The synagogue in Oslo – already one of the most fortified structures in Norway – applied to the government for additional funds to secure its congregation. They asked for NOK 21 million but got NOK 7 million. After all the speeches Støre and Stoltenberg with no end to the flowery assurances, this is what...
Norway, Israel and the Jews
- Happy 17th of MayOnce more, we gather under our flag to celebrate our freedom. Each 17th of May, the Jewish community in Oslo organize a formal and serene commemoration of Henrik Wergeland, the son of one of the member of the Constituent Assembly for our Constitution. In its original version, our Constitution was shamed by the exclusion of Jews and Jesuits in Norway, som […]
- “Minister of justice” to Jews in Oslo: too badThe synagogue in Oslo – already one of the most fortified structures in Norway – applied to the government for additional funds to secure its congregation. They asked for NOK 21 million but got NOK 7 million. After all the speeches Støre and Stoltenberg with no end to the flowery assurances, this is what it comes down to: Jews should be content feeling prett […]
- The Jewish Community in Oslo applied for NOK 21 million for security measures, only got NOK 7,2lifted from Vårt Land Synagogues receive NOK 7.2 million for security The money goes towards securing doors, upgrade the monitoring system and setting up a security fence. The Government proposes in the revised national budget to allocate 7.2 million forsecurity at the Jewish Religious Community (DMT). - No one should have to be afraid to exercise their rel […]
- Letter from a 17-year old Jewish boyAftenposten today published an op-ed from “Daniel,” a 17-year old Norwegian student who happens to be Jewish. He feels surrounded by antisemitic attitudes, ranging from comments by a fellow video game player (“just pretend they’re Jews when you aim at them”), to the inevitable “so you support killing babies?” when he mentions he supports Israel, to the inabi […]
- PalCom action ‘small and unsuccessful’lifted from miff.no Palestine Committee’s action was “small and unsuccessful” Only a small number of provocateurs from Palestine Committee participated in a store action against Israel’s Dead Sea products in Oslo last Tuesday (May 16) evening. The police were notified in advance and got them quickly away from the place. By Conrad Myrland Published: 16/05/201 […]
- VG’s Astrid Meland attacks Pal activists and media for unethical focus on IsraelAstrid Meland published an OpEd in VG on May 14, which currently is not online. MIFF has published a review article online, from where I have lifted the following: Astrid Meland believes Israel’s critics in Norway are victim of a collective neurosis, where you turn a blind eye to much worse breaches of human rights by other states. - Unethical focus on Isra […]
- Stand up, stand up – for the Hebrew MamitaIf I were a man, I would seriously consider inviting this lady out for dinner. Since I am not, I can only say – WAY TO GO, SISTER! linkscolor = "000000"; highlightscolor = "888888"; backgroundcolor = "FFFFFF"; channel = "none"; […]
- Oopsie – Norwegian academia has become synonymous with academic anti-Semitismlifted from ynetnews.com This is the cost of allowing a guy like Galtung to roam free – regardless of round rejection of his recent remarks, this was by no means the first time the ‘mad professor’ let it rip, as is evident by the details of this op-ed. Why did not the Norwegian intelligentia react at an earlier stage? Did they perhaps agree with the previous […]
- Gloves are off: MIFF (With Israel for Peace) reports the PalCom to the policeLifted from miff.no What can I say? Bravo! MIFF is doing an incredibly important job and luckily their hard efforts are rewarded with a healthy growth in their memberships. Maybe readers of this blog could be entreated to find a way of supporting MIFF? By the way, I have no relation to MIFF, personally or professionally – this is just a courtesy call to reco […]
- What Karsten Tveit’s award really signifiesOdd Karsten Tveit wins the Gullruten lifetime award for his propaganda news coverage from the Middle East. When it comes to correspondents in the Middle East sent by NRK (the governmental broadcasting organization financed by a surcharge on owning a television), it’s a bit like watching the Eurovision song contest: you can endlessly discuss who is worse. Bu […]
Letter from a 17-year old Jewish boy
Aftenposten today published an op-ed from “Daniel,” a 17-year old Norwegian student who happens to be Jewish. He feels surrounded by antisemitic attitudes, ranging from comments by a fellow video game player (“just pretend they’re Jews when you aim at them”), to the inevitable “so you support killing babies?” when he mentions he supports...
Ambassador Sevje is the real victim
Norwegians are so damn touchy. Svein Sevje, the Norwegian ambassador to Israel’s largest city (the Norwegian government knows better than the Israeli people where Israel should have its capital), presents a litany of complaints to the Jerusalem Post. He complains bitterly that the Post “persists in regularly publishing strongly anti-Norwegian articles.” He thinks it...
Kristin Halvorsen’s real game
At the debate at Litteraturhuset, (college drop-out) Kristin Halvorsen, appeared officially as the minister of (mis) education (SV is nothing if not Orwellian), but really as a representative of SV and the “red-green” coalitition. Kristin Halvorsen knows it, SV knows it, the Labour party knows it, I suspect even the loyal opposition knows why...
