Far from all NTNU academics are convinced of the necessity of imposing an academic boycott on Israel. Here is the stance of NTNU academic Bjørn K.Alsberg. Unauthorized translation: A boycott of Israel? (14.9.09, 13:37) An academic boycot of Israel? In…
Monthly Archives: September 2009
Criticism against imbalanced NTNU seminars
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Is it correct for a university to host a series of seminars on a conflict, with only one side of the story being told? Say that an American university was to host seminars on Norway’s war in Afghanistan – ought…
Spanish reader on Danish special forces
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For a long time Scandinavia was a faraway nowhere-land of plenty. Nothing much happened up here, except maybe Volvo would produce a new model or there would be a delightful abundance of snow for christmas. Then the milk and honey…
Mearsheimer endorsed by Bin-laden, speaks at NUPI
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Professor John J. Mearsheimer co-authored “The Israel Lobby” with Stephen Walt. Little could they have known that after writing this book they would first be endorsed by Osama Bin-Laden, and then afterwards invited to speak at prestigious institutions in faraway…
On Norwegian journalism
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Back in March, the Jerusalem Post published an erroneous article on anti-Semitism in Norway. Now we Norwegians, as opposed to Israelis, are not used to having erroneous articles printed about us in foreign newspapers. So naturally there was a legitimate…
Israeli director-general: Norwegians are “tough vikings”
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The Jerusalem Post reports that Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has accused Norway of upholding anti-Israel and anti-Semitic policies. Lieberman is to have mentioned especially Norway’s “quiet support” of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and commemoration of Nazi-affiliated author Knut Hamsun. Lieberman is…
Sri Lanka accuses Solheim of gun-running
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Allegations against other countries should not be made with ease. Yet for Norway, so quick to condemn Israel, it is difficult to cry “foul” over allegations made against Norway by Sri Lanka. Unauthorized translation from Verdens Gang, Norway’s largest daily:…
UK school fearful of teaching about Holocaust
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A UK school appears to have avoided selecting the Holocaust as a coursework topic out of “…fear of confronting anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial” among its students. From what we understand this is one school in the UK – one single…
American University Lecturer asks Digernes to apologize
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Norwegian universities are in general eager for international recognition. Yet the particular kind of foreign attention rektor Torbjørn Digernes is attracting to NTNU is hardly of the desired kind. The latest comment on Rektors side (Rektor’s page) is made by…
Media reports on criticism of imbalanced NTNU seminars
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This autumn NTNU, a prestigious Norwegian university, is offering a series of seminars on Israel. The seminars have attracted widespread criticism for being imbalanced, and it has been claimed that the sole purpose of the seminars is to set the…
Is Norway becoming Extreme-istan?
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Aslak Nore is a young Nowegian journalist who just will not stop rocking the boat. He now appears to have picked up a cue from Melanie Phillips’ (author of Londonistan) and is now publishing a book in which he claims…
Al Aqsa TV tells kids “Slaughter the jews”
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Norway supports the Palestinian people (pr.capita) more than any other people on earth. Yet this support appears to be completely unrelated to the actual behavior of the regimes of Hamas and Fatah. Blatant racism and incitement to murder goes virtually…
Norwegian development aid and Al-Aqsa TV
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Norway supports the Palestinian people (pr.capita) more than any other people on earth. For left-of-centre Norwegians with political aspirations, a tour in the Palestinian territories is almost compulsory. As for the programs on Al-Aqsa TV, the protests of the Progress…
The New Republic on Sweden’s Free Speech Charade
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Look through copies of Swedish Aftonbladet from the 1960′s and you will find articles lauding Pol Pot, who killed of one fourth of his own population. USA, it was believed, was ultimately to blame. Here is a excerpt from Benjamin…
Criticism of Norway is welcome gift to Kristin Halvorsen
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Norway is in many ways such a splendid little country, it’s dazzling. Yet same as with any other nation, have a closer look and you will unavoidably find rats in the basement, cockroaches in the drains, skeletons in the closet…
New Management
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Someone else might be taking over here from the end of this month. Pop back then and have a look.
Why should Digernes resign?
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In a letter to Rektors side, Ronnie Fraser of the Academic Friends of Israel suggests that it can only be “a matter of time” before NTNU dean Torbjørn Digernes “falls on his sword” and resigns “in order to save NTNU…
Temporary leave of absence
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Due to more pressing concerns, I will have to take a temporary leave of absence for anything up to six months. Unless a replacement can be found, this means that this blog will be down for that time. To keep…
Morten Levin and the serpent’s egg
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In Shakespeare’s Julis Caesar, Brutus looks for a reason to join the conspiracy against Caesar. As he does not immediately find any such reason in the past or present, he engages in some seriously innovative thinking. What if, Brutus speculates,…
NTNU opens for other perspectives on ME conflict
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There are several ways in which to deal with criticism. One it bend over backwards in agreeing, as in: “You are right and I was wrong. Sorry.” Another is to deal with the criticism seriously, as in: “Well, I’ll stick…