The unusually frank approach of Sweden’s foreign minister has seen fans send her flowers over her biting criticism of Saudi Arabia — and now prompted Israel to declare her persona non grata.
Declared unwelcome by authorities in the Jewish state on Wednesday thanks to a raft of critical comments, Margot Wallstrom has made a name for herself as a vocal feminist and fierce defender of human rights.
The 61-year-old Social Democrat is the undisputed star of her government, but critics wonder whether her tendency to speak her mind — not a quality traditionally found in diplomats — is good for the country.
She has repeatedly enraged Israel, starting with Sweden’s recognition of a Palestinian state shortly after she became foreign minister in October 2014.
In the wake of November’s terror attacks in Paris, she identified the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as one of the factors explaining why “there are so many people who have become radicalised” — comments Israel called “appallingly impudent”.
And in December, she called on Israel to halt what she called “extrajudicial executions” in response to attacks by knife-wielding Palestinians, following up with a demand the next month for “thorough” investigations into the killing of Palestinians by the Israeli army.
Firmly signalling that Wallstrom needn’t book any trips to Israel in the near future, the country’s deputy foreign minister Tzipi Hotovely blasted her comments as “a mix of blindness and political stupidity”.