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The welfare - perhaps even the lives - of five Swedish children is being
sacrificed on the altar of political expediency.
Swedish mother Elizabeth Krantz's five children were kidnapped from Sweden
back in June 2004 by her estranged Palestinian husband Ismail Nowajah. The
children - Adam, Amina, Zakarias, Miriam and Sara -
range in age from six to sixteen. They were taken to the Gaza Strip
against their will and in contravention of Swedish law, and have since
been incarcerated in separate locations. Their mother, from a small town
outside Gothenburg on Sweden's west coast, has official custody of the
children, with visitation rights granted to her estranged husband.
Ismail Nowajah says he disapproves of the upbringing the children were
getting in Sweden, where they were born, and that he wishes to bring them
up according to a stricter Islamic code, which he says cannot be done in
Sweden but is possible in Gaza. However, he has signaled that he is
willing to release the children back into the custody of their mother
against a payment of five million Swedish kronor (about 720,000 US
dollars).
The children are Swedes. They are unfamiliar with Arab culture and have no
knowledge of the Arabic language. They are thus unable to communicate with
the surroundings into which they have been forcibly thrust. They are being
denied schooling, and 15-year-old Miriam suffers from an unusual form of
diabetes - type 1 - that requires special medication, treatment that has
thus far been denied her by her father.
"A Sensitive Issue"
Commenting on the case, the Swedish Foreign Office noted that the
situation is highly sensitive since the children have dual nationality -
Swedish and Palestinian - and that according to Palestinian law, the
children are the wards of their father.
This is a remarkable point of view on several accounts. Firstly, because
Swedish law applies to Swedish citizens, the more so since they were
kidnapped from Sweden. No other legislation is relevant until the children
have been returned home. The father is in breach of Swedish law, for a
crime committed in Sweden.
The second consideration is the illogic of the Foreign Office's
standpoint: the children do not - and in point of law can not - have dual
nationality. There is no country called Palestine. While the emergence of
such a country may well be a highly desirable goal for reasons of
geopolitical interest, Palestine does not today exist. The children
therefore do not have dual nationality, and Sweden accordingly need take
no such consideration into account.
"Citizens, Yet "Stateless": A Matter of Expediency
What is even more remarkable about Sweden's claim that the children are
citizens of a country called Palestine, is that Sweden at the same time
provides asylum to countless Palestinians as "stateless refugees". They
are apparently both stateless and nationals - depending on the political
niceties at stake.
In the most recent twist to the plight of the five kidnapped children,
they have now been enrolled by UNWRA as refugees. Sweden is one of the
largest per capita contributors to United Nations aid in the Gaza Strip,
and is now in the remarkable position of witnessing the kidnapping of its
own citizens from the country of their birth, seeing them incarcerated
against their will in a foreign country - which according to the political
needs of the day either exists as a legal entity or does not - and then
paying from its own coffers to maintain them as refugees in their place of
imprisonment.
Absurd Logic
The situation is a logic-defying absurdity that has been further
exacerbated by the impenetrable wall of obstruction thrown in the face of
the children's mother by the Swedish Foreign Office. It was not until she
packed her bags and flew to Israel on her own cognizance that Elisabeth
Krantz was finally able to meet her children, albeit for only a few short
hours before she was forced to leave them again. Their desperate plea:
"When are we coming home?"
Mr Jan Norlander of the Swedish Foreign Office repeated most recently in a
radio interview on Monday the 15th of November that his staff have to
tread most carefully in this highly volatile area, as they do not want to
expose either themselves or Elisabeth Krantz to danger. That is not an
argument that is calculated to put Elisabeth's mind at ease. She took the
risk that the Swedish consular staff are paid to take on her behalf and
visited her children. At no time have the Swedish consular staff attempted
to visit the children themselves to monitor their condition, or offered
their mother the opportunity to do so.
No Help From Official Sweden
Swedish Foreign Minister Ms. Laila Freivalds visited Ramallah back in
September 2004 and maintains that she received assurances from Yasser
Arafat that he had dealt with the issue, and that the children would soon
be on their way home. That was then, Mr. Arafat is no more, and the
children are still imprisoned without access to either medical care or
schooling.
Elisabeth Krantz contacted Swedish Member of Parliament Yvonne Ruwaida -
herself a Palestinian - in the hope that Ms. Ruwaida might feel a strong
inclination to have the matter cleared up smoothly and swiftly. MP Ruwaida
did not even acknowledge receipt of the letter.
There was some hope that Swedish Prime Minister Gצran Persson's attendance
at Yasser Arafat's funeral might assist in opening doors to the
Palestinian hierarchy - after all, Prime Minister Persson was accompanied
by Arafat's lifelong friend, former Swedish Foreign Minister Sten
Andersson. However, they landed in Cairo and like most of the non-Arab
participants, witnessed the proceedings from afar, returning to Sweden
within two hours of touching down.
So, from Swedish officialdom, there appears to be little hope.
Stop Financial Aid Immediately
There remains just one highly effective means of persuading the
Palestinian Authority to abide by its legal and moral obligations: Sweden
must stop all financial aid to the PA until the children have been
returned to their mother. Financial aid can always be returned, the
children's stolen youth cannot.
There is only one effective means of persuading Sweden to adopt this
measure - foreign media attention. The foreign press are invited to tackle
the Swedish authorities on this issue to help bring the situation to a
swift resolution. Past experience reveals that Sweden is highly sensitive
to the foreign media spotlight.
The fact is that the Swedish government's vision for a future Palestinian
state is at a formative stage. It appears the Swedish authorities will go
to any length to avoid jeopardizing the delicate balance while the
government carves out a role for itself as a peace-broker and
nation-maker.
The welfare of five Swedish children and their Swedish mother is simply
getting in the way of Swedish political ambition. The children have been
sold for political coin - and Swedish citizens are paying for the
children's incarceration with monetary coin.
Ilya Meyer
Ilya Meyer, a writer, is Chairman of the Board of Information for the
Gothenburg Jewish Community, a member of the Board of the Swedish-Israel
Association, a member of the Board of the Ecumenical Association of
Western Sweden and Hasbara Network Coordinator for Gothenburg.
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