Norwegian priest makes appalling accusations against Jews

Europeans have been fed this type of desinformation on Israel for decades and against the Jews for centuries. These people seem furious that the wider public either does not believe them or doesn't care, hence their obsessive exercice of repeating and repeating the same accusations.

Norway, Israel and the Jews: Norwegian priest takes a cheap swipe at the Jews 

Oh my, we can only hope the priest is capable of critical reading and thinking, as the Jewish participation Shatila incident he refers to in the text is a figment of the mentioned Palestinian’s fantasy… Also, if truly the policies against Palestinians is so cruel, so destructive, then how come the number of Palestinians is steadily growing? A mathematical mystery… More mysterious still, any mention of numerous attacks against Jews is plainly absent. It perhaps clutters the bigger picture the priest wants to paint? Palestinians are victims and Jews are monsters?

Ivar Aartun, Norwegian priest, @Stavanger Aftenblad (translated by NI&J):  Is Israel a terror State?

Many go to Israel today to see the biblical sites. Following in the tracks of Jesus is exciting. However, tourists do not experience the systematically and brutal illegal behavior against the Palestinian population. One morning, they came, two bulldozers, 10 trucks and 40 soldiers, razing his home. All furniture was carried to the outside; the building was leveled with the ground. [...]

Meanwhile a representative of the “Jew police” in USA travels to Malmö in order to investigate whether the Mayor has used anti-Semite terminology.  But the “American Jew police” have no interest in the Jewish anti-Semitism in Israel. Billions of dollars are being transferred in support of brutal crimes and occupation. Without this support the Jews could not possibly have been building in the West Bank. Who is a Semite? To the Semite language groups, both Arab and Jewish peoples belong. Very many Palestinians are also of Jewish descent. They descend from the first Christian congregations in Israel (by the 7th century, all of the Middle East was Christian). Having this context in mind, Israel is perhaps the most anti-Semite country in the world. More mosques and churches are demolished in Israel than there are synagogues destroyed in Europe. But when Israel-Jews destroy the religious buildings in Israel they are referred to as hoodlums. When synagogues are destroyed in Europe, it is referred to as hatred of Jews. But both are anti-Semite! The old fashioned hatred of Jews disappeared post WW2. And well is that: But a new hatred of Jews has arrived because of the brutal Jewish suppression of the Palestinians.

“I hate Jews”, a Palestinian–Scandinavian working in Norway said. “No, I hate Jewish politicians”, he corrected himself. He tells me: “We lived in the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut. One day we were surrounded by Israeli Jews. Their henchmen were sent into the camps. They raped the women, killed men, women and children in a ‘Jewish mini-Holocaust’ The Israeli Jews watched that no one got away. More than 1000 innocents were killed on that day. I lost all of my family”. No Israelis ever were held responsible over this brutal crime against the Palestinians. Are Norwegian Jews to blame over Israeli crimes against the Palestinians in Israel? Absolutely not. But the “Jewish collective” in the world, is through its statements and its political and economic support to Israel strongly implicated in the brutal anti-Semitism towards the Palestinians seen in Israel. Here in lies the cause of the new hatred of the Jews.   In particular, the American Jews and their followers are strongly implicated.  More HERE.

On the Sabra and Shatila massacre read HERE.  Of special note is this: "By contrast, few voices were raised in May 1985, when Muslim militiamen attacked the Shatila and Burj-el Barajneh Palestinian refugee camps. According to UN officials, 635 were killed and 2,500 wounded. During a two-year battle between the Syrian-backed Shiite Amal militia and the PLO, more than 2,000 people, including many civilians, were reportedly killed. No outcry was directed at the PLO or the Syrians and their allies over the slaughter. International reaction was also muted in October 1990 when Syrian forces overran Christian-controlled areas of Lebanon. In the eight-hour clash, 700 Christians were killed—the worst single battle of Lebanon’s Civil War. 10 These killings came on top of an estimated 95,000 deaths that had occurred during the civil war in Lebanon from 1975–1982."

Preaching Israel-Hatred at Norway’s Terror Island

“In 2010 at the Utoya camp, the AUF established ‘the State of Palestine.’ They fenced off an area and set up a separation wall. They gave some youngsters the task of being Border Guards. The General Secretary of the Labor party, Raymond Johansen visited Utoya. He wanted to visit ‘Palestine.’ The guards asked him to show his ‘identity card.’ Within ‘Palestine’ there was a banner which read, ‘Show contempt for the acts of Israel and Free Gaza.’

