According to the chairman of the Social Democrats Magdalena Andersson (S) blames it on her own unreasonableness that her party colleague Jamal El-Haj would harbor sympathies for the terrorist group Hamas because he is a “union guy”. And trade unionists “want individuals to be able to live free lives regardless of their background, their gender, their sexual orientation. It is very far from religious fundamentalism or terrorism that Hamas stands for”.
As an argument, it is undeniably innovative. Unfortunately for Andersson, it is as unconvincing as her previous free fantasies, performed in Agendas party leadership debate on October 8, the day after Hamas’ orgy of murder, rape and kidnapping in Israel, that El-Haj “dedicated his entire political life to fighting Hamas.”
It was when Andersson was interviewed on Wednesday in P1 morning which she veered onto the union guy track, in what seemed like a desperate attempt to pass interview time. And when she answered a direct question with a barely audible mumble “I have confidence in him”, that is El-Haj, it didn’t immediately sound like it came from the heart.
In December could Bulletin reveal that El-Haj not only participated as a guest of honor at the Hamas-linked Palestinian conference in Malmö at the end of May last year, but also participated in the planning.
Andersson commented on this in the following way i P1 morning:
“I don’t know exactly who he has spoken to before that conference, I don’t have track of that.”
The question is how Andersson can express his trust in El-Haj without having a clue of what he was doing and what contacts he had. Andersson likes to talk, often and at length, about the importance of showing leadership. Maybe she would practice it too?
When Andersson now repeats that Jamal El-Haj distanced himself from Hamas, from Hamas’ terrorist attack against Israel on October 7 and from those who celebrated it, it is important to be clear in which order things were said.
It was in Agenda in SVT on June 4 last year, the week after the planned Hamas conference in Malmö, which Magdalena Andersson first vouched for the union guy.
“Jamal has been very, very clear and it is also well documented in the Riksdag. [Han] has time and time again clearly distanced itself from Hamas,” Andersson said.
But it was only several months after Andersson named El-Haj as Hamas’ enemy number one in the Riksdag and after she repeated this in the party leadership debate on October 8, that El-Haj began to voice something resembling criticism of Hamas. For example, in a debate article in Sydsvenskan on October 24, where El-Haj wrote: “There is no defense for Hamas’ acts of terror and reign of terror.”
It should be noted that the Social Democrats have not managed to show any concrete examples of El-Haj’s activities in the Riksdag that substantiate the claims that he waged a well-documented fight against Hamas there. The explanation is simple: there is no evidence because he had no such fight. For example, El-Haj has not even mentioned Hamas from the floor of the Riksdag.
If Magdalena Andersson had instead claimed that the union guy spent his entire political life attacking and criticizing Israel, she would have come much closer to the truth.
Read also: Skogkär: Magdalena Andersson lies time and time again
By soaking up – that is, pouring more alcohol into themselves after an accident – the occasional drunk driver has managed to avoid a conviction. Jamal El-Haj has devoted himself to rewriting, to try to create an image of himself as a Hamas critic through debate articles. This postscript has most likely been forced by the party leadership.
At the same time, El-Haj refuses to appear for interviews and talk about his alleged – read fabricated – fight against Hamas. And when a reporter from TV 4 managed to hunt him down in a Riksdag corridor, El-Haj did not want to answer how he views Hamas.
“I don’t want to comment on that,” El-Haj said.
An extremely strange behavior if he really dislikes Hamas as much as Andersson and others in the party leadership want to claim.
At a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Malmö in December, El-Haj’s Riksdag and party colleague Zinaida Kajevic was booed and forced to interrupt her speech after she uttered the words “Hamas’ terrorist actions”. According to Expressen, she was afterwards patted down by El-Haj. If El-Haj had really been the outspoken opponent of Hamas the party wants to make him out to be, it is strange that he missed this opportunity to rebuke the booing audience from the stage and support his fellow party member.
That a Member of Parliament like Jamal El-Haj has refused to appear for interviews and answer relevant questions about his actions for over six months is remarkable. Magdalena Andersson’s bold claims about his opposition to Hamas make it all the more necessary for the drama’s main character to speak out – after all, she leads the country’s largest party and aims to become prime minister again.
Just over two and a half years remain in the term. It should be hard for the union guy to hide from journalists for so long.
Read also: Skogkär: The left and Hamas – a budding romance
Mats Skogkär
Educated at the University of Journalism in Gothenburg. Reporter at TT News Agency for 15 years. Editorial writer at Sydsvenskan for 15 years.
mats@bulletin.nu