Norwegian Red Cross sent a team to Israel to learn to cope with post traumatic stress disorder after 22/7, but tried to keep it out of the media since could be seen as controversial

"Israel has an experience of treating terror victims, which I hope we never will have. It was they who contacted us and wanted to do something for Norway. What they have contributed with during this course is fantastic." (Sissel Alvheim Dubrefjord)

See also: The double standards and selective silence of the Norwegian Red Cross (Sept. 2010)

Typical behaviour of many European NGOs.

Source: Norway Israel and the Jews

Dagen broke the story that the Norwegian Red Cross sent a team of 25 first aid workers whose difficult task it was to go to the rescue on 22/7 at Utøya [Norway carnage and Israel, by Manfred Gerstenfeld].

Many have struggled with difficult memories and harrowing images, so the Israeli sister organization, the Magen David Adom, offered a course on how to cope in the wake of disaster:

Utøya-crew learn to cope with terrorism in Israel, by John Soslvik

25 of the Red Cross crew members who joined the rescue teams after the Utøya tragedy this summer, participated in a course on how to cope with trauma, in Israel this week. "We understand what they have gone through and know that they need a lot of professional help", says Asaf Ovadia (27).

The Israeli branch of the Red Cross, Magen David Adom, invited the Norwegians and pays travel and accommodation expenses. Israel has the last 30 years built up an outstanding team of experts in the treatment of traumas and post-traumatic syndrome, and the Norwegians have had a week of intensive training in the processing of their own experiences and how to help others in similar situations.

Red Cross in Norway has not gone public about the course in Israel. Grete Berdal of the Red Cross secretariat says this is normal procedure.  "This is an invitation from a sister organization that we have accepted. There is an exchange of professional knowledge, and we usually do not inform the press about such courses", says Berdal.

Other participants in the course confirms that the Norwegian Red Cross has deliberately adopted a low profile viz Norwegian media, regarding the course in Israel.

Tremendous impression
Nurse Asaf Ovadia of Magen David Adoma says the tragedy in Norway made ​​a tremendous impact. "It hurt to see the horror of the gruesome attacks you experienced, and this, in a country that is not involved in a conflict with others. We felt with you, and personally I thought of the many people who helped during Utøya tragedy. We know that it is very necessary to offer treatment for rescue crews who experienced such horrible things", says Asaf Ovadia.

He said Israel has long experience and possess a lot of knowledge on how rescue personnel need help to process the experience and move on after terrorist attacks and assaults.  "We are perhaps the only country in the world who really understands what they have gone through. In this course we share our knowledge with our friends from Norway", Ovadia says.

More HERE