The head of advocacy at the European Jewish Association on Tuesday called on the leader of the Swedish Left, Nooshi Dadgostar, to compel party MP Lorena Delgado Varas to apologize for sharing antisemitic imagery online.
In a repost on X since deleted, Delgado Varas shared an image of a dark, shadowy hand marked with an Israeli flag controlling a pair of hands marked with an American flag, which in turn controlled toy soldiers marked with the flags of Ukraine, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Canada.
The caption underneath the image read: “The Zionist Jews control the world,” followed by a diatribe about intimidation.
In her post, Delgado Varas wrote: “I think we should reverse the hands? Israhell is nothing but a colonial tool for the U.S. and its interests in the Middle East.”
The image echoes the worst Nazi propaganda, which frequently employed illustrations of a Jewish hand, or tentacles, controlling the world.
The EJA’s David Lega, a former Swedish member of the European Parliament, in his letter to Dadgostar wrote that if Delgado Varas refused to apologize, she should be expelled.
“This stomach-turning image is straight out of the Nazi playbook. That a Swedish member of parliament reposted it is extremely alarming and disturbing. We are well used to disgusting imagery and content that exist in social media sewers, but for a public representative to publicly endorse such imagery, even if just for a short period, is beyond the pale,’’ the letter states.
“This is not just a repost, it is pure antisemitism. It is spreading a classic hate image with Nazi roots,’’ he added.
This is an edited version of an article originally published by the European Jewish Press.