Palestinian groups support Swedish politician facing axe from his Left Party for slamming Israel

By Leila Nezirevic

LONDON (AA) – Over 30 Palestinian associations have signed an appeal in support of a Swedish politician who risks expulsion from the Left Party for showing support for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), local media reported Wednesday.

The appeal follows the Left Party's announcement last week that an expulsion case had been initiated against Kristofer Lundberg, chairman of the party's local association in Angered in Gothenburg, due to his support for the PFLP.

"If the Left Party wants to replace the government in the next election, you will need our votes and your own activists based in movements," 31 associations involved in the Palestine movement wrote in the appeal that was sent to the Left Party board, according to newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN).

According to Lundberg, neither he nor any other leftist has had any direct contact with the PFLP.

“Israel occupied Palestine in 1948. 20 years later, a popular front is formed that resists that occupation, where the need requires a certain type of political work,” Lundberg was quoted as saying by another local newspaper, Aftonbladet.

“They (Palestinians) use the right to self-defense that international law gives them,” he continued.

Lundberg believes that the US and EU terror lists are "very problematic." This is because the US has "murdered millions of people around the world" and the EU is in "the US's shoes," Lundberg said, according to the newspaper.

Lundberg pointed out that Israel is a "racist apartheid state" and a "terrorist state" that deliberately commits genocide in Gaza and is the party that opposes a two-state solution.

“If Israel is not classified as a terrorist for all the massacres carried out in Palestine since 1948, what gives someone the right to classify someone else as a terrorist,” he added.

When asked if there is a conflict between the Left Party's support for a two-state solution and the PFLP's opposition to it, Lundberg responded that it is up to the Palestinians to determine how the issue should be resolved.

“Merging countries or dividing countries has happened in many different ways around the world. So I still say that it is up to the Palestinian people to decide, it is not up to us Swedes,” he said, in response to a question about Palestinians who believe that Israel should not exist.

According to Aftonbladet, the Left Party's party secretary Aaron Etzler said: "I have spoken to Kristofer Lundberg, the district has also done so, and we will continue those conversations. We take the issue of PFLP particularly seriously.”

Several leftists have been under fire for speaking out against the Israeli war on Gaza in recent months.

Lundberg is currently suspended for violating party policy in the PFLP matter, and it is unclear when a decision on his future with the party will be made.

Since Israel launched war on Gaza on Oct. 7 more than 42,700 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and over 100,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.

More than a year into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide against Palestinians at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).