Norway, Israel and the Jews: Op-Ed: Preaching Israel-Hatred at Norway’s Terror Island Interview with Ivar Fjeld, Norwegian journalist who wrote a book on the Utoya Island massacre:”The Red youth movement invited youngsters from the Palestinian Popular Front of Palestine (PFLP) to participate in their camp", by Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld*

“On July 22nd 2011, Norwegian fascist terrorist Anders Behring Breivik killed 69 youngsters at a camp of the AUF youth wing of Labor – the leading government party – on the island of Utoya. This camp served as a venue to inculcate party ideology into the minds of children from 14 years and up. Later it became known internationally that part of this included promoting anti-Israel sentiments.” Ivar Fjeld is a gentile Norwegian journalist. He was formerly a local leader of the AUF and was media advisor to Labor politician Olaf Akselsen when he was minister of Oil and Energy in 2001.

His book “The Red and Green Terror Island” was released at the beginning of 2013. It discusses the history of what happened on Utoya Island. “I was raised in a traditional, secular Norwegian family. Until 2004 when I re-discovered our Christian origins, I was an admirer of Yasser Arafat. We were however, always moderates and never believed that violence should be used as a political tool. At a certain point in 2006, the AUF broke away from its moderate traditions and turned sharply left. “The AUF owns Utoya Island and its facilities. As a local AUF leader, I participated in this camp in 1986 and 1987. Even at that time there were Palestinian participants. They used drugs and shared them with Norwegian youngsters. We complained about it to then-Labor Youth Secretary General Mr. Stale Dokken, but he and his colleagues preferred to hush it up. “At that time, Jens Stoltenberg, the current Norwegian Prime Minister was head of AUF. He must have been aware that Palestinian ‘guests’ were smoking pot on the island, and offering drugs to 14-15 year old Labor Youth members. In my 2006 book "From Atheism to Christian Faith", I mentioned this drug scandal.

Source: Norway, Israel and the Jews

A comment, lifted from Aftenposten.no

"Our Children are being Bullied, Aftenposten, 2012 05 16, author stated as “Sad Father, 55”. 


These days, many Jewish children are being bullied, threatened with being killed or assaulted in schools in Norway, only over being Jewish. Remarkably, the Norwegian community chose to turn its back on this disgusting phenomenon, disgracing our society and breaching with our ideals. Or perhaps, these values and ideals do not apply to Jews?  Not so long time ago, Jews were forbidden from living in Norway, own property, or were being herded to the gas chambers by “good Norwegians”.


I heard Renate Tårnes, the leader of the Labor Youth in Sør Trøndelag hold a speech to the young people of the Human Ethic’s society in May. Her speech contained a long pro-Palestinian political appeal, condemning Israel as usual, glorifying the Palestinians. This is not a unique example, reinforcing the belief today’s hatred of Jews in Norway starts by programming children. This time under the management of Norwegian socialists. Same story, new wrapping."


Perhaps not surprisingly, the talk backs to this article put the blame on- you’ve guessed it- Israel, over anti-Jewish sentiments. As for Ms. Tårnes, she is a survivor of the Utøya massacre, and was in portrayed after testifying in the Anders Breivik trial. [For the Utøya massacre see: Norway carnage and Israel, by Manfred Gerstenfeld]

Israel-bashing: Norwegian Church Minister in Jerusalem to open Gullvåg exhibition

German-Norwegian perfect cooperation!

"Requiem for the children of Gaza" (9 metres wide)

Source: Norway, Israel and the Jews 

Ministry of  Government Administration, Reform, and Church Affairs
Press release 2011 12 02 (No signature)

The Minister of Government administration, reform and church affairs, Rigmor Aasrud,  is to visit Jerusalem.

She will speak to religious leaders on Israeli and Palestinian side, and visit religious sites.

