Sweden minister resigns under pressure over anti-occupation remarks

Sweden’s Minister of Housing Mehmet Kaplan has resigned under mounting pressure over remarks he reportedly made seven years ago comparing the Israeli regime to the former Nazi regime in Germany.

Sweden’s Prime Minster Stefan Lofven said on Monday that Kaplan had submitted his resignation and that he had accepted it, according to Press TV.

He said the minister’s decision to step down had been deemed correct.

“Mehmet Kaplan’s overall assessment of the situation is that he will not be able to act as a minister and I share that assessment,” Lofven said.

The premier described Kaplan as “a man with humanist and democratic values.”

The 44-year-old Turkish born-minister has come under increasing pressure since last week, when a Swedish daily published the comments he had made seven years ago about Israel.

The Svenska Dagbladet daily quoted Kaplan as saying in March 2009 that, “Israelis treat Palestinians in a way that is very like that in which Jews were treated during Germany in the 1930s.”

Kaplan, however, was not a minister when he made the remarks.

Kaplan confirmed that he was stepping down because of increasing criticism by the public and media, which he said had made it impossible for him to do his job. He made vague comments on the media reports about him.

“Let me be clear; this is not a confirmation of reports about me that I consider wrongful. I know who I am and what I have done,” Kaplan said. He also acknowledged that “on several occasions [he] severely criticized” the Israeli regime’s treatment of the Palestinians.

Israel’s ambassador to Sweden, Isaac Bachman, roundly denounced the remarks and described them as “deeply anti-Semitic.”

Sweden’s foreign minister, Margot Wallström, also described Kaplan’s remarks as “terrible.”

Relations between Sweden and Israel hit the lowest ebb when the government in Stockholm recognized the State of Palestine in 2014. It was the first member of the European Union (EU) in Western Europe that made the recognition.

Palestinians want to establish an independent state on the territories of the West Bank, including East al-Quds (Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip. 

Earlier this month, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah called on all EU members to recognize the state of Palestine and establish full diplomatic relations with it.

M.W