As some non-Norwegians may know, but certainly all Norwegians are aware of, Norway take great pride in being a peaceful and peace-loving nation, as the whole world can see every year when the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo. We have also some history of brokering peace in many different places of the world, maybe most notably in Sri Lanka. But our definitive high-point in this regard is the Oslo peace accords from 1993.
When it comes to Norway having made some attempts on brokering peace in the Middle East, it is slightly amusing that Norway has been branded as one of the most anti-semitic countries in Europe, along with Sweden. This was one of the main conclusions of the 2008 symposium Behind the Humanitarian Mask: The Nordic Countries, Israel and the Jews. According to Dr Manfred Gerstenfeld, chairman of the Board of Fellows at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, "Norway is the most anti-Semitic country in Scandinavia."I guess we cannot - and would not - deny that Norwegian media and public opinion is slightly on the Palestinian side in the conflict in Israel, and quite critical of Israeli policies with regards to the Palestinians. But to equate anything that smacks of criticism towards Israeli policy with anti-semitism is in my opinion just ridiculous. It must be possible to criticize the policies of the Israeli state without being branded an anti-semite. Our wise, elderly statesman Kåre Willoch, expressed this very eloquently when he said that the accusations made by the symposium and Dr Manfred Gerstenfeld is "traditional deflection tactic aimed at diverting attention from the real problem, which is Israel's well-documented and incontestable abuse of Palestinians."
Any illegitimate accusations of anti-semitism aside, Dr Gerstenfeld & co. now have got a legitimate issue to point at, namely a gargantuan diplomatic faux pas made by Trine Lilleng, first secretary at the Norwegian Embassy in Riyadh. In a private email, mrs Lilleng compared the Israeli conduct of their business in Gaza with the Nazi regime in Germany before and during World War II. However much one may disagree with how the Israeli state goes ahead in respect to the Gaza area, it is very unfortunate that mrs Lilleng made a comparison such as this. It will be interesting to see how long into the future she will be staying at the Foreign Ministry...
7 comments:
A really delicate matter and you've written about it with a good balance.
I think the Norwegians in general mostly are concerned about the victims in Gaza.
quenut,
I was interested to see your post about Norway's stance on Israel and Gaza. Among my friends, one of whom is Palestinian, we have been discussing the Israeli attack on Gaza quite a bit.
You mentioned that in some study Norway was declared one of the most anti-semitic countries in Europe. You did not mention what the basis was for this conclusion. We think it's important to discover what was examined that leads one to this.
One might say that Norway was anti-semitic because it does take the side of Palestinians in this recent attack, and in general. This may be the basis of some argument with the idea that any affiliation with the Gazans has to be because of this antisemitism.
But, I think that would be a fairly circular argument.
The other argument might be that Norway has laws discrininating against Jews. Or, there may be some recent history of acts against Jews in Norway.
I am not aware of any of that kind of evidence. I have to say, I am not keeping up on what goes on in Norway very much. But, I would be interested to hear about it.
I live in Oregon. My Grandmother left Oslo for the midwest here because, as she said, that's where the men were. In my city and in cities all over the country, the police shoot and kill unarmed black people all the time. They have shot unarmed sick people in hospitals because, as they said, the guy looked dangerous.
Can anyone point to anything like this happening to Jews in Norway?
Native Americans whose ancestors lived in the Pacific Northwest, now mostly live in a reservation east of town. The land is mostly a desert. There is a large native american population living in Tacoma, my friend says. They are mostly unemployed and on government assistance. They also experience high percentages of alcoholism.
Have they been keeping Norway's Jews on reservations like they still isolate Native Americans today?
This is not to say that someone couldn't complain unless they had really significant abuses. It's just, I'm curious to know what abuses justify Norway's being declared the most anti-semitic country anywhere.
ps,
I wanted to comment on peace and being peace-loving.
When we tried to get the United States to stop bombing and otherwise destroying southeast asia, the goal that some of us promoted was 'peace.' that goal was ridiculed because it suggested that we were recommending that we should disarm in the face of our enemies, the Viet Cong. There was the idea then that if we didn't destroy the viet cong and the north Vietnamese there, we'd have to be defending ourselves on our own doorstep pretty soon.
The peace movement here was pretty much marginalized because most people believed that the Vietnamese we're wanting to conquer the world.
The claim that Norway or any other country is peace loving is a way of marginalizing it so that 'serious' people need not have to pay any attention to what they have to say.
There was an amendment made to the goals of the anti-war movement to make 'justice' the focus of any anti-war and peace movement. Without justice, there can be no peace.
Just to put in my two bits worth on Norway's efforts to be a broker for peace...
Thank you both for your comments and your interest. This touchy subject is really a minefield where you will be accused of being anti-someone almost no matter what you say or write..
Steven, if you want to read dr Gerstenfeld's article in the Jerusalem post, you can find it here.
Personally, I cannot say that I agree with him at all. I do not deny that there is any anti-semitism in Norway. As anywhere there are of course ignorant and intolerant people also here.
And I do not deny that the Norwegian public is generally pro-Palestinian in the Israeli conflict. But being critical of the policies of the State of Israel is in no way the same as being anti-semitic, i.e. having hatred against Jews per se.