Among her visits, one will be a visit to the Augusta Victoria church [German Hospital and church ("Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Ascension") on the north side of Mount of Olives]in Jerusalem, to see an exhibit by Norwegian artist Håkon Gullvåg; which will open on December the 16^th. The exhibition is sponsored by the Norwegian Ministry of Government Administration, Reform and Church, The Country Municipality of Sør- Trøndelag (the first  and only county council that adopted a boycott Israel motion), the Municipality of Trondheim, (which regularly sponsors pro-Arab, anti-Israel art), Fagforbundet i Trondheim, the  local union chapter that asked  The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) in Trondheim to convert the Mai 1 Labour Day parade into a Pro-Palestinian event. The fourth sponsor is a commercial bank who to my knowledge maintains impeccable neutrality to preserve its commercial reputation. However, three out of 4 sponsors are rabid anti-Israeli’s all coming form what now appears to be the hub of anti-Israel political initiatives in Norway, with the NTNU being their standard bearer.

Mr. Gullvåg is the artist who got the hump when the French Cultural Center in Damascus took down some of his paintings exhibited for the Terra Sancta exhibition. Censure, he furiously claimed, until confronted with the reality that his blood tainted pictures were not deemed sufficiently anti-Israel by the Damascus art lovers.

Anti-Semitism: Norwegian rap band with modern version of the blood libel

"I guess some Americans just don't remember...
There’s a slave graveyard under the World Trade Center!"

Of course they obsessed with Israel and America ("I guess some Americans just don't remember...
There’s a slave graveyard under the World Trade Center!" - "some Americans" but "all Jews" - when they refer to Israelis one assumes they mean Jews and not Israeli Arabs)

Source: Norway, Israel and the Jews (Rappers delight: Norwegian band Gatas Parlament with modern version of the blood libel)

Norwegian rap band with a lefty twist, Gatas Parlament, must have a most peculiar muse inspiring their poetic and peace loving music.  Here is a sample of their attitudes towards Jews (euphemistically called Israelis….)

All of us are antiracist, don’t accuse us for being antisemmetic, yeah
Grenade rain down over the roofs of Gaza.
Hits hospitals, hits kindergarden kids, hits everywhere.
Of course we’re talking about an apartheid state.
They build a wall between themselves and those who should’nt have citizenship.
For if you call it blood-palestine then no rules apply and believe that it gives
a new macabre meaning to the word blood orange
If it’s grown in stolen land and harvested from a dead body.
Not in my name, not for my money.
It’s not enough to stand around and cry anymore.
So we must attack fundamentalists and show Israel
Cause they don’t care about resolutions anyway.
Just a small piece of a much bigger picture.
Like when we boicotted when I was much younger.
The responsibility lies with us all so we want everyone
with us everyone with concience, Boycott Israel!

Lovely! I suppose we just have to take their word for their claim to be anti-racists?"

Norway: union rep wants to boycott the Histadrut, calls it an apartheid organization

"This is an organization only for Israeli Jews. In our world this is apartheid." Apartheid?  Arabs and other ethnic groups have had full right to membership from 1960 and Histadrut has currently over 200,000 Arab members.

Source: Norway, Israel and the Jews

The leader of Fellesforbundet (The Norwegian United Federation of Trade Unions), Lars Frøysa wants to boycott the Israeli Histadrut, on the grounds that it is an apartheid organization, according to an article in Vårt Land

This is an organization only for Israeli Jews. In our world this is apartheid. We think that the labour movement has an obligation to protect all workers, says Lars Frøysa. He is leader of the local chapter at Celsa Armeringsstål in Mo i Rana, who has submitted the motion.

He further claims that in spite of the Union’s rejection of the proposal, he is convinced that they will prosper at the ballot, since members are free individuals.

Our old friend Hilde Henriksen Waage, the historian and researcher who on occasion slips into activist mode on Israel related matters, has been consulted (apparently nobody was available at the Histadrut for comments, but that may reflect a certain insensitivity and ignorance on Jewish matters, since probably they were closed for Yom Kippur observation in addition to the weekly days of rest for workers, in Israel on Friday and Saturday):

From its inception in the 1920ies, Histadrut was am important instrument for the Zionist movement in the construciton of the Israeli State. They were mainnly concerned with building their own economy separate from the Palestinian. Their goal was to ensure that Jews got the jobs as well as maintaining high salaries.
– How did LO (The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions) view them?
– Histadrut was an important reason why the Labour party and the LO embraced the Jewish project. They saw the society they wanted to create in Israel as their socialistic paradice. It was almost like a religious conversion, says Henriksen Waage, who underlines that she is not updated on the development in later years for this organization.

