For too long anti-Semitism in Norway has been a non-topic. For too long, it has been all but impossible to even suggest publicly that the wildly disproportionate, so called “legitimate criticism” of Israel is at least in part motivated by racist hatred. The good news is that the playing field might soon level out.
Here’s five recent and contemporary reasons for why and how:
1. In mid-February Norwegian muslims arranged a demonstration in Olso, in protest against a newspaper cover showing an illustration insulting Islam. One of the key note speakers hinted of a 9/11 against Norway and had, as was later discovered, endorsed the killing of homosexuals. This event more than hints at the existence of a sub-culture which not only targets Jews and Israel, but Norwegian society at large.
2. Anti-Semitism in Malmö has become to obvious too ignore, as has the belated coverage it has received from the Norwegian press. Something has gone horribly wrong in neighboring Sweden – what and how? How can we do to stop the same thing happening in a Norwegian city? Siv Jensen of the Progress Party warned Norway of Malmö for more than a year ago and was compared to Adolf Hitler for her pains – how could this happen?
3. NRK (State television)’s Tormod Strand has been investigating anti-Semitism in Norway for more than a year and has put together programs on it which are currently on the air.
4. Norwegian left-wing activist Eirik Eiglad recently published the book “The anti-Jewish riots in Oslo“, on the riots of January 2009. His book is too detailed and too precise to be ignored.
5. Manfred Gerstenfeld of the JCPA will soon publish his new book on anti-Semitism in Norway. After he published his first book on the same topic a few years ago, he was misquoted in the newspapers and vilely demonized throughout the realm. It will be interesting to see how the very same people who lambasted him so thoroughly will deal with him now that events have proven him right.
God willing, these five events will together create a climate in which we Norwegians can seriously and sensibly move beyond the “Israel-is-evil” consensus, and come to terms with the stark realities of how anti-Zionism often is nothing more than a repackaged edition of the traditional anti-Semitism with which Europe is so tragically well acquainted.
God willing, this is the end of the beginning.
