Sweden’s Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom, known for harshly criticizing Israel, opposes the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, Swedish opposition leader Anna Kinberg Batra told the Israeli Knesset on Sept. 5.

Wallstrom asked Kinberg Batra to pass on the message before she left for Israel to meet with the Israel-Sweden Parliamentary Friendship Group.

Kinberg Batra was on a diplomatic visit to neutralize Sweden’s negative posture toward Israel.

Israeli officials did not believe she was successful in her mission because she did not make any pro-Israel statements during her visit, the Times of Israel reported.

“We are disappointed with the visit of Swedish opposition leader [Anna] Kinberg Batra in Israel,” a senior official in Jerusalem told the Times of Israel. “Before the visit, she presented herself as a close friend and gave us to understand that she would use her visit as a platform for positive statements about Israel. She did not deliver the goods.”

Swedish-Israeli ties have been strained since Sweden recognized the Palestinian state in 2014 and Wallstrom called for a query into whether Israel is guilty of extrajudicial killings of Palestinians, saying the number of deaths during the recent terror wave are disproportionate on the Palestinian side compared to Israel’s.

By JNS.org