If our rabid Unionist, Lars Frøysa, had cared to check the facts and not only let himself be guided by his hatred of Jews in general, Israeli Jews in particular, he might have discovered that Arabs and other ethnic groups have had full right to membership from 1960 and has currently over 200,000 Arab members.

Also inconvenient is the fact that the Histadrut cooperates fully and advocates on behalf of Palestinian workers and activists. But he may not have wanted to notice that, since that would have forced the realization that Israel is not an apartheid state, also when it comes to union matters.

But that neither the VL journalist nor Henriksen Waage should be unable to find relevant information on Histadrut, in terms of historical background and current policies is disappointing, or maybe they could not be bothred to find the info?

The The Norwegian United Federation of Trade Unions has indicated that it wont accept this proposal, but nevertheless has singled Israel out for special treatment on more than 4 separate items. As far as I can tell, there are none for Arab dictators, even now that it is in vogue to want to get rid of them (as long as major Norwegian interests are not jeopardized). Again.


Well some sanity has prevailed. Union rejects motion to boycott Israel

Palestinian refugees in Norway living in squalor - in squatter camps

Source: Norway, Israel and the Jews


Here is the tale of the Palestinina refugees who came to Norway thinking they would be well taken care of. This is also the story of a Lebanese young woman, born in Lebanon, with Lebanese passport, who, for political reasons, chooses to define herself as a Palestinian?
Am I the only person who thinks both of these stories show the utter falseness of Norwegians and others with a chip on their shoulder? And did the Lumiere brothers come to Palestine of Fatah and Hamas, or did they go to a town where Jews were in majority (according to a Prussian census) although Egyptian Muslims and immigrants from North Africa began to settle the town in order to gain influence?
Telling little lies, one little drip at a time, can slowly over time be perceived as truth. Maybe we should show the pictures showing Jewish life and culture in Israel, around the same time as the Lumiere brothers came to visit?

Life in Limbo

TONE B. VÆRVÅGEN, Published: 07.10.11 10:23

Piece of Palestine in Oslo - makeshift refugee camp

- We want to show another Palestine than the one we know from the media, showing only blood and murder, says Rana Issa (34).
She arranges the Palestinian Night Film From the South Festival.
- I do not need a movie like Tears of GAza. If I want to see  dying Palestinian children, I can see it on the news,  Issa says .
She is one of several Palestinians organizing the short film program Palestinian Night, where a cultural line is drawn all the way back to around teh time when film was born, when in 1897 the Lumiere brothers came to Palestine to film. One of the Lumiere short films are on the program.
- We want to create a cultural awareness of Palestine, for culture is the most important thing we have. We do not have a country, so it is culture that binds us together. And it is through culture that people can see things with different eyes.

More HERE

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.

Norway: Children's book depicts Israelis as evil

Source: Norway, Israel and the Jews (Corrupting the mind of small children – Childrens book depicts Israelis as evil)

This makes any claim that Norwegian elites only want to criticize Israeli policies, but never engage in anti-Semitism ring very hollow.

As for the author, an MD and psychiatrist, it is frightening how he will use his position as an authority to contribute to inflaming an already very difficult conflict. This stinks to high heaven of bigotry, racism, and yes that horrible word, classic anti-Semitism.  Maybe the Disciplinary committee  of the Norwegian Medical Association should consider whether he is fit for the privilege he holds?  It is something really frightening when fellow medical professionals only think with their white coats, everything is a sterile laboratory experiment, nobody feels the pain, and nobody is put at risk.

Norwegian children’s books

Daddy is a pirate - a book targeting kids 5 - 12 years. Best to get them young to start the brainwash!

Pappa er sjørøvar
Hans Sande and Silje Granhaug
kr 249,-
ISBN:
9788202332365
Language:
Norwegian Nynorsk
Target audience:
5-12 years

• Description

Tuva’s Daddy is a pirate, and every summer he hops in the pirate tanker to maraud the seas. His mission is just as secret as it is scary. Every year Tuva asks if she can join Daddy on his travels. Daddy lines her up next to the measuring marks drawn on the wall. Hurray! This year, finally, she is big enough!
First they sail the sea in Finland. The tanker is full to bursting point, but where is all the water to go? They drive and drive through country after country, until eventually soldiers and a high wall stand in their way. On the other side is Palestine. But how will they get through the wall and to those who need the water most?
Pappa er sjørøvar is a rare and fresh political picture book for children. With illustrations
from Silje Granhaug, Sande takes us on a journey of warmth and importance, and asks the big questions that aren’t raised often enough. Why is the world so unfair? And what can you and I do about it?

