Swedish candidate quits after ‘Jewish pigs’ post

A Swedish politician quits his campaign after coming under attack for a Facebook post saying “our brothers and sisters in Palestine are slaughtered by the Jewish pigs.”

In his Facebook post on August 2, Omar Omeirat, a Social Democrat candidate for the town council of Filipstad in central Sweden, also calls on Allah to “strengthen those who defend Palestine” and displays a flag used by the Islamist group ISIS, the Swedish news website The Local reported.

“I regret what I said,” Omeirat tells Sveriges Television. “It was the wrong choice of words and no one should say something like that.”

Asa Haakman Feldt, a spokeswoman for the Social Democrat party, tells the Swedish media that Omeirat had decided of his own free will to leave politics.

“Of course we condemn his statement,” Feldt says. “But it is Omar himself who has decided that he should take the consequences for his actions and leave the party.”

— JTA