{"id":628656,"date":"2026-09-27T01:16:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T01:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/628656\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T01:16:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T01:16:20","slug":"man-arrested-after-spraying-red-paint-on-israeli-flag-at-sweden-book-fair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/628656\/","title":{"rendered":"Man arrested after spraying red paint on Israeli flag at Sweden book fair"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man was arrested Saturday evening at a book fair in Gothenburg, southern Sweden, after pouring red liquid on an Israeli flag at the Sweden-Israel Friendship Association\u2019s booth.<\/p>\n

Footage from the scene showed the man after he sprayed the paint, with his hands also covered in red, shouting: \u201cIsrael is committing genocide. We must stop the suicide in Gaza and West Bank.\u201d<\/p>\n

Red paint on an Israeli flag at a book fair in Sweden\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As security guards escorted him out, he continued: \u201cThis is a peaceful protest and we do this for all the children being killed by Israel. Israel is an apartheid state. They are criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier Saturday, a small number of protesters demonstrated outside the fair against the event, holding a sign reading, \u201cDeath to the IDF.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amid the controversy, Swedish media reported that Egyptian poet and author Iman Mersal and Palestinian author and journalist Bissan Edwan had announced they were withdrawing from the fair in protest of the participation of Jonathan Conricus, a former IDF spokesman for international media.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s ambassador to Sweden, Tammy Rahamimoff-Honig, responded to the events, saying she viewed the attack with \u201cgreat concern\u201d and was relieved that no one was hurt.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis attack is not only an attempt to delegitimize Israel and the friends of Israel, it is an attack on free speech and open discourse,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The ambassador was responding to media inquiries about the incident and said everyone present was safe and doing well.<\/p>\n

\"\u05d4\u05e4\u05d2\u05e0\u05d4<\/a>\"\u05d4\u05e4\u05d2\u05e0\u05d4<\/p>\n

The protest outside the fair <\/p>\n

(Photo: Hannah Lindgren)<\/p>\n

Swedish public broadcaster SVT reported that Palestinian activist Taha Khatab had filed a police complaint against the book fair and the Sweden-Israel Friendship Association. According to the report, Khatab specifically cited Conricus\u2019 participation in a program titled \u201cIsrael and the International System \u2014 Fighting an Uphill Battle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey invited someone with ties to the IDF. They would never accept a Russian spokesman coming to the book fair and explaining why it is legitimate to fire rockets at civilians in Ukraine,\u201d Khatab said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt pains me deeply that the book fair has become an extension of Benjamin Netanyahu and continues to dehumanize us Palestinians,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Fair organizers, however, rejected the criticism. Fair director Oskar Ekstr\u00f6m told SVT that \u201can open meeting place based on freedom of expression will always stir emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Addressing the comparison with Russia, he added: \u201cWe don\u2019t speculate about hypothetical questions, but we have consistent rules and conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Lega, chairman of the Sweden-Israel Friendship Association, told SVT: \u201cCome to our booth. Talk to us. Ask us questions, criticize our presentations and challenge our arguments. But don\u2019t try to silence people because you don\u2019t like what they say.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lega, a former Gothenburg city council member for the Christian Democrats, added that \u201cthe reason Conricus was invited is that he has experience both as an international spokesman for the IDF and as a U.N. official.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man was arrested Saturday evening at a book fair in Gothenburg, southern Sweden, after pouring red liquid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-628656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}