Norwegian poetess compares Israel to an ugly holy cow and predicts her demise

Read the whole piece HERE (Norway, Israel and the Jews)

The author of the light verse below, Helge Vladimir Tiller was born in 1941, lives in Oslo, and is a regular contributor to Dagsavisen, Norway’s leading left wing daily, commonly regarded as the mouthpiece of the Norwegian Labor party.

There is an ugly holy cow
Some place in the Middle East
The cow’s name is Israel
No guarantee for peace
She is so big and ugly and fat
eating ever more
do not care for other’s rights
has no idea of common sense
taking every opportunity
thirst for what is yours
rushing over lands and fields
a self-declared matriarch
with demonic appetite
oh-brrr
A cow which gores
the cow sees herself as sacred
yet is megalomaniac
lying there, masticating
burping political absurdity
one day the race shall be over
probably it shall find it’s grave
at the bottom of the Dead sea
people will wonder
was it murder
No, it was mad cow disease.

Norway carnage and Israel, by Manfred Gerstenfeld

Just a few hours before the young people were massacred they were being indoctrinated against Israel by the socialist camp organisers.  Above well-known anti-Israeli Foreign Minister Store was welcomed at the Utoya camp while in the background posters were hanging with "Boycott Israel" written on them. His rant against Israel was reported by the media as being news. This video  shows him criticising Israel.

Source: Ynet
"[...] It was clear from the beginning that Israel would somehow be drawn into the general debate on these terror attacks. The first reason is that there is an obsession in Norway with Israel, and its mentions in the media probably exceed those of, for instance, its giant neighbor Russia whose acts are far more relevant to Norway than those of remote and small Israel.

There were other reasons as well. Terror in a democracy and how to defend oneself against it is an issue that almost by nature draws in references to precedents from Israel. Additionally, the inefficient and slow reaction of the Norwegian police to the Utoya massacre can best be evaluated when one compares it to how Israel reacts to such events.

Norwegian historian: Dagbladet: "Jews pick up crusader-sword and point it eastwards"

Many Europe will not put things so bluntly but there is a real fear of Israel and Jews (their lobbies, their irrationality, their materialism, their war-mongering, their cruelty etc).  That's why the journalist did not question Langeland's assertion.  

Source: Norway, Israel and the Jews

Today Dagbladet offers an interview with Norwegian historian Nils Rune Langeland, who believes the USA and “the Jews”, being filled with “demonic restlessness”, are the new crusaders.

The Dagbladet interview is titled both Jews take up crusader-sword and point it eastwards (front page) and Tracking the war-like Europe. Journalist Inger Merete Hobbelstad interviews Norwegian historian Nils Rune Langeland on his book Europa – a voyage (roughly translated from Norwegian). Mr.Langeland, an academic at the University of Stavanger, speaks about the martial heritage of Europe as it has come to expression towards Islam. He speaks about the crusades and contemporary decadence and questions the viability of modern multiculturalism. He suggests that Northern Europe might become a future battleground. He also states that the USA and “the Jews”, being filled with “demonic restlessness”, are modern-day crusaders.

Translation:

Nils Rune Langeland: “No, the real heirs of the crusaders are the USA and Israel.
Journalist Inger Merete Hobbelstad: “How?”
Nils Rune Langeland: “There one finds the demonic restlessness which once drove the Europeans. Europe left Christianity during the fourties, when bishop Von Galen spoke up against the nazis, and has struck another path. It is the Jews who pick up the crusader’s sword and point it towards the east.

Interestingly enough, Dagbladet Inger Marete Hobbelstad takes this statement in stride and goes on to question Mr. Langeland about the use of Christian symbolism.

Norway: art project teaches delinquents to paint ‘free Palestine’ on subway station walls

"Josef is in the process of laying a sjabon (template) of a Palestinian flag and filling it in with pearl-green spray-paint, and the text Free Palestine Now."

You could not make this up. An art project is teaching young delinquents how to express themselves by spray-painting “Free Palestine” on the walls of the subway station.

