På Stefan Löfvens kom-ihåg-lista i Riyadh

Tre fängslade försvarare av mänskliga rättigheter i Saudiarabien: Dr Abdullah al-Hamid, advokaten Waleed Abu al-Khair och dr Mohammed Fahad al-Qahtani. 

Jag är inte emot kontakter med Saudiarabien, inte heller handel av civila produkter. Men jag hoppas att Stefan Löfven kräver en frigivning av Raif Badawi under sin resa till Riyadh.

Jag hoppas dessutom att han kräver frigivning av Raifs advokat, Waleed Abu al-Khair, en samvetsfånge och fredlig reformist som är dömd till femton års fängelse som straff för att ha varit en orädd försvarare av mänskliga rättigheter i kungariket.

Waleed Abu al-Khair fick välförtjänt Palmepriset, men kunde aldrig ta emot det personligen då han belades med utreseförbud. Sveriges socialdemokratiskt ledda regering får inte glömma Waleed Abu al-Khair.

Så här skrev jag om honom i Svenska Dagbladet när domen föll i sommaren 2014.

Gideon Levy & Mitri Raheb in Palme Prize Ceremony

Watch the ceremony of the Olof Palme Prize, awarded to the Israeli journalist Gideon Levy and the Palestinian pastor Mitri Raheb on 29 January 2016 in the Swedish parliament – with speeches by Pierre Schori, the acceptance speeches by the Laureates, the award given to them by Lisbeth Palme, plus wonderful music. At the end you can see my conversation with them both.

The venue was the old second chamber of the Swedish Parliament. In that very same place I heard the late PLO leader Yassir Arafat express his acceptance of Israel and a two state solution for the first time. That was in December 1988 – something that later led to the Oslo process which was supposed to lead to the creation of a Palestinian state by 1999.

Yet a two state solution seems more distant today, when the occupied West Bank looks like a Swiss cheese, with holes left to the Palestinians. Former president George W Bush used this metaphor, while on a visit to the West Bank in 2008, when he said that a “Swiss cheese isn’t going to work when it comes to the outline of a state”. 

Also Mitri Raheb talked about the Swiss cheese. So what does he and Gideon Levy suggest that we do now, after nearly 50 years of occupation, when the holes in the cheese are getting smaller month by month? In this video you can hear their answers to my question during the ceremony. 

Read more about the Olof Palme Award here.