{"id":1021262,"date":"2026-08-24T15:53:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T15:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1021262\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T15:53:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T15:53:16","slug":"saar-bans-two-anti-israel-swedish-meps-from-entering-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1021262\/","title":{"rendered":"Sa’ar bans two ‘anti-Israel’ Swedish MEPs from entering Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two anti-Israel Swedish members of the European Parliament are to be banned from entering Israel at the request of Foreign Minister Gideon Sa\u2019ar<\/a>. In accordance with Israel\u2019s Entry Law, the Population and Immigration Authority will bar Swedish<\/a> Left Party MEPs Jonas Sj\u00f6stedt and Hanna Gedin from entering Israel. The Foreign Ministry said the two were planning to visit the Palestinian Authority and were scheduled to arrive in Israel overnight.<\/p>\n

According to the ministry, Sj\u00f6stedt and Gedin have \u201cconsistently acted against Israel in recent years, including by calling for international legal proceedings to be advanced against Israelis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOn various public occasions, they have also made false accusations against Israel, including claims of genocide, deliberate starvation, and the intentional targeting of children and medical personnel,\u201d the ministry said.<\/p>\n

Sj\u00f6stedt has repeatedly called Israel\u2019s conduct in Gaza \u201cgenocide,\u201d advocating a European Union arms embargo and sanctions against Israeli officials and describing Israel\u2019s policy toward the Palestinians as a \u201ccruel occupation.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has nevertheless explicitly recognized Israel\u2019s right to exist and condemned the October 7 Hamas attack.<\/p>\n

Gedin has similarly advocated EU pressure and sanctions against Israel over the Israel-Hamas War.<\/p>\n

Both were among MEPs who signed a May 2026 letter seeking access to Gaza, alongside other European parliamentarians.<\/p>\n

Responding to the news of his ban, Sjostedt said, \u201cTonight, Israel stopped Hanna Gedin and me from entering the country and continuing on to the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were going to meet with Save the Children, visit refugee camps, and meet with both Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations. We were not going to meet with the Palestinian Authority.\u201d<\/p>\n

He noted the EU and Swedish embassies in Israel have protested Israel\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

In turn, Gedin said, \u201cToday, I and Jonas Sj\u00f6stedt were denied entry into Palestine by the Israeli state. The same country that has repeatedly been criticized by the UN, human rights organizations, and Swedish political parties for committing abuses, violations of international law, and genocide is now preventing us, elected parliamentarians, from entering the country. A country that, in violation of international law, it occupies \u2013 a country Sweden has recognized, the country of Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is the foreign minister so worried that we will discover that he has to stop our visit? The genocide<\/a>? The apartheid laws? The gallows hill? The settler violence?\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Sjostedt, Gedin said they had intended to visit Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations and hear the testimonies of sick children. She said the European<\/a> Parliament approved the trip.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing I can promise you: We will always stand up for international law. We will never allow ourselves to be intimidated into silence,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two anti-Israel Swedish members of the European Parliament are to be banned from entering Israel at the request…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1021263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[8697,56665,70,28463,99,50,22945,129],"class_list":["post-1021262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-european-union","tag-foreign-ministry","tag-gaza","tag-gideon-saar","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-palestinian-authority","tag-sweden"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1021262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1021262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1021262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1021263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1021262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1021262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1021262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}