Read the whole story HERE

Norwegian academic: ‘Norway is the most anti-Semitic country in the West’

"O

ne c

ould at least have stopped the harm this man [

Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr-Store] 

is doing when it comes to degrading Norway’s international reputation. For Mr. Store is internationally ridiculing his own country by acting as a self-styled Hamas activist. He was recently caught lying in a live TV2 show, denying his continuous political talks with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal. He only changed his story when the reporter told him Mr. Meshaal had spoken about his conversations with Mr. Store

."

Sources : Norway, Israel and the Jews and Tundra Tabloids


Hanne Nabintu Herland is the kind of Norwegian intellectual who stands out from the crowd. In the piece below she states that Norway is the most anti-Semitic country in the west and explains how the state of affairs sometimes makes her ashamed to be Norwegian.  She is Norwegian academic, historian of religions and bestselling author.

The President of Israel, Mr. Shimon Peres’ critical comments on Norway's reluctancy to follow EU, UN and USA in denouncing Hamas as a terrorist movement, are timely remarks. If one adds Harvard professor Alan M. Dershowitz article in the Wall Street Journal (30 March), it all makes me ashamed to be Norwegian. Under the title Jews are not welcome in Norway. Mr. Dershowitz told of his encounters with anti-Semitic Norwegian academics who made it clear that he was unwanted as a guest lecturer at Norwegian universities. This is how Norwegian intellectuals treat one the West’s most famous defense lawyers and an internationally renowned Harvard University professor.

I met Dershowitz in March during Oslo Symposium 2011. His description of the obvious anti-semitism and the lack of willingness to be objective that characterizes Norwegian academia, is flat out shocking. During my opening lecture at the same Symposium Conference, I pointed out that the lack of nuances that characterizes the Norwegian understanding of the realities in Israel and the Middle East are not only shameless, but historically inacurate.

For culturally we have much more in common with the Jewish people than one would think. Western civilizational values ​​has its cradle in the Greek and Roman contributions, but also, and especially when it comes to values, in the Hebrew-Christian contribution. The European humanistic view of the dignity of human beings regardless of rank, class or ethnicity carries deep impact from Judaism. These values are at the core of what it means to belong to Western Civilization today.

Free Dershowitz lectures rejected by Norwegian PM, FM and elite Universities

Idag brings us a fascinating story on The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem and their unique offer to bring international Law expert and top Harvard Law School lecturer Alan Dershowitz to give free lectures, breakfast conferences to Norwegian leading politicians and elite institutions.

The generous offer was directed to our Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, as well as the Universities of Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim.

To their great dismay (and let me just add that to my great dismay too) the offer was turned down.

According to Dag Øyvind Juliussen at the ICEJ, this is astonishing and can only be logically explained with an anti-Israel policy.  He also says:

"We are saddened that our top politicians who have engaged so strongly with the ME conflict have turned down this offer. We think that they would have benefitted from a meeting with Prof. Dershowitz.

We thought that a professor from Harvard Law School would be of interest for the universities in Oslo, Trondheim and Bergen and offered them a lecture with Dershowitz on Israel and International Law. None of them wanted the guest lecture by Alan Dershowitz. The Dean of the University of Bergen did welcome Dershowitz on condition that he did not talk about the ME conflict."

So, we have NTNU turning down a lecture by one the worlds greatest law specialist on the heels of their infamous and intellectually insulting ME lectures series which consisted mainly of academic insignificants, while the University of Oslo cannot defend the basic human rights of a Jewish student but still wants to portray itself as an institution with the highest aspirations in the area of international Law (apparently the academic aspirations stop at Masters level...), whereas Bergen only welcomes him if he stays off the specific topic offered: Israel and International Law. But apparently they are happy to be lauded by the Boycott Israel movement who has thanked the institution for its willingness to discuss an academic boycott.

Read the full story on the Norway, Israel and the Jews blog

Jostein Gaarder: my op-ed was not anti-semitic only "legitimate Israel-criticism"

Source: Norway, Israel and the Jews

"Five years after the fact and Jostein Gaarder has not learned a thing. He is considered an intellectual."

Five years after having written one of the most ludicrously anti-Semitic op-ed’s in Norwegian history, Jostein Gaarder still considers it to have been an expression of “legitimate Israel-criticism”.

