Swedish Official ‘Postpones’ Trip to Israel, Palestinian Authority

January 7, 2015 

Hana Levi Julian

A top Swedish official has indefinitely “postponed” her trip to Israel and “Palestine” in response to a curt snub by Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman.

Eriki Boman, a spokesperson for Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom, said in a statement Wednesday his boss “has decided to postpone her visit to Israel and Palestine. Instead of next week it will take place later. No date is yet decided.”

Wallstrom was to meet this month with Liberman and also with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. But following Sweden’s official recognition of the Palestinian Authority as a sovereign independent country, Liberman announced he would not meet with her. His ministry also recalled Israel’s ambassador from Stockholm for three weeks of “consultations.” The prime minister’s office also notified Wallstrom that Netanyahu would also be unavailable to meet.

“The behavior of countries such as Sweden and Ireland – it is simply the same behavior and abandonment that occurred in Europe in 1938 during the Munich Agreement,” Liberman told a conference for European ambassadors at the Foreign Ministry recently. “The Europeans abandoned their biggest ally, Czechoslovakia.

“Their whole policy towards Israel is abandonment. Even though Israel is the only country that represents Western values in the entire Middle East, they abandon us.”