Återkomsten : antisemitism i Sverige efter 1945

Sammanfattning: The study examines the character and development of anti-Jewish thinking as manifested in public discourse in Sweden in the post-war era. Using newspapers, periodicals and other publications as source material, the study seeks to uncover the continuity, discontinuity and renewal of anti-Jewish discourse by analysing the reactions to the assassination of the Swedish UN envoy Folke Bernadotte in Israel in 1948, the impact of the Holocaust on attitudes towards antisemitism, Jews and Israel during the 1950s and 1960s, the emergence of anti-Zionism and radical criticism of Israel from the late 1960s onwards, the attitudes towards Holocaust-denial propaganda in the beginning of the 1980s and the public debate on the Lebanon War in 1982. The analysis shows that the legacy of anti-Jewish prejudice was strongly discredited by the Holocaust. With the exception of some of the reactions to the Bernadotte murder, antisemitic expressions in public were rare during the two decades following WW II. The emergence of militant anti-Zionism at the end of the 1960s marked a significant change. Propagated by the ultra left and radical Christian groups, anti-Zionism made use of a number of antisemitic images which were projected upon Zionism and the Jewish state. In addition to culturally rooted myths and stereotypes (identifying Jews with capitalism, exploitation, cunning, global conspiracies, etc) the imagery also included newer themes such as portraying Israel as a Nazi state. Christian anti-Zionism, it is argued, is largely rooted in traditional substitution theology. While tolerance of antisemitism has remained fairly low within the democratic body of opinion, the reactions to Israel's Lebanon War in 1982 demonstrated the existence of anti-Jewish prejudice within parts of the mainstream of political opinion. In a significant number of comments, Israeli actions were interpreted as an expression of "Old Testament" vengefulness or the "chosen people's" murderousness and dreams of domination. The event also unleashed an explosion of images of the war as a "Jewish-Nazi Holocaust". The study argues that the integration of anti-Jewish motifs in the debate on Israel, including the projection of Nazism and the Holocaust onto Jews, represents a new and important feature of antisemitic discourse after 1945.