In 2006, author and academic Mr. Jostein Gaarder wrote one of the most shockingly anti-Semitic op-ed's in Norwegian history. The op-ed was published in Aftenposten. Here is an excerpt:

"There is no turning back. It is time to learn a new lesson: We do no longer recognize the state of Israel. We could not recognize the South African apartheid regime, nor did we recognize the Afghan Taliban regime. Then there were many who did not recognize Saddam Hussein’s Iraq or the Serbs’ ethnic cleansing. We must now get used to the idea: The state of Israel in its current form is history."

On January 27th Aftenposten published a story on how the Holocaust Centre is receiving funds to carry out a survey of attitudes towards Jews. In that context the director of the Holocaust Centre, Mr. Odd-Bjørn Fure, mentioned Gaarder’s op-ed as an example of why voices in Israel are identifying anti-Semitic voices in Norway. Here are another couple of lines from Gaarder’s 2006 op-ed:

"We do not believe in the notion of God’s chosen people. We laugh at this people’s fancies and weep over its misdeeds. To act as God’s chosen people is not only stupid and arrogant, but a crime against humanity."

Today Aftenposten publishes a letter from Gaarder where Gaarder insists that Fure is on the wrong track. Gaarder’s points are the following:

1) That he is not an anti-Semite.  [Our comment: nobody in Europe is ...]
2) That in the op-ed of 2006 he specifically recognizes Europe’s responsibility for the Holocaust and acknowledges the Jews’ need and right to have their own national home. [Our comment: European intellectuals view themselves as magnanimous.  They even recognise "Europe’s responsibility for the Holocaust" and graciously grant Jews the right to have a State!]
3) That his infamous op-ed of 2006 was far from anti-Semitic, and merely full of compassion, humanism, empathy, and what not. Is this why he writes the following:

"We call child murderers ‘child murderers’ and will never accept that such have a divine or historic mandate excusing their outrages. We say but this: Shame on all apartheid, shame on ethnic cleansing, shame on every terrorist strike against civilians, be it carried out by Hamas, Hizballah, or the state of Israel!"

Read the full piece HERE

Jostein Gaarder - a better friend to the Jewish people than Israel, by David Hirsh (2006)

Norway: Jew hatred in Trondheim

Source: Norway, Israel and the Jews (Judenhass in Trondheim)

In last week’s edition of Morgenbladet, a man wrote of how he, upon visiting a cafe in Trondheim, was slapped for the sin of refusing to be ashamed of having relatives in Israel. In this week’s issue, a Norwegian Jew writes of how he was repeatedly insulted and criticized in Trondheim for the sin of wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the star of David.

Unauthorized translation of the reader's letter to Morgenbladet above:

"Also I have have experienced similar disrespect and direct attacks upon my person, solely because I have worn a t-shirt with the religious symbol of the star of David (But it was not yellow as it may-haps should have been?) I expressed absolutely nothing: the attacks and hateful expressions were made for the sole reason that I wore this religious symbol. I was spat upon, harangued and vilely harassed. And the worst was that people in the vicinity followed suit: either with spiteful smiles, shouts and comments, or indirectly by looking away.

Read the whole article HERE

Prominent Norwegians sympathetic to Hamas and hostile to Israel

"Norway, according to the cable, has engaged with Hamas, and the organization’s vow to destroy Israel “was ignored or characterized as only rhetoric by the Norwegians.” “Although the GON [Government of Norway] would deny it, there are clear signs that contacts with Hamas go beyond a tactical desire for dialogue to a level of sympathy for Hamas positions. The FM once told DCM [deputy chief of mission] for example that one could not expect Hamas to recognize Israel without knowing which borders Israel will have. While the FM expresses some sympathy for Hamas’ positions only in unguarded moments, other prominent Norwegians go further.”"

Source: TJP ('Norwegians in UNIFIL causing negative view of J'lem', by Herb Keinon) 

WikiLeaks doc.: Norway laboratory for understanding Israel’s difficulties in Europe: The country sanctifies dialogue, has an aversion to force.

Norway’s aspirations to be a “moral superpower” and play a key role in the Middle East peace process could be constrained by its tense relationship with Israel, anti-Semitism at home and its approach to Hamas, according to a WikiLeaks cable published by the Oslo-based Aftenposten paper.

The cable, written on February 13, 2009, by Kevin Johnson, the deputy chief of the US Embassy in Norway, summarizes Oslo’s aspirations to be a leader in the Middle East peace negotiations.  The cable could serve as an important source document for those seeking to understand the difficulty Israel has in getting its narrative across in Europe.