There have been anti-semitic incidents in Norway in recent years, such as shootings at the Israeli synagogue in Oslo. And the "satire" by comedian Otto Jespersen in Norwegian TV is quite over the top, and could very well be interpreted as anti-semitic, although I'm not sure it was thus intended.
Dr Gerstenfeld points at an article by Norwegian philosopher Jostein Gaarder titled God's Chosen People as "until this day (...) the vilest anti-Semitic article published in a European mainstream paper since the Second World War." In my mind, this article is not anti-semitic but extremely anti-Israel. It is not aimed at Jews as such, but at the Israeli state. The argument is that the Israeli state has lost its moral basis for existence due to the policies it has made basically since its creation.
Dr Gerstenfeld also points out some silly things, like arguing for legalizing shechita (ritual slaughter) because Norway "aims" at killing 1000 whales a year - although "succeeded in finding only 500". To clarify this, the quota, i.e. the maximum number of whales that can be killed, was for the year of 2007 1052 animals. That was by no means an "aim", but a ceiling.
One point of criticism that we should accept, nevertheless, is that we generally do not pay too much attention to the constant fear that Israelis live under - fear of Qassam rockets, suicide bombers etc. - which might help explain some of Israels aggression towards Palestinians. As said before, it is no doubt that Norwegian public opinion is skewed in favor of the Palestinians. But that is not anti-semitism.
As I said at the beginning, this topic is a real minefield, and I guess I stepped on quite a few mines in this short little comment already :)
I suspect that Renny might have some more perspectives and viewpoints on this matter?
Dr. Gerstenfeld concluded his article saying,
"...The good the Norwegian government does, including subsidizing the rebuilding of synagogues in Poland, cannot be offset against the infrastructure of hatred it supports."
I have to say that this conclusion is not supported by the article's argument. I say this because, yes, there are things done which hurt Jews in Norway, but there's no reason to think just from these examples, that the Norwegian government is behind them, or that it is constructing or supporting some "infrastructure of hatred."
I might be able to point out that the bullies in my school-yard are picking on the students with glasses, or the one's who talk funny, but the examples I can document do not prove that the school itself, its teachers, or its administration instigates or supports the bullies and their attacks on their victims.
Yes the bullies need to be identified and counselled and prevented from terrorizing kids in the school. But doing that effectively may still not prevent these kinds of abuse. Sometimes you can't monitor and squash bad behaviors completely without causing other problems. Yes, you could keep bullies from picking on weak kids completely if you created something like a police state in the school. You could put up cameras. You could have guards on every corner.
The Dr. did not address an issue that I would have thought would have been most important. Does the Norwegian government have laws or policies that make Jews isolated or set them apart or give them different or inferior political status? None were pinpointed that I can remember.
Yes, we might find individuals insulting or harrassing Jews, but they can be identified and there are remedies for them if there are laws about equal and fair treatment and so forth.
The Dr. spoke about what was printed in papers. I am not sure, but I thought newspapers in Norway were privately owned and their editorial policies were not overseen by the government. If so, then I do not see how what some paper writes shows that the government is supporting their hate-speech.
Why blame the government for what writers, actors, or others are doing on their own?
I object to the Dr's argument because he does not argue well. He conflates anti-semitism with being anti-Israeli. He conflates what private individuals do or say with the responsibilities of the Norwegian government.
I'd like to hear a more focused examination of government policies instead of complaints about people the government is in no position to control.
Steven
Manfred Gerstenfeld is a cranky old man, and his book "Behind the humanitarian mask" has not been well received in Norway. But his verdict of Norway being one of the most anti-semitic countries in Europe may not be dismissed just because it makes one feel uncomfortable. If we look at Norwegian history, we do indeed find a legacy of anti-semitism.
Norway was declared a Christian country in AD 1000 and while Jews were gradually allowed to live here, they were banned again by the "no jews or jesuits" paragraph of 1814. After this paragraph was cancelled in 1844, the Jewish population built up to approximately 2000 people by 1939, when we were invaded and occupied by Germany.
The Germans requested that the Norwegian jews be handed over, and the Norwegian police assisted in rounding them up. This proved to be an easy thing to do as they were all registered in advance of the occupation. On at least one occasion, men from the resistance killed and robbed jews while they were allegedly leading them to safety in Sweden. 758 jews were killed in Auschwitz and in 1946 there were only 559 jews left.
After the war, Norway refused to accept Jewish refugees in excess of the number of jews that lived here prior to the war. The jews who returned to Norway often found their assets seized and had to go to court to have them returned, and even when they did win in court they had to pay a hefty administration fee.
In the sixties and seventies there was a lot of sympathy for the Israeli cause in Norway, but this has gradually been replaced by criticism. Now the question Manfred Gerstenfeld deals with is: to what extent is this criticism legitimate, and to what extent is it illegitimate.
In "The Humanitarian Mask, the Nordic countries, Israel and the Jews", different authors examine different aspects of the Nordic countries and find what they believe to illegitimate criticism of Israel, to the extent that it crosses over into fully fledged anti-semitism. Are these allegations worthy of note?
I believe the first thing to do, for any intellectually responsible person, is to read Gerstenfeld's book. You can freely download it from my site: http://www.israelwhat.com, which is devoted to examining Gerstenfeld's allegations. Personally, I am shocked over much of what I have found.
Best regards
Carl
hi, new to the site, thanks.
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