Benny Morris says Norwegian ex-PM Kåre Willoch is lying

"Historians who play fair are offended when history is distorted for polical gain. It is especially provocative for historians when the distortions alledgedly are based on one's own work. Kåre Willoch, former premier and outspoken defender of the Palestinian cause, is one such serial abuser. In a deceptive manner he refers to my work on the Arab-Israeli concflict in order to find support for his own allegations (calling me "an outstanding Israeli historian" to boot)." (Benny Morris)

Source: article in "Norway, Israel and the Jews" blog

There is unfortunately no "anti-Norwegian" smear campaign to blame. When Norway looks bad it’s because prominent Norwegians, in their endeavours to smear Israel, occasionally go wrong and smear themselves by accident. The most recent example is Anette Trettebergstuen’s attribution of a quote from this site ("In addition to being gay, Trettebergstuen is fiercely secular") to an unnamed "Israeli newspaper", an act of shortsighted Israel-bashing which the Labor parlamentarian is yet to be taken to task for.

Former premier Kåre Willoch however, remains the classic example of how prominent Norwegians manage to smear themselves in the process of making Israel look bad.

For years Mr. Willoch has misquoted and misinterpreted the Israeli historian Benny Morris, the world’s leading authority (truth be told, there are not that many of them) on the Palestinian refugee crisis of 1948. According to Willoch, Morris has himself verified how the Jewish expulsion of Arabs from Palestine was a planned and deliberate event which commenced already prior to 1948. For years Norway’s main pro-Israel organization MIFF has contested Willoch’s claims. In June of this year Benny Morris even visited Norway in order to attend a conference on the Middle East refugee problem, giving Willoch an excellent opportunity to sort things out, yet nothing came of it. Not a single Norwegian journalist attended the conference, and only one reported on it (in DagenMagazinet – a Christian daily).

At some point Morris must have said to himself that "enough is enough", whereupon he wrote an op-ed to Norway’s largest newspaper Verdens Gang. The op-ed ran on Tuesday, here’s an unauthorized NIJ translation of the introduction and conclusion (Read Morris’ book to fill in the gap):

"Willoch’s lies

Historians who play fair are offended when history is distorted for polical gain. It is especially provocative for historians when the distortions alledgedly are based on one's own work.

Kåre Willoch, former premier and outspoken defender of the Palestinian cause, is one such serial abuser. In a deceptive manner he refers to my work on the Arab-Israeli concflict in order to find support for his own allegations (calling me "an outstanding Israeli historian" to boot).

In an op-ed in VG on May 25th 2008 and in a speech in Skien on March 6th 2007 Willoch claimed that the Palestinian Arabs were driven from their homes by the Israelis in 1948 through "dreadful massacres".

The massacres were intended to "force as many Palestinians as possible to leave areas which Jewish leaders wanted Israel to have" and were "systematically planned". In Skien Willoch said that "Morris’ theory is that the supreme Jewish leaders wanted it this way".

According to Willoch these massacres occurred prior to the invasion of the Arab armies into Palestine on May 15th – framing it as if the innocent Palestinians were attacked without reason, and that the Arabs invaded (righteously) in order to save them.

This concoction is a full and complete lie – reinforced through deliberate omissions.
…

What Willoch spreads in propaganda. Readers who are interested in finding out what really happened, ought to turn towards other sources."

It is a relief to see how Norway’s largest newspaper finally brought this affair to what we must hope is its conclusion. Way to go, VG !

- Benny Morris: "Kåre Willoch simplifies and misleads"
- Benny Morris, Ilan Pappe and the market for historical fact