Controversial Israeli pundit Gideon Levy, whose daily tirades in the newspaper Ha’aretz against the right of Jews to live in Judea and Samaria has earned him a place of honor in the same pantheon as Lord Haw-Haw, Tokyo Rose and Jane Fonda, has been awarded the Olof Palme Prize of 2015. Levy received the prize together with Palestinian Lutheran pastor Mitri Raheb, one of the co-authors of the infamous 2009 Kairos Palestine document, which is a call to Christians around the world to help fight the Israeli “occupation.”
The prize committee said in a statement that both recipients offer “a glimmer of hope to a conflict that too long has plagued and continues to plague millions of people and affects world peace.”
The award to Levy could not be more politically motivated, with the obvious aim of rubbing Prime Minister Netanyahu’s nose in it. The award comes a month after Netanyahu condemned statements made by Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström who warned against “extrajudicial executions” in Israel, following a string of Palestinian stabbers being shot to death by soldiers, before, during, after or instead of the stabbing.
Netanyahu, like many sane Israelis under these circumstances, was wondering if the FM wanted them to just accept the knives lovingly, but the Swedish Foreign Office quickly released a statement saying that Wallström’s comments had been taken out of context, and that “the situation in the Middle East is difficult enough without having to be encumbered by misunderstandings about anybody’s intentions.”
Well, there won’t be much misunderstanding any more now, will there. Gideon Levy, who came out in defense of the minister, took in a nice paycheck. “The fact that Israel is attacking Sweden so often is the most unbelievable chutzpah,” he told Swedish radio. “How dare Israel, how dare an occupier, criticize Sweden for recognizing Palestine?”
“I was sorry that she kind of apologized because there was no reason to apologize,” Levy added. “What we see in the last months is Palestinians trying to stab Israelis and are executed without a trial.”
Of course, Levy does not advocate for those Palestinians to stop stabbing, which would have rendered the entire controversy moot. Something to consider for the next Olof Palme Prize.