Anti-Israeli and anti-semite sentiment is running high here in Oslo. Now please look at the photograph below. This photo of anti-Israeli protesters was taken on January 8th in downtown Oslo, right in front of the Stortinget (Norwegian Parliament building), during a peaceful, pro-Israeli rally. I remember this particular poster very well because I was standing eight metres away from it and all that was between me and the mob was a low steel fence and an fairly thin line of police officers.
Anti-Israeli protesters, waving signs of peace and good will
The flag of Hezbollah
Now, I remember seeing the sign (above) even though I was unable to make any sense of it. The police were teargassing the anti-Israeli mob to keep them away from us and the tear gas was drifting back on us in a dense fog and I couldn’t understand the language it was written in but I got a translation of the poster text the next day. As you can see it says “HAYBER HAYBER YÂ yehud”. This refers to the valley of Hayber, where Muhammed massacred the three remaining tribes of Jewish nomads. Now, please reflect upon the mindset it takes to bring a poster like this with you to a demonstration in Oslo, Norway.
The yellow flag is that of Hezbollah, an anti – Israeli organization operating out of Lebanon. Remember, this is all on our main street of Karl Johan, right outside the Parliament.
“Kill the jews”
At the time this picture was taken, things hadn’t gotten out of hand yet. The mob outnumbered us two to one, and on top of sheer numbers they had the aggression and the manpower. The pro-Israeli rally was peaceful and well-ordered but the demonstrators found the fact that we were publicly supporting Israel offensive. They were chanting that Israel was a terrorist state and that jews had to die.
Free passage…
The chanting made it difficult for us to hear what our speakers were saying, even though we had a PA system. After a while the demonstrators started pelting us with eggs and rocks. Bottles were spinning through the air and smashing against the cobblestones left and right of me. I saw an old women hit by a stone. Fireworks were aimed at us and one rocket exploded just some meters away from me. The teargas drifted in like a cloud and someone told us over the loadspeakers to pull out and that we had free passage through Prinsens street.
But there was no free passage in Prinsens street. There were demonstrators there too, carrying flags of Palestine. One of them stepped up and punched one of ours in the face. Another one kicked a man in the thigh. People were wrestled to the ground. There were some police but not enough to keep the demonstrators at bay and the demonstrators were chanting and pulling Israeli flags out of people’s hands. Like most men I like to think I can handle myself one on one, but fighting back was completely out of the question on this particular day. They had the manpower and they were spoiling for a battle.
Our rally disbanded quickly, with people breaking away in ones and twos and small groups. It was easy enough for people like me, but a lot of our people were from out of town and were wandering around aimlessly, carrying large Israeli flags and being accosted by anti-Israelis everywhere. I offered to help a group of three men who were doing just fine, then I ducked into a side street and made for the central station to catch the train home. As I walked down the street I kept passing young men, streaming up towards the Parliament as they yelled encouragements to each other in arabic.
On the train home I overheard a young man talking on the telephone. From what he said I understood that he had attended the demonstration. “Everything went fine” I heard him say. When I turned around I saw he had two little girls with him, they were maybe twelve years old or so. “Where you at the demo?” I asked him. He nodded. “Yes”, he said. “It was pretty bad”, I said. He nodded uncertainly. “They threw rocks at us” I continued, “and bottles and fireworks. It was bad.” I think it was at that point that he understood that I had been on the other side of the fence. We talked a little bit and shook hands as I got up to get of the train.
The aftermath
Back in the city, police and anti-Israeli protesters clashed throughout the night. The Israeli embassy was assaulted, as was the children’s christmas party at the Free Masons and McDonald outlets across the city centre.
The police found several caches of knives, baseball bats, bricks and fireworks and arrested more then 100 demonstrators. Due to the young age of the arrested most of them got of with a slap on the wrist.
