Benny Morris is one of the few foreign historians who is well known in Norway. Two others are Ilan Pappe and David Irving. Read about Norway, Benny Morris and Ilan Pappe here.
Benny Morris has been interviewed by Minerva. Unauthorized translation here:
Norwegian universities and research institutions appear to prefer cooperating with academics who are critical to Israel, and it is obvious that many desire a boycott of Israel. Either this is due to ignorance. Or it might be based on latent anti-Semitism, Morris believes.
The charge of anti-Semitism will not fly very far in Norway. To such an extent has Akersgata instructed Norwegians that the charge of anti-Semitism is something right-wing hawks hide behind, that merely suggesting that this is the case will immediately read as a confession of guilt.
– They may by all means be critical, he continues. – However I cannot take neither the boycott threat nor the criticism seriously as long as corresponding criticism is not directed towards countries such as Sudan, China and Syria.
An attempt at delegitimizing
Benny Morris has also previously slammed what he believes is illegitimate Norwegian criticism of Israel. This summer he accused former Prime Minister Kåre Willoch for having misused his research, among other in the context of a reader’s letter to a newspaper. (Both pieces were printed in VG, respectively on May 24th 2008) and August 18th 2009). Here Willoch uses Morris’ work to support allegations of a systematic and planned massacre and expulsion of Palestinians from territories which came into Israel’s hands during the 1948 war.– I cannot understand anything else but that the seminar series and the boycott proposal are attempts at delegitimizing Israel, says the historian, who doubts that this is a discussion Norwegians are willing to engage in. There have among other been attempts at arranging a meeting between me and Willoch, which he has repeatedly rejected. The selectivity which the organizers have demonstrated with regards to the seminar series; that they have invited neither pro-Israel academics nor researchers who are considered to be neutral, is not new. This is quite common among anti-Israel propagandists.
This says the recognized historian, who himself was not invited to NTNU.
Note; not a single journalist was present when Benny Morris visited Norway this summer in order to speak on the Jewish and Palestinian refugee crisis. The only newspaper to cover the event was DagenMagazinet. At the time, this site wagered a bottle of whisky that if Ilan Pappe ever was to visit Norway, Dagsavisen would give him the first page.
Messrs.Erik Sagflaat and Ivar Iversen of Dagsavisen will be well pleased to hear that the offer still stands.
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