RSS Norway, Israel and the Jews

  • Document.no: Pogroms in Oslo
    Document.no is more than a blog, it is a community. Whatsmore it is intelligent, well-mannered and subsequently growing, which makes a lot of people somewhat worried. Document.no now offers a lengthy post on Norwegian author Eirik Eiglad’s book “The anti-jewish riots in Oslo”. Unauthorized translation from Pogroms in Oslo: Researchers and the police can say: […]
  • Malmö: Ever since I came here people have been shouting ‘fucking Jew’ at me
    Anyone concerned for the re-emergence of anti-Semitism in Scandinavia who is not reading Sweden, Israel and the Jews is robbing themselves blind. If you follow Sweden, this is the place to go. Ilya Meyer has a larger archive. On the other hand Norwegian newspapers, with exception being made for Aftenposten, are not particularly interested in [...] […]
  • ‘Jews themselves wrote lists of whom were to die in concentration camps’
    The University of Oslo wants to fire a history professor – appearently for having violated its health, environment and safety (HES) code. Protesters say this has nothing to do with HES and everything to do with the Univeristy curtailing the freedom of expression of its staff. One of the protestors is Professor of Law Jan [...] […]
  • Norwegian funnymen fearful of insulting Muhammed
    Norwegian comedian Thomas Seltzer. Picture from NRK P3. In 2006 funnyman Otto Jespersen demonstrated his courageous wit by torching the Bible. When asked why he did not burn the Koran, he replied: “We considered that too, but could not get hold of a copy. What is more I am 52 years old now and reckon [...] […]
  • Støre and Syria, Bishops’ Boycott
    FM Jonas Gahr Støre met with Syria’s FM Muallem on Monday8th. Nothing much in the media about that, not at all. Syria hardly registers at all. In the clip above you see a program from Syrian television. Does not this look like the kind of society Norwegians ought to be worried over? Remember [...] […]
  • VG on Bishops’ Boycott
    Verdens Gang (VG) - Norway's largest daily Verdens Gang (VG) is Norway’s largest daily. In today’s editorial the newspaper claims that the Bishops Boycott is, pretty much, a walk down nonsense street. Unauthorized translation: We believe that the Bishops ought to bury the though of a boycott of trade as soon as possible. They receive the [...] […]
  • No Press Accreditation for PR-woman Yngvild Mortensen
    Qassam rockets: from Ynet news Dagbladet reports on how freelancing journalist Yngvild Mortensen has her knickers in a twist as Israel refuses to grant her press accreditation. The reason Ms.Mortensen is not getting one is because she is a freelancer, and not in steady employ. When one looks back upon the long series of biased [...] […]
  • Is Dagbladet confusing Gaza with the Westbank?
    Dagbladet attributes this picture to Gaza, by Reuters, Elilana Aponte and Scanpix. The picture above is from an article in Dabladet titled “New peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians“. The first half hour the picture did not have any explaining subtext, which easily might have lead readers to believe the picture shows an Israeli kicking [...] […]
  • FM Støre, Dr Mads, Syversen on the Bishops’ Boycott
    Norwegian Bishops have come up with the idea that boycotting Israel just might be a fine idea. Foreign Minister Jonas Ghar Støre is opposed to a boycott and says so in today’s Verdens Gang – Norway’s largest daily. Unauthorized translation: – It is good that the Church speaks out for the opprssed, but the Church’s main [...] […]
  • Editor slams Bishops’ Boycott
    DagenMagazinet For Vebjørn Selbekk “freedom of expression” is more than just words, as is “courage”. After publishing an article on the cartoon-war in 2006, he became embroiled in it himself, receiving only luke-warm support from the Norwegian intelligensia and political establishment as he stood up for his editorial right to publish news-stories on relevant […]

About this site

What: This is a Norwegian blog.

Mission: To examine and cover matters pertaining to the relationships between Norway, Israel and the jews, with an emphasis on bias, the anti-Israel lobby and anti-Semitism.

Vision: To contribute to the transparency of Norwegian debate on the Middle East. This is necessary in Norway for two reasons: 1) The Norwegian debate on the Middle East can after the events of January 8th and the perpetual necessity for police protection of the Oslo synagogue no longer be said to be sound 2) After the termination of Aftenposten’s News in English, Norway has become linguistically isolated to the extent that events and processes in Norway almost completely escape international attention, which is scarce enough under even the best circumstances.

Why? As the findings of this site suggest, there is reason to believe that criticism of Israel has become axiomatic in Norway. Compared to other countries in the Middle East, criticism of Israel: a) is more frequent than criticism of the other countries in the ME b) has become dangerously easy for the public to accept and c) is notoriously difficult to dislodge from the public consciousness, even when the allegations are proven wrong.

There are also indications that excessive criticism of Israel bears stronger relation to outright Jew hatred than many would prefer to believe. There is reason to believe that Jew-hatred as a force may not be confined to the WWII era.

Whom? There are currently three people contributing to this site on a regular basis. We happily accept criticism, feedback and tips from readers. We are just as happy to abandon ship at a moment’s notice. After the death threat against Siv Jensen on January 8th, the Norwegian debate on the Middle East can be said to be neither safe nor sound. For reasons of convenience as well as safety we prefer to remain anonymous.

How: Our goal is to translate as much as possible, and comment as little as possible. We are currently in the process of removing unauthorised pictures, photographs and graphics. Where the content in question is available in English on the Internet, we will publish only an excerpt and link to the source. Where the content is unavailable, as in articles published only in the paper press, we will on occasion publish the entire text. We will remove any text on request. If you are unhappy about the contents on this site, please contact NIJ@israelwhat.com and we will do whatever we can for you.

When: This site was started in January 2009. It will continue until someone else, preferably a state-backed NGO, does what we do, better than us.

Is this site part of a smear-campaign against Norway? Prominent Norwegians are already doing an excellent smear-job on themselves. Our contribution primarily consists of translating Norwegian texts into English.