According to the analysis in this cable, the Oslo process seemed to herald a new peacemaker role for Norway, which it relished. But as the Oslo Accords crumbled, “ties between Norway and Israel weakened,” the cable read.  “The Lebanon wars had a major impact, with approximately 20,000 Norwegians serving in UN peacekeeping forces in Lebanon from 1978 to 1998. These soldiers came home with sympathetic reports about Palestinian refugees and negative impressions of Israelis. Israeli settlements and walls in the West Bank, and invasions of Lebanon and Gaza contributed to Norwegians’ increasingly negative view of Israel,” the US diplomat wrote.

“Norwegian society values dialogue above all,” the cable read. “Talk, even without any expectation of results, is seen as valuable. Anyone who draws a line and refuses to talk to an opposing party is seen as a radical unilateralist. Conversely, Norwegians are extremely opposed to the use of military force to achieve goals, no matter how laudable.”

WikiLeaks: US diplomats find Norwegian anti-Israel FM arrogant and not smart

"How could it not occur to Mr. Støre, that constantly changing tack – without consulting senior partners – that, one day having tea with Hamas, another day, choosing foolishly, and as the only Western representative, to sit and listen to Ahmadinejad’s foul ranting at UNs Durban 2 conference in Geneve in 2009, would have a very high political price?"

Source: Norway, Israel and the Jews (All is fine in my little belly button, sulks Støre)

Our FM Jonas Gahr Støre reacts with incredulity to WickedLeaks that US embassy crew find him not smart, arrogant, in it for himself and with an attitude problem. "Sincerely, I have not heard any of this conveyed to me in Washington", he says – adding that perhaps this might have been the case for US diplomats during the Bush Administration, because they interpreted any sign of independent thinking as something inherently bad.

Too bad for him, then, that US diplomats posted in Oslo in the reign of Obama, continue to sound alarms that all is not well with Norway’s foreign policy. A diplomat wrote in 2009 this about Støre: "Although smart and dynamic, some people wonder if his arrogance might not work too well in negotiations".

Ouch! And with that zinger, the bubble vision he wanted to present to us, of himself as a worldly leader, standing up to the big wigs, burst – and there he was, left with his tiny fig leaf, too small to cover the bald patches where normally you would have expected to see experience, political clout, and maybe even integrity.

100 "famous" Norwegians hate "apartheid" Israel

"Norway’s case is unique because it is a country dominated by a political, media and cultural elite with deep-rooted anti-Israeli attitudes stemming from their political world view. It poses a threat to Israel because it may be the place where precedents are set in the campaign to delegitimize Israel." (Manfred Gerstenfeld)

Norway, Israel and the Jews reported about these "famous" Norwegians : "The posterboy for the call appears to be Egil Drillo Olsen, coach of the national football team. The rest of the names are the usual diehards, readers of this blog will recognize many of them. There is the usual apartheid rhetoric and such."

OSLO (EJP)---One hundred famous Norwegians, led by the country’s national football coach, have signed a petition demanding a cultural and academic boycott of Israel, accusing its educational institutions of “playing a key role in the occupation” and equating it with apartheid. A Norwegian ex-premier denounced their boycott call.

Egil Drillo Olsen, coach for the national Norwegian football team, recently wrote in Aftenposten, the country’s second largest paper, that the call to boycott Israel was "in line with what 90 percent of the world’s population believes. There cannot be many other opinions".

The petition is the last item in a string of similar and high-profile initiatives to have taken place in Norway over the past two years. It was signed by coach Olsen and 99 other public figures from the arts and culture, who stated that a boycott is "necessary" not only to help Palestinians, but also to "support Israelis opposing the occupation".

Norwegian former Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik called the boycott call "unhelpful" and "not representative" of the current government’s policy. Bondevik, who presided over the Norwegian government for seven years over the period 1997 until 2005 on behalf of the Christian Democratic Party, added he wished to "reassure" Israelis that "boycott is not an issue in Norway".

But Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld, a senior researcher of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionist trends in Scandinavia, alleges Norway is a "pioneer" in the Western world promoting boycotts and hatred against Israel. Gerstenfeld, Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, notes some "uniquely Norwegian developments unparalleled elsewhere in the West".