Norwegian painter Håkon Gullvåg lauded by PM for vilifying Israel

"Håkon Gullvåg is an accomplished artist and advocates imposing a cultural boycott on Israel. He has also presented a painting to the Israeli embassy in Oslo, titled "Invasion"."

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"Now how can an exhibition like Gullvåg’s possibly be described as “bold”? And what sort of debate can it possibly foster? And how can the paitings be "politically explosive" ? At times one can’t help but wonder if we Norwegians aren’t just a little bit preoccupied with portraying Israel as a villain. It just doesn’t stop."

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

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Source: article in Norway, Israel and the Jews blog (March 20)

"... Norwegian painter Håkon Gullvåg is in the news for focusing on Israel in his exhibition next weekend. The "Requiem for the children of Gaza" is 9 metres wide. In "The flag" below, the flag of Israel is splattered with blood is placed upon a bed of flowers and human skulls.

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"The flag"

Below the artist comments in Adresseavisa, a small Norwegian daily which primarily covers the Trondheim region:

"- I have worked with large things before too, but this became larger than usual. I don’t quite know why.

- The paintings are politically explosive?

- Yes, this exhibition is more political than the ones we have had before. It is the result of my committment the last years which have reflected directly upon my art. Earlier I have been part of support actions fundraising, but now my committment is being directly reflected in my paintings, says Gullvåg."

Addresseavisa also reports that art professor Øivind Storm Bjerke believs Gullvåg is "asking for trouble" and makes several comparisons to Norwegian artist Kjartan Slettemark’s Vietnam picture, which was assulted by an axe-wielding citizen. Also in Adresseavisa, Mayor of Trondheim Rita Ottervik expresses her support for Gullvåg. Here is an extract from Adresseavisa (March 20):

"- I think most people have taken the side of the Palestinian population of Gaza and do not defend Israel’s behavior, says Mayor Rita Ottervik who is looking forward to open Gullvåg’s exhibition.
- It is no issue for me to open up for debate, says Rita Ottervik.
- Do you agree with the content of Gullvåg’s paitings?
- I have not seen the exhibition. I open many exhibitions without neccessarily being in agreement with every detail. It is great that Gullvåg committs himself with a political message. I think it is spectacular, and it facilitates societal debate, says Ottervik."

Now how can an exhibition like Gullvåg’s possibly be described as "bold" ? And what sort of debate can it possibly foster? And how can the paitings be "politically explosive" ? At times one can’t help but wonder if we Norwegians aren’t just a little bit preoccupied with portraying Israel as a villain. It just doesn’t stop.
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Another art exhibition which has received far less attention than Gullvåg’s, is "It’s not forbidden to think" by Ahmed Mashhouri, who in a series of prints exhibited some of the most controversial parts of the Koran. After only a few hours the exhibition was attacked, partly demolished and subsequently taken down and sent to another town. Read more on Islam in Europe or if you read Norwegian, to the source - Varden.

Which artist do you think is the most "explosive" of the two?"

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PM thanks painter for Middle East effort

Source: article in Norway, Israel and the Jews blog (March 22)

"On Saturday the mayor of Trondheim applauded painter Håkon Gullvåg for the "brave" political commitment of his next exhibition, where he displays a painting of a blood-splattered Israeli flag and a 9 metres wide canvas titled "Requiem for the children of Gaza". The film clip here is from the annual meeting of Trondheim Arbeiderparti on February 8th 2009. We see the leader for Trondheim Arbeiderparti Rune Olsø, leader of the Palestine-committee Wenche Aarethun and painter Håkon Gullvåg present Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg with a painting by Gullvåg. The Norwegian Prime Minister then thanks Gullvåg for the painting itself as well as for "painting pictures which place this (the plight of the Palestinians) on the agenda", and says that the worst thing that can happen to the Palestinians is to be forgotten.

Håkon Gullvåg is an accomplished artist and advocates imposing a cultural boycott on Israel. He has also presented a painting to the Israeli embassy in Oslo, titled "Invasion". It is at this moment uncertain whether the Mayor of Trondheim considers also this to be a "bold" move on Gullvåg’s part."

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Durban II:Jewish group warns against attempts to present new text as "wolf in sheep’s clothing"

"Rather than participating in a rigged and politicized process, Europe should exercise its leadership on human rights issues in the UN and work to ensure that the fundamental issues facing humanity be dealt with in a serious and responsible manner, instead of entrusting this issue in the hands of those who are using this important topic for political reasons." (Moshe Kantor)

European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor has warned European nations "not to fall prey to false attempts to manipulate the European community into participating in a mockery of human rights", in a reference to the upcoming "Durban II" United Nations conference on racism in Geneva.

