sorry that i am posting topics. I am sorry that i wasted your time. How can i repay you?

Most of the topics i post will be posted by someone else sooner or later..

[signatory]

Cool. So last week we were islamophobes and this week anti-israelis.

That article is of course missing a lot of valuable information as is always the case... Some info then...

That employee had been on leave for 1 year and during that time the migration board had change its head.

It appears the new boss got a hard on for "neutrality" and want his people to manage asylum applications without possible allegations of bad judgement due to personal beliefs. According to the new boss, people outspoken about Israeli attacks or shown to be pro-palestinian would have been dealt with the same way.

The union is otoh backing the employee. A court will decide this spring.

We'll see.

[orange]

Totally offtopic;

I love your new avatar Sig. Bildt FTW! p-)

[Snoshi]

Cool. So last week we were islamophobes and this week anti-israelis.

That article is of course missing a lot of valuable information as is always the case... Some info then...

That employee had been on leave for 1 year and during that time the migration board had change its head.

It appears the new boss got a hard on for "neutrality" and want his people to manage asylum applications without possible allegations of bad judgement due to personal beliefs. According to the new boss, people outspoken about Israeli attacks or shown to be pro-palestinian would have been dealt with the same way.

The union is otoh backing the employee. A court will decide this spring.

We'll see.
Well.. He took a year off because he completed hes doctorate and Migrationsverket themselves told him that it was because of hes blog. Also there are several other people who work there who express their pro-Palestinian views and nothing happens to them.

Så var det dags att fortsätta åsiktsförföljelsen i Sverige. Denna gången är det Lennart Eriksson, handläggare på Migrationsverket, som fått känna på hur det är att ha fel åsikter. Åsikterna som var för mycket för de ansvariga på Migrationsverket, Eugéne Palmer och Staffan Opitz, var det att Lennart tog ställning för Israel och USA på sin privata blogg. Vidare är han konservativ. Motiveringen till att han blev avskedad var att hans åsikter är “udda”.

Lennart har jobbat i hela 19 år på Migrationsverket och har enligt uppgifter haft sin website under en längre tid där han uttryckt sina privata åsikter, däribland sitt stöd för Israel, USA och den demokrati de representerar.

Enligt uppgifter ska Eriksson precis ha avslutat sin doktorsavhandling och hade i samband med det tagit ett år tjänstledigt. När han återvänder till sitt jobb finns där en ny chef som låter meddela att hans politiska åsikter är “ovanliga och kontroversiella”. Därefter lät den nya chefen meddela att han blir degraderad. Migrationsverket meddelar att avskedningen från tjänsten (han blev ju av med tjänsten och fick en annan position) var på grund av de åsikter han hyser.

Vem som helst som har den minsta aning om demokrati och yttrandefrihet borde ju sätta kaffet i strupen och skrika “vad i helsike…” när denna typen av övertramp sker.

Hur kan Sverige kalla sig en demokrati när demokrater avskedas för att de har konservativa, pro-israeliska och pro-amerikanska åsikter?

Problemet ligger väl i det sossifierade samhället Sverige, där sosse-idéer styr även om vi har en så kallad borgerlig regering, där personer med icke-socialdemokratiska åsikter kan förföljas och avskedas utan någon nämnbar reaktion från det styrande “högerblocket”.

I ett klimat som detta kan man undra om det spelar nån roll att lägga sin röst på Alliansen som inte verkar vilja städa upp i den socialdemokratiska geggan som våra institutioner och myndigheter sedan länge drunknat i.
http://sdblogg.se/2008/02/08/asiktsforfoljelser-a-la-socialdemokraterna/


Lennart Eriksson, som arbetat på Migrationsverket i 20 år och tills nyligen var enhetschef, har blivit omplacerad på grund av vad han skrivit på sin blogg Sapere Aude. Därför kräver han upprättelse och skadestånd i Mölndals tingsrätt.

–De åsikter han sprider gäller en konflikt som genererar flyktingströmmar till Sverige. Personer i de palestinska områdena måste kunna känna förtroende för att vi hanterar deras ärenden korrekt, säger Eugene Palmér, chef för Migrationsverkets asylprövning, till tidningen Världen Idag (13/2).

Arbetsplatskonflikter kan ha dolda orsaker. Men då Migrationsverket säger att det är bloggen som är orsaken får jag bedöma saken därefter. Är den förkastlig?