Vinmonopolet’s foreign policy
The current Norwegian coalition government has pretty much demolished any diplomatic credibility it once had by self-righteously chastising Israel at every turn. The Palestinian leadership – who are not fools – are thankful for the useful idiocy Norwegian officials provide, while Israelis just smile and shrug at Støre’s posturing. The radical wing of the...
Galtung lets it rip
Johan Galtung takes credit for inventing the notion that peace is a desirable condition, making it clear that his field of work (“peace studies”) is the one true pursuit of humankind’s nobler instincts. All those other fields – like history, political science, international affairs – are lesser than peace studies, because, well, they don’t...
Sidsel Wold, never to be confused by facts
As expected, there is a lot of praise for Günter Grass’s missive in rhyme against Israel’s imagined plans to annihilate Iran with a pre-emptive nuclear strike. One interesting perspective comes from Sidsel Wold, for several years the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation’s correspondent in Israel, famous in Israel mostly for a) halting Hebrew, and b) leeching...
NTB/Aftenposten: Hiker at Utøya manhandled by police
The only thing more pathetic than NTB’s attempts at news reporting is Aftenposten (and others’) willingness to uncritically relay the “news” as if it actually had some factual value. This latest item in Aftenposten rather makes the point. The headline, of course, is that Israeli air attacks on targets in Gaza “took fifteen lives…while...
Norwegian hospitality to Israel: Suffer bitch!
Almost as certain as death and taxes, NRK will not let any opportunity pass by to portray Jews as victims or Israelis as whiners. NRK Østlandssendingen headlines a piece with “The Israeli embassy feels discriminated,” and goes on to cover the Israeli embassy’s alleged whining over not being able to find a suitable location...
Støre in hole, keeps digging
Question from Torkil Åmland of the Progressive Party to foreign minister Jonas Gahr Støre: Will the foreign minister retract his previous condemnation of Israel’s reaction to the border violation on June 5th this year, and instead condemn the Syrian government’s organization of the event? Støre’s short response is “No.” Here is the unauthorized translation...
Jørgen Jensehaugen phones it in
Jørgen Jensehaugen is what passes for an “expert” on Middle Eastern affairs in Norway. Apart from an IB from Rome, his main qualification is that he worked as a research assistant for Hilde Henriksen Waage and has his degrees in history from the most esteemed of institutions in Middle Eastern history, the University of...
Støre: DMT is my alibi (+ a bit of Hilde Henriksen Waage)
Clearly, we have underestimated Støre’s political acumen. In Dagsnytt 18, he (of course) expressed great consternation at reports of antisemitism but (of course) wanted to separate antisemitism and anti-Israeli attitudes. It was for the sake of the Norwegian Jews, he said, that “certain groups” had to stop trying to defend Israel’s “illegal ” occupation...
Willoch is a Palestinian
Willoch might want to take a look in his Norwegian passport, where it will explain that acquisition of another country’s passport requires that he submit his Norwegian passport to the nearest diplomatic post. I hope he does, so he can become resident of Palestine and avail himself of all the civil liberties there. Willoch...
The 36 bravest kids in Oslo schools
“Mapping of knowledge and attitudes about racism and antisemitism – a survey of students (8th through 10th grade) in the Oslo schools” was published yesterday, with very little attention from the mainstream press. Next week, delegates from unnamed American Jewish institutions are guests of DMT in Oslo to find out whether there is any...
Expect a raucous debate in Tromsø
It’s a wonderful thing: The United Nations Association in Tromsø is hosting International Week, where participants “among other things … will learn how to make a wallet out of a milk carton, learn Esperanto or origami, and go bird-watching.” Straight out of “10,000 things you can do to the save the Earth.” Of course,...
NRK: Jerusalem of no Jewish significance
NRK featured a short article about Jerusalem Day, noting that 40,000 turned out in parades to commemorate, as NRK put it, the “conquest of East Jerusalem.” NRK helpfully points out that East Jerusalem primarily “houses” Palestinians. In fact, Yom Yerushalayim does not celebrate a conquest. It celebrates the reunification of Jerusalem. And it is...
Sidsel Wold lets it rip
Sidsel Wold is triumphant these days. After her jury nullification acquittal by the Broadcasting Council and a flurry of awards and nominations, she obviously feels she can let loose on the home stretch. Her latest rant is an attempt at a survey of the political situation in Israel but is really just a poorly...
NTB’s “free” and “open” border crossing
You don’t have to read Norwegian newspapers for a long time to realize that NTB functions a bit like the political commisariate for the press here. Their releases read like political talking points for the editors who reprint things. NTB in turn tends to cut, paste, translate, redact, and edit from AFP and occasionally...
Nobody likes a know-it-all, Jonas
Foreign minister Støre wrote an article for Dagsavisen that was also published on the government website. Here follows an unauthorized translation: Dialogue: upheavals in the Arab world could also provide a framework for a new spring between Palestinians and Israelis. Our message is clear: go to the negotiating table! We are witnessing a popular...