The appeal was made on the eve of a summit meeting of the 27 European Union heads of state and government in Brussels under Czech presidency.

While commending recent statements by numerous European leaders who have raised serious concerns about the conference, the EJC has called upon the EU Presidency and European leaders to withdraw from the gathering "immediately, and without hesitation".

Moshe Kantor said conference planners Iran, Libya, Cuba and their allies "are attempting to pull the wool over the world’s eyes".

"We call upon the EU to categorically and unequivocally announce their withdrawal from Durban II without delay. By doing so, the EU would prove to the world that it is a moral beacon for human rights and that Europeans are unwilling to participate in this assault on freedom", Kantor stated.

Kantor also raised the prospect that the chief conference planners, including Iran, Libya, and Cuba might attempt to avert the growing pressure to boycott the conference by presenting a so-called moderated text that would actually be "a wolf in sheep’s clothing".

The EJC president called this possibility a "bait and switch tactic to gain Western legitimacy and support", urging the European presidency and European leaders to "take a moral stand and immediately reject the conference".

"Rather than participating in a rigged and politicized process, Europe should exercise its leadership on human rights issues in the UN and work to ensure that the fundamental issues facing humanity be dealt with in a serious and responsible manner, instead of entrusting this issue in the hands of those who are using this important topic for political reasons", Kantor stressed.

Official UN documents and declarations, especially ones that deal with racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, should not arbitrarily choose between conflicts or target specific countries, including one UN-member state (Israel) or one regional conflict (Israeli-Palestinian), he added.

Kantor noted, "We all remember the catastrophe that was Durban I. Europe must heed the lessons of our past as we attempt to build a more tolerant future.

"European leaders have an obligation to assert their moral leadership in the eyes of the world by rejecting this cynical attempt to cloak anti-Semitism and racism in the guise of a conference ostensibly dedicated to its eradication".

The EJC, together with the Czech Presidency of the EU, the European Parliament and the European Commission will organize a symposium on March 30 at the European Parliament in Brussels on eradicating racism and anti-Semitism and fostering tolerance throughout Europe."

Source: article by Maud Swinnen in EJP

Related story:
Text on Israel cut from Geneva UN racism conference draft

Ken Loach: "self-proclaimed Jewish State" is greatest instigator of anti-Semitism

"Nothing has been a greater instigator of anti-Semitism than the self-proclaimed Jewish State itself." (Ken Loach)

See video here introducing the "Media Circus Russell Tribunal on Palestine" and admire the self-styled European Bertrand Russells and Jean-Paul Sartres of today. All of them put together have never written a single book worth reading ... In other words, their intellectual output is far from impressive. The initiator of the "Media Circus Russell Tribunal on Palestine" is the head of the official Belgian (French) of the Secular Action Center (Centre d'Action Laïque), Pierre Galand.)
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Source: article by Ben Cohen in Z Word

"Ken Loach, whose oeuvre as a film director includes the masterful Kes and the cringe-making Land and Freedom, believes that antisemitism is "understandable".

According to The Parliament:

"British film director Ken Loach says that a rise in anti-Semitism in Europe since the Gaza crisis is "not surprising and understandable".

He was responding to a report earlier this week by the Vienna-based agency for fundamental rights (FRA) which said cases of anti-Semitism had risen across Europe since last December.

The agency, which collected information from 19 EU members, said rises in anti-Semitism, ranging from vandalism to physical attacks, were a serious concern …

But, speaking in Brussels on Wednesday, Loach said, "If there has been a rise I am not surprised. In fact, it is perfectly understandable because Israel feeds feelings of anti-Semitism".

Loach, famous for films like Kes, Cathy Come Home and Riff Raff, stressed that "no-one can condone violence".

But the director, who has spoken out against Israel in the past, branded the report as a "red herring" designed to "distract attention" from Israel’s recent military actions."

This is a wonderful example of what David Hirsh refers to as the "Livingstone Formulation".

Let’s be clear. What we have here is a Marxist film director, a professed internationalist, saying that if a Jew is beaten to a pulp, Israel is to blame - and that those who dare complain about it are engaged in the well-worn Zionist tactic of changing the subject.

This is the same logic which blames Al Qaeda for assaults on Muslims or the Victoria’s Secret catalog for rape. It is idiocy and it is dangerous. And if Loach and those like him think we’re just going to take it lying down, they are even more stupid than I thought."

Brussels: Launching of the "Russell Tribunal" on Palestine
Editorial: Why Ken Loach should apologise for High School Musical 3
I Understand
A year ago in Brussels another tribunal/another condemnation :
- Israel on trial in Brussels: Iranian and Syrian Ambassadors give standing ovation to judges
- Israel bashing: International citizens' tribunal to try Israel in Brussels
The real thing:
the Russell-Sartre Tribunal

Islamic religion teacher in Brussels disputes Nazi camp survivor testimony

"This never happened to me in 25 years" (Henri Kichka, a Nazi camp survivor. His 15-year old sister was killed in Auschwitz and his father died at Buchenwald. Henri Kichka was saved by the Americans when they liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp in April 1945.)