Eriksson skriver mycket om konflikten i Mellanöstern. Och för svensk debatt kan sättet kanske vara provocerande. Han benämner Hamas ”terrorister” istället för ”aktivister”. Under Israels krig mot Hizbollah i Libanon skrev han att ”Israels sak är vår”. Helt nyligen påpekade han att palestinier delade ut blommor och godis för att fira självmordsbombningen i Dimona, efter att en israel dödats och många skadats.

Men vad som helst kan man ju inte säga. Arbetsdomstolen (1991/106) diskuterade, när det gällde en extremistisk nationalist som arbetade på häkte, frågan om vad som skulle ske om en tjänsteman ”hos invandrarverket med en utpräglad förtroendeställning [...] tillhör eller sympatiserar med en öppet rasistisk organisation utan att därmed göra sig skyldig till brott”. Man kom fram till att det teoretiskt kunde finnas tillfällen då omplacering vore motiverad. ”Führern på häktet” fick dock vara kvar.

Försvar av demokrati kanske betraktas annorlunda. Ärendet på Migrationsverket blir ännu märkligare när man läser vad andra tjänstemän gör. En, aktiv i Palestinagrupperna, sade i Proletären (13/2005) ”att man nog inte kan vara tillräckligt kritisk mot Israels politik idag”. En annan, nu pensionerad, skriver på internet gillande om sitt möte med Hizbollah-ledaren Hassan Nasrallah: ”en vänlig, påläst, intelligent och skarpsynt man med en påtaglig utstrålning som kändes i hela rummet.”

Jag har ingen anledning att tro annat än att tjänstemännen ovan skött sina jobb klanderfritt. Men misstanken gnager att Migrationsverket, som så många andra i Sverige, bara ser med ena ögat när det gäller Mellanöstern.
http://www.svd.se/opinion/ledarsidan/artikel_873827.svd

[orange]

Snoshi:

Next time, don't use Sverige Demokraterna as a source seeing that they're probably not the most objective and credible source around. Quite frankly, they're mofos. The use of only the SVD article would work way better...

[signatory]

Well.. He took a year off because he completed hes doctorate and Migrationsverket themselves told him that it was because of hes blog. Also there are several other people who work there who express their pro-Palestinian views and nothing happens to them.



Perhaps I don't know. The one you put in bold looks like one from 2005 tho quite some time before the new boss came to power. So maybe it wasn't relevant. And there's not too many Israeli refugees coming here that need to seek asylum and thus could be subject to any unfair treatment.

BTW, a teacher at a public school here visited the Iranian holocaust conference on his personal time. This was seen unacceptable in the role he had so my city settled with him and let him go. I don't know if there's any relevance but this looks like something similar.

[Snoshi]

Snoshi:

Next time, don't use Sverige Demokraterna as a source seeing that they're probably not the most objective and credible source around. Quite frankly, they're mofos. The use of only the SVD article would work way better...

I know. But i just posted their "article".

Birgitta Elfström who worked in Migrations Verket before she retired had the same position as Lennart Eriksson before he got demoted wrote for http://www.palestinagrupperna.se/index.htm a pro-palestinian group

This is one of her articles

Innan vi hann sätta oss ner uppenbarade sig plötsligt Hassan Nasrallah. Det kan låta konstigt, men det kändes som om luften plötsligt uppfylldes av en helig aura. Där kom han, Hizbollahledaren, utstrålande ett stort lugn och med ett varmt leende på läpparna. ”Är detta verkligen Hassan Nasrallah?” tänkte jag. Han hälsade artigt, fortfarande leende. Han bad mig sitta närmast honom i en av de höga stolarna och jag fick börja med att ge en kort presentation av mig själv.
Hassan Nasrallah inledde med att prisa den svenska demokratin och Sveriges arbete för mänskliga rättigheter. Sedan pratade han om sin son som blev ett av Mellanösterkonfliktens offer, om Hizbollahs arbete i parlamentet, om palestiniernas situation i Libanon, om Israels ockupation av södra Libanon och om framtiden. Han berättade med inlevelse om Hizbollahs sociala verksamhet som omfattade bl.a. skolor och sjukhus.För mig framstod Hassan Nasrallah som en vänlig, påläst, intelligent och skarpsynt man med en påtaglig utstrålning som kändes i hela rummet. Det var ett speciellt och mycket minnesvärt möte.
Quick tranlsation
Before we managed to sit down Nassralah suddenly appeard. It may sound weird but if felt like the air was filled with a holy aura. There he came leader of Hezbollah who was looking very calm and had a warm smile on hes face. "Is it really Hassan Nasrallah" i thought. He said hello while still smilying and asked me to to sit closer to him and i started with a presentation of myself.
Hassan Nasrallah started by praising the Swedish democracy and Swedens work for human rights. The he talked about hes son who was the victim of ME conflict, about Hezbollahs work in the parlament, about Palestian situation in Lebanon, about Israeli occupation of South Lebanon and about the future. He told me about Hezbullah social work that contatied schools and hospitals. To me Nasrallah appeard as a polite,intelligte and he had a "strong" aura that filled the hole room. It was a very special and remembabre meeting.

