Relatives of Swedes: You can and must do more – the lives of our families depend on it
This is a debate article. It is the writer who stands for the opinions expressed in the text, not Aftonbladet.
Published 2024-01-12 06.00
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full screen We are not going to sit still and wait for our families and friends to fall under the racial masses or die of starvation or disease. The Foreign Ministry can and should do more, write relatives of Swedes stuck in war-torn Gaza. The pictures show some of those that the relatives want to bring home: Rasmy, 55, Jawad, 9, Khadija, 8, Abdollah, 6, and Kafa, 9, with one-year-old Beya. Photo: Private
DEBATE. We call in desperation day after day to the Foreign Ministry to get help to save our loved ones out of Gaza.
“We can’t do more, it’s up to the local authorities”, that’s the mechanical answer many of us are met with.
UN representatives have called Gaza “hell on earth” and “a burial ground for children”. There is no place that is safe in Gaza and not activating full diplomatic power in this situation to get our relatives out is unacceptable and sends a dangerous signal to us Swedish minority groups about how our lives are valued.
We relatives are devastated. Not only in the face of the knowledge that our families in Gaza are at risk of starving to death or that they could be killed or maimed at any second.
But also because of the ambivalence the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has shown towards the lives of our families.
In addition to the standard answer that “it is up to the local authorities”, we have been met with blame by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs insisting on reminding our relatives that there has been a travel advisory to Gaza since 10 years ago.
As if the apocalypse that now prevails in Gaza could have been foreseen or that a dissuasion would free the Foreign Ministry from its mission to save the lives of its citizens – especially when the decision to evacuate Swedes from Gaza has already been made.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs can and should do more. Our families’ lives depend on it.
In the past few days, we could read about Swedish Khadija, who only managed to turn eight years old. She was dragged out lifeless from the mobs along with her siblings who were all injured.
They were sleeping hungry and terrified when their house in Khan Yunis was hit by a rocket and collapsed on top of their small bodies.
Khan Yunis is an area that the Israeli military instructed residents to go to because it would be “a safe area”. If the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had made greater efforts to get Khadija and her family out, they might have been here in Sweden today, building snowmen and sledding.
We are not going to sit idly by and wait for our families and friends to fall under the racial masses or to die of starvation or disease. Nor are we going to allow ourselves to be convinced that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs cannot do more than send our families’ names to the local authorities in Egypt.
We want to emphasize that the evacuation of Swedes from Gaza should not be a complicated diplomatic situation. There are generally no obstacles from the Israeli side to the evacuation and no actual obstacles from the Egyptian authorities.
The evacuation is thus not to be compared with diplomatically complicated situations such as getting imprisoned Swedes abroad. It is something that primarily needs to be prioritized higher.
Based on our contact with the Foreign Ministry and our knowledge of how other countries have acted for their citizens, we therefore want to make these demands directed at the Foreign Ministry:
arrow Engage in active diplomacy to get our Swedes on the so-called “Rafahlistan”.
This includes Swedes with citizenship, as well as right of residence in Sweden, as well as their immediate family. The Rafahlist is the list of names that determines who gets out of Gaza.
Active and continuous diplomacy is required by the Foreign Ministry to ensure that local authorities in Egypt promptly include our families’ names on the Rafah list and enable their border crossing.
Countries that engage in active diplomacy manage to get their citizens out in a continuous flow. Sweden, with its good relations with Egypt, should have no difficulty in succeeding in this.
arrow Make sure to follow up on cases individually.
The Foreign Ministry estimates that there are about a hundred Swedes left in Gaza. It is a manageable number of cases for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to actively follow up.
Some cases have knots that need to be untied. Some documents may be missing. These knots can only be resolved through direct diplomacy between the Foreign Ministry and the relevant Egyptian authorities, usually through direct consular assistance at the Rafah border crossing.
arrow Cooperate actively with our relatives in the evacuation attempts of our families.
Appoint one or more people within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who have a special responsibility to keep us informed of developments regarding the evacuation attempts of our relatives. See us as allies and use our knowledge of our families’ situation in Gaza.
We spend all days trying to get in touch with our relatives and can assist in conveying and obtaining information that is important for their evacuation.
Our demands above are anchored in what every Swedish citizen should be able to expect from their government in a humanitarian disaster.
We get the feeling that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would have treated our families differently if their names had been Alice, Maja, Felix and Liam instead of Mohammed, Khadija and Amal. We want to ask the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to show in word and deed that the lives of our families are important to them.
Finally, we want to emphasize that most of our families are still alive. It is not too late to get their names on the Rafah list and assist them with what they need to cross the border.
Every day of neglect means Russian roulette with the lives of our Swedes.
Haitam Alserr, brother of Mohammed Alserr 36 years stuck in Gaza
Nasmy El Masri, son of Rasmy 55 years old stuck in Gaza
Linda Duhair, daughter of Rasmy 55 years old stuck in Gaza
Lamja El Masri, daughter of Rasmy 55 years old stuck in Gaza
Rawia El Masri, daughter of Rasmy 55 years old stuck in Gaza
Reem Naser, relative of Ahmad Nofal, 29 years stuck in Gaza
Hoyem Klay, belonging to the Abolafi and Doghmoch families, ten people between 1 and 31 years old, who are stuck in Gaza
Ahmad El Far, board member Justice for all
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