"An islamic religion teacher disputed the testimony of a Nazi camp survivor who recounted his story to students in a Brussels secondary school, Le Soir daily newspaper reported Tuesday.

Henri Kichka, from the Union of Jewish deportees in Belgium, had been invited last Friday by the school in Laeken, a Brussels commune, to describe how he survived Buchenwald and his family members were killed in the death camps.

During the meeting with the 150 students, the school was told by a teacher of Islamic religion that Kichka’s account "was largely exaggerated".

"This never happened to me in 25 years", Kichka, who is regularly invited to meet young people, told Le Soir.

The school management had decided to film the meeting because, it said, "witnesses disappear and we want to keep tracks".

On Monday, the trade unions saw the video. "To us, there is no doubt, the teacher quoted negationist ideas from Roger Garaudy", a French revisionist author and philosopher who converted to Islam and called the Holocaust a "myth".

"This will not remain without effect", the school said. An administrative investigation has been opened."

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Source: article by Maud Swinnen in EJP

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Unrepentant, the teacher, Abdeltem Samani, has just declared on RTL TV channel that he does not take anything he said back.

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Henri Kichka, who is 83, is the author of an autobiographical book: "An adolescence in the darkness of the camps".

Swedish Christian NGO Diakonia's anti-Israeli activities

"It is unreasonable to provide information about the Holocaust, in which Hitler murdered six million civilian Jews in a meticulously planned industrialised process, without at the same time providing information about 'al Naqba'." (Joakim Wohlfeil, Diakonia’s Policy Officer)

"In one single month, October 2008, Diakonia sponsored 10 articles in the Swedish media, nine of which dealt with the world's only Jewish country. ... Yet Congo, which has seen hundreds of thousands of civilians slaughtered, raped and expelled, has merited just one single article, written back in February." (Ilya Meyer)

Source: Seismic Shock

"Over the last few weeks, it has become readily apparent that charities are increasingly flexing their political muscles when it comes to Israel-Palestine. Oxfam, Christian Aid, War on Want and various other NGOs have issued factually inaccurate statements concerning Operation Cast Lead. Amos Trust, meanwhile, encouraged its supporters to watch the Go To Gaza, Drink The Sea play. For whatever reason, it appears that radical anti-Zionism is becoming increasingly more popular among NGOs. (...)

The leading Swedish Christian aid organisation is Diakonia, which was created by and is supported by the Swedish Alliance Mission, the Baptist Union of Sweden, InterAct, the Methodist Church of Sweden and the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden.

Yet bizarrely, Diakonia’s Policy Officer Joakim Wohlfeil has openly admitted that Diakionia is is more a lobby group with a clear political agenda for the Middle East than a Christian aid organisation. Wohlfeil also claims:

"It is unreasonable to provide information about the Holocaust, in which Hitler murdered six million civilian Jews in a meticulously planned industrialised process, without at the same time providing information about 'al Naqba'."

Diakonia’s regional manager in Jerusalem Cristoffer Sjöholm recently addressed a Sabeel conference, boasting of his organisation’s work of convincing a Swedish company to close a factory built in the West Bank.

Diakonia has previously funded a Sabeel survey, met with the Sabeel to discuss 'present and future partnerships', and openly lists Sabeel as a partner in the Middle East. Naim Ateek himself has praised Diakonia’s work alongside Sabeel.

Diakonia also actively encourages a boycott of the train company Veolia, which has already been successful in Sweden. Now the Interfaith Group for Morally Responsible Investment in the UK is planning a similar move to boycott Veolia.

What is striking and disconcerting about the case of Diakonia in Sweden is that mainstream Christian institutions and the leading Swedish Christian charity have essentially allowed politically-driven anti-Zionist liberation theology to trump both Christianity’s call to 'love thy neighbour' and the core values of the Diakonia charity itself.

Yet at the same time, the status of Diakonia and of these church organisations in Sweden allows them to have a 'halo effect', as many will instinctively trust Diakonia due to its status and reputation. (...)"

Related:
- Swedish Christian NGO Diakonia totally obsessed with Israel

EU Czech presidency: strong call to withdraw from 'Durban II' conference

"The EU will probably send its own suggestions. If the conference papers will realign with these suggestions then we will stay, otherwise there is a strong call to withdraw." (Karel Schwarzenberg)

"BRUSSELS (EJP)--- The Czech EU presidency said Monday there is a "strong European call to withdraw" from the upcoming 'Durban II' Geneva UN conference on racism if final documents do not take into consideration the EU suggestions.