[maytrows]

So an government office changes thier boss and he starts to a new policy to ensure that the people who seek asylum would be partial to an objective judgement. In so doing he became an antisemite?
Sounds pretty absurd, especially if the reverse would make him pro-Israeli.

[Ludipipo]

Snoshi:

Next time, don't use Sverige Demokraterna as a source seeing that they're probably not the most objective and credible source around. Quite frankly, they're mofos. The use of only the SVD article would work way better...

Most credible source of information: DN, SVD, Expressen and Aftonbladet.rofl

[Snoshi]

So an government office changes thier boss and he starts to a new policy to ensure that the people who seek asylum would be partial to an objective judgement. In so doing he became an antisemite?
Sounds pretty absurd, especially if the reverse would make him pro-Israeli.

Anti-semite? who told that? Lennart Eriksson is not even Jewish..

Also its impossible to be "objective" on ME conflict..

[orange]

Most credible source of information: DN, SVD, Expressen and Aftonbladet.rofl

SVD is a hell of alot more credible than SD wouldn't you say?

When it comes to the others that you mentioned, did I ever name them? But since you did; Yeah, even a worthless tabloid like Aftonbladet is waaaaay more credible than anything that comes from SD.

[Ordie]

Isn't this a freedom of speech issue?

US Supreme Court court cases in regards to the freedom of speech for government employees has been an on-going issue as well.

My suggestion for this individual is to take it to the courts and perhaps the EU courts as well.

[orange]

My suggestion for this individual is to take it to the courts and perhaps the EU courts as well.
They're in court.

The parties met last week at the Goteborg District Court for a first hearing on the case.

[maytrows]

Anti-semite? who told that? Lennart Eriksson is not even Jewish..

Also its impossible to be "objective" on ME conflict..


The people who fired Eriksson took the lead from a prevalent anti-Israel atmosphere in Sweden's corridors of power," he said. Dr. Mikael Tossavainen, a Swedish-born researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, said he considered the incident a danger to free speech


Explain to me why its impossible for a third party that has nothing invested in a conflict to be objective?

[Hollis]

Snoshi fishing news all the time, is that your job?


1) your not a mod here

2) you can post news articles too.

3) if you have nothing to add except a whine, you will be infracted again.

[Snoshi]

Explain to me why its impossible for a third party that has nothing invested in a conflict to be objective?

Being anti-Israeli is not being anti-semitic.. Like there is a saying. Not all anti-Zionists are anti-semites, but all anti-semites are anti-Zionists.

How can you be objective in a conflict like ME one?

[orange]

Being anti-Israeli is not being anti-semitic.. Like there is a saying. Not all anti-Zionists are anti-semites, but all anti-semites are anti-Zionists.

How can you be objective in a conflict like ME one?
Agreed. I for one am having a real hard time not leaning towards any side. Alot of the time, I'm Pro-Israeli, in some cases, Pro-Palestine which is kind of weird really. None of the time, I'm in the middle.

[maytrows]

Being anti-Israeli is not being anti-semitic.. Like there is a saying. Not all anti-Zionists are anti-semites, but all anti-semites are anti-Zionists.

How can you be objective in a conflict like ME one?

I apologise for my mix-up of words the, I didn´t differentiate the meanings, my bad. However change antisemite into anti-Israeli and I still find the claim absurd.

Secondly you claimed it was impossible to be objective in the ME-conflict and I asked you to explain that claim. Asking me a question wont back up your statement.