Norway, Israel and the Jews
NRK journalist Øyvor Bakke hosts the program ”Middagselskapet” (The Dinner Party), where the guest is invited to present three people he or she would have liked to invite to a dinner party. On April 9th the guest of the evening was Mads Gilbert, a maoist physician who became famous when he covered the 2008/2009...
Aftenposten.no today runs the article “Organ gang revealed” on organ trafficking in Israel. The article is written by Aftenposten’s correspondent to the Middle East, Jørgen Lohne. It is a fair enough story. Seen in isolation, there is nothing wrong with it. But are all Middle Eastern countries scrutinized equally when it comes to organ...
NRK’s Tone Staude today writes (screenshot above) on how orthodox Jews have thrown bottles at a Norwegian woman in Jerusalem. The woman in question, one Ronja Normann Annexstad Trolie, is partaking in an exchange through the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Israel and Palestine (EAPPI). NRK tells us little about this organization. NGO monitor tells...
Sidsel Wold is NRK’s journalist to the Middle East, which for all practical purposes means Israel. Syria and Iran does not, as we all know, take too kindly to snooping journalists, whereas life in Israel is comfortable. Quite recently Sidsel Wold interviewed Israeli academic Manfred Gerstenfeld, who has written a book about anti-Semitism in...
The picture above is of deceased author Arthur Koestler, whose ghost we had to conjure in order to do justice by NRK journalist Sidsel Wold. Intrigued? Read on. Sidsel Wold and the McCarthyist spin Sidsel Wold, NRK’s Middle East correspondent since 2007, emphasizes criticism of Israel in accordance with the general slant of Norwegian...
In 2008 Manfred Gerstenfeld edited “Behind the Humanitarian Mask”, a book on anti-Semitism in the Nordic countries. After an interview with a Norwegian journalist he was misquoted throughout the Scandinavian peninsula and subsequently ridiculed and demonized. Last week, he published the Norwegian translation of an updated version of the same book, following which he...
Lars Akerhaug is a journalist with Aftenposten, Norway’s second-largest daily. He is also a well-known pro-Palestinian activist who has served as leader for the Norwegian Palestine Committee. Exactly how Aftenposten manages to let precisely Mr.Akerhaug cover Israel remains a mystery. Today Akerhaug’s heading runs “Threatens new invasion“. Now if a pro-Israeli was to work...
A lot of Norwegians are cheering US president Obama’s health-reform progress, as if American insurance policies were any of our business. Some Norwegians are hoping that the health-reform is just a stepping stone, and the Obama will take on the Israel-lobby next. We see this hope voiced among other by editor of Ny Tid,...
NRK (State Broadcasting) journalist Gro Holm claims that the Palestinians are paying the price for the Holocaust. This is very silly of her. The entire world knows that the Jews payed the price for the Holocaust. But then again, the entire world does not work at NRK. Sidsel Wold does however, and she probably...
Palestine Committee in politics and press The screenshot above is from the website of the party Rødt (Red). In the post deputy leader of Rødt Ingrid Baltzersen refers to an article in Aftenposten on how the Norwegian Pension Fund in part is invested in projects which are in violation of international law. The...
Often you will not read an entire article. Often you will merely glance at the heading and first paragraphs. Journalists know this, and structure their articles so you read the most important parts first. Except for when the journalist does not have a story, in which case he does not tell you until at...
On March 15th Norway’s second largest newspaper Aftenposten published an editorial on the importance of combatting anti-Semitism. As Document.no points out, Aftenposten can start by examining its own journalists. John J.Mearsheimer og Stephen M.Walt write about the media (in “The Israel Lobby” p.169): “A key part of preserving postive public attitudes toward Israel is to...
The Jerusalem Post recently described the Norwegian daily as being “viciously anti-Israel”. Aftenposten itself has not commented. Are there any facts to back JP’s allegation? Volume of articles According to this post “Jews on the brain” it most definitely is. In front of a trained eye however, the statistics of it falls apart a...
Swedish Aftonbladet has been ignoring criticism of Boström’s article for a long time now. Jan Helin, editor of Sweden’s largest newspaper even refuses to reply – see letters from Andrea Levin on CAMERA or below. It is characteristic of the state of affairs in Norway, neighboring upon Sweden, that reactons are more visible in the Wall Street Journal See than...
Nobody can accuse the Economist of being insufficiently critical of Israel. In this week’s edition, in the article “Don’t give up”, it is claimed that “Mr. Netanyahu’s obduracy on settlements… in the long run threatens Israel’s very existence”. This sort of observation goes far beyond what most Norwegians would be able to handle, were...
The Jerusalem Post reports that HRW founder Robert L.Bernstein criticizes HRW for “helping those who wish to turn Israel into a pariah state.” Norwegian daily DagenMagazinet follows up on it. Other Norwegian newspapers, so eager to comment when HRW condemns Israel, remain silent on occasions such as this – actually Dagsavisen, a minor daily,...
Aftenposten editor Harald Stanghelle comments on Lieberman’s latest criticism of Norway in an editorial headed “Spiraling disappointment” on October 6th, 2009: It is not particularly credible when Israel’s foreign minister calls a conversation with Jonas Gahr Støre the most difficult one he has had during the UN’s general assembly. And that because Norway is...
Rødt (Red) is far left-of-centre. Two of their main people are Torstein Dahle and NORWAC doctor Mads Gilbert, both of which believe that operation Cast Lead was “the same as” (Dahle) or “worse than” the WWII atrocities in the Warsaw ghetto. Most Norwegians find Rødt just a bit too much to handle, far less...
Norwegians are repeatedly told that Israel is criticised “like any other country”. We are told that Israel is only getting what’s coming to them, same as any other nation would if they did what Israel is doing, that Norwegian newspapers have due cause, an obligation even, to humanity… These are all bright, shining lies....
Something very strange has recently happened. The article above, which is based on an interview, has been switched for the article below in a non-event most people will not even notice. Except for one thing: TV2′s original article above, by journalist Fredrik Græsvik, has been taken to the PFU (Norwegian media complaints hearing) by...