At a press conference after a meeting in Brussels of the 27 EU Foreign Ministers, Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg (photo) declared: "We had a thorough discussion about the Durban II conference. The main voices were very skeptical about the direction of the final documents which are prepared".

He added: "The EU will probably send its own suggestions. If the conference papers will realign with these suggestions then we will stay, otherwise there is a strong call to withdraw".

The Geneva conference is scheduled to take place April 20-24.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini has already announced that his country would not attend the Geneva gathering unless "radical changes" were made to the draft final text, which includes what he has called "aggressive and anti-Semitic statements."

The United States, Canada and Israel have also announced they will boycott 'Durban II'.

On Monday, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned the Geneva meeting "might be abused to produce one-sided statements" about the Middle East peace process and European and American policy in the Muslim and Arab world.

"I am in favor of canceling participation in the conference, unless the documents are changed substantially within the next hours and days," he said."

Source: article by Yossi Lempkowicz in EJP

Sweden: when incitement against Jews is allowed

"That is, in spite of the calls for "killing the Jews", these statements are not a crime in the legal sense in Sweden, because of the current conflict in the Middle East, according to the Chancellor of Justice. The logical conclusion is clear. If one mentions Palestine in hate speeches and calls for mass murder against Jews, one risks nothing in Sweden."

Posted in April 2006 in Islam in Europe

"The following are parts of an opinion article written by four Swedish Jews about a recent decision by the Swedish government not to investigate Muslim incitement against Jews in Sweden.

"Discussions about the limits of freedom of expression are running high right now, not least because of the Muhammed cartoons in Danish Jyllandsposten. The EU Council states in a controversial message on the 27th February, that it acknowledges and regrets that these cartoons were considered offensive and distressing by Muslims across the world and that a spirit of respect for religious and other beliefs should prevail.

It is a crime in Sweden to express derogatory statements about ethnic, racial, national, religious and sexual minorities or to incite hatred and violence against them. Simultaneously the limits of what one can express in Sweden against Jews are being expanded gradually. All Jewish institutions in Sweden are being continuously guarded because of threats directed to Jewish individuals as well as to Jewish institutions, and the Jewish communities spend 25% of their budget on security.

The hate website Radio Islam continues to spew forth its coarse Anti-Semitism, spread lists of Jews (real or imagined) and conspiracy theories on its site without the security police or the prosecuting authorities doing anything about it. When the radical right-wing party the Sweden Democrats on the other hand, had one of the Muhammed cartoons on its web-site, it was closed down after a quick and direct intervention by an official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

At the beginning of this year, the Chancellor of Justice, Goran Lambertz, discontinued his preliminary investigation against the great mosque in Stockholm. Cassette tapes had been sold in the bookshop of the mosque with a violently Anti-Semitic contents. After a couple of broadcasts on the 26 and 27th November last year, the Stockholm mosque was reported to the police.

In his decision to discontinue the preliminary investigation Lambertz wrote that "the lecture at hand contains statements that are strongly degrading to Jews, among other things, they are throughout called brothers of apes and pigs". Furthermore a curse is expressed over the Jews and "Jihad is called for, to kill the Jews, whereby suicide bombers - celebrated as martyrs - are the most effective weapon". The Chancellor raises the question whether the statements “should be judged differently, and be considered allowed, because they are used by one side in a continuing profound conflict, where battle cries and invectives are part of everyday occurrences in the rhetoric that surround the conflict". Lambertz thought that the "recently mentioned statements in spite of their contents are not to be considered "incitement against an ethnic group according to Swedish law". His conclusions were that the preliminary investigation should be discontinued because this case of incitement against Jews could be said to originate from the Middle East conflict. That is, in spite of the calls for "killing the Jews", these statements are not a crime in the legal sense in Sweden, because of the current conflict in the Middle East, according to the Chancellor of Justice. The logical conclusion is clear. If one mentions Palestine in hate speeches and calls for mass murder against Jews, one risks nothing in Sweden".

One could say that the "battle cries and invectives" that are "everyday occurences" in the Middle East happen to come only from one side against the other. I have yet to see the Jewish rhetoric calling to wipe out all Muslims or Arabs from the Middle East.

However, I also find the general conclusion interesting. What Lambertz is saying is that since Muslims call to kill Jews in the Middle East, it is fine for them to do it in Sweden as well. I wonder what would happen if Jews in Sweden would call for a holy war against Muslims (as part of the Middle East conflict, of course). Would that be allowed? How about other things that Muslims do in the Middle East and that happen to be against Swedish law ?"

Related:
The radical reinterpretation of incitement against Jews by the Chancellor of Justice in Sweden