— It is very serious and unfortunately signals that we have received from the research community for a longer time. But we have as a tradition in Sweden, and have had it for many, many years, to await the assessments from an international court before we establish that it is a matter of genocide, she says to TT.
The heavy research group IAGS points, among other things, to mass killing of civilians in Gaza and other actions that "eradicated entire families and generations of Palestinians" as an argument for it being a matter of genocide.
Obligation to prevent
Malmer Stenergard establishes that Sweden has an obligation to prevent and hinder genocide, according to the genocide convention.
That is why Sweden is the second largest donor of humanitarian aid to Gaza and that is why we are working to put more pressure on the Israeli government.
A hundred demonstrators outside the student house AF-borgen in Lund do their best to be heard in the hall where the foreign minister speaks before the Foreign Policy Association. Before the meeting, the foreign minister has been accused in social media of being an accomplice to genocide.
"Horrible claim"
— It is a horrible claim that we would be accomplices, says Maria Malmer Stenergard and refers again to Sweden's humanitarian aid and the pressure that the government is trying to create on the EU to prevent what is happening.
She says that she is very frustrated over the EU's inability to take action and that the situation in Gaza is completely horrible.
