A woman was severely beaten last week in Sweden for wearing a Jewish Star of David, press reports said.
While walking in Uppsala in the city’s largely Muslim populated neighborhoods, “a Muslim girl saw that I was wearing the Star of David on my neck and she started swearing at me and spat in my face. I got very upset and pushed her off”, Anna Sjögren Sjögren, in her 40s, told the World Zionist Organization Center for Countering Antisemitism.
Uppsala is the fourth largest city in Sweden after Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö.
“One of the attackers signaled me to ‘Shut up or we’ll kill you,’” Anna Sjögren, in her 40s, said.
So was too traumatized by the assault to file a complaint to police.
Sjögren said that someone standing next to the girl then threw a sharp object at her face. “I’m not sure who it was. Everything happened so fast,” she said.
“There were at least ten witnesses to the attack. All ten of them were wearing hijabs or scarfs in the colors of the PLO. Some surrounding witnesses claim that I ‘tripped’ and fell and that no one hurt me. It’s just unbelievable.”
Sjögren’s jaw was severely damaged, her eyes swollen, and she sustained injuries all over her body, according to the report.
“I cannot go to the police. The worst thing is that [the assailants] will get my name and address. They’ll know where to find me and know I am the Jew who reported it,” she said. However, on Monday, Sjögren was to address a local Jewish security organization.
Sjögren is involved in organizing a pro-Israel demonstration scheduled for September 7th, an event the WZO said she has been planning for months.