Friday, May 15, 2009
Jewish Graves Desecrated In Oslo
While the case is receiving limited coverage in the Norwegian media, VG and TV2 report that several Jewish graves in Oslo have been desecrated with Nazi symbols and other messages (picture is by Tom Bob Peru Aronsen of NrK). One message states that "The war is not over", whatever that might mean.
Jews were not allowed to enter Norway until 1851, and almost half the Jews that entered Norway thereafter were killed during the Second World War. I have previously written extensively on anti-Israeli sentiment in Norway, but this should not be confused with the outright racism that is behind the grave desecrations in Oslo.
Labels: anti-semitism, antisemitism, jewish, norway, oslo
Monday, April 06, 2009
Exaggerated Media Exposure On Israel
Norwegian leftists love to argue that criticizing Israel is not the same as being anti-Semitic, and they are obviously correct. The problem is when Israel is held to completely different standards than other countries. Also, the media attention on Israel is completely overblown compared with other more serious conflicts around the world.
A Google search of Dagbladet for "Israel 2009" gives 40,900 search results. A search for "Sri Lanka 2009" will give you only 1,520 search results, though the humanitarian situation is much more serious in Sri Lanka. A search using Dagbladet's own search function provides 11978 results for "Israel", while a search for "Sri Lanka" only gives 1609 results.
The hostility to Israel in Norway is mainly caused by the exaggerated media exposure and often one-sided criticism of Israel. While human rights violations in most other countries will be completely ignored, Norway's media will report on even minor developments in Israel's conflict with the surrounding Arab population.
As The Economist commented earlier this year:
"Of course, people are entitled to expect a Westernised democracy such as Israel to behave better than Syria, Russia or the violent Islamists of Hamas. But they are not entitled to hold Israel to a standard they do not observe themselves. The killing of civilians is a sadly common occurrence in war. American forces are accused of having killed hundreds of civilians when they recaptured the Iraqi city of Fallujah from Islamist insurgents in 2004. American and European air forces have killed thousands of civilians in air raids in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. So it has been immensely sad, and grotesquely unfair, to watch protesters in London and Paris accusing Israel of behaving as the Nazis did. Just as Israel deserves no special favours when it comes to the prosecution of war crimes, so it should not be singled out while others go unpunished. That will only deepen the misplaced conviction of too many Israelis that a nation in a sea of enemies must in the end survive mainly by the sword".
Dagbladet is continuing its obsessive coverage of a couple of articles that were featured in the Jerusalem Post. Being a tiny country, Norwegians are extremely interested and concerned about what foreign countries are thinking of Norway, but Dagbladet is really going overboard this time around. The top story in VG deals with accusations that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza earlier this year, though VG is also trying to compete on the Jersualem Post story.
Anyone interested in real news may be interested to read that The Guardian reports from Sri Lanka that "the displaced civilian population is suffering a fresh wave of human rights violations including arbitrary arrests and abductions". A story published by ReliefWeb claims that 2 million people are at risk in Congo, and an article in the Herald Tribune reports how at least 400,000 people have been killed in Darfur during the last three years (countries like China and Sudan are largely to blame, but Norwegians can not be bothered about these issues).
A Google search of Dagbladet for "Israel 2009" gives 40,900 search results. A search for "Sri Lanka 2009" will give you only 1,520 search results, though the humanitarian situation is much more serious in Sri Lanka. A search using Dagbladet's own search function provides 11978 results for "Israel", while a search for "Sri Lanka" only gives 1609 results.
The hostility to Israel in Norway is mainly caused by the exaggerated media exposure and often one-sided criticism of Israel. While human rights violations in most other countries will be completely ignored, Norway's media will report on even minor developments in Israel's conflict with the surrounding Arab population.
As The Economist commented earlier this year:
"Of course, people are entitled to expect a Westernised democracy such as Israel to behave better than Syria, Russia or the violent Islamists of Hamas. But they are not entitled to hold Israel to a standard they do not observe themselves. The killing of civilians is a sadly common occurrence in war. American forces are accused of having killed hundreds of civilians when they recaptured the Iraqi city of Fallujah from Islamist insurgents in 2004. American and European air forces have killed thousands of civilians in air raids in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. So it has been immensely sad, and grotesquely unfair, to watch protesters in London and Paris accusing Israel of behaving as the Nazis did. Just as Israel deserves no special favours when it comes to the prosecution of war crimes, so it should not be singled out while others go unpunished. That will only deepen the misplaced conviction of too many Israelis that a nation in a sea of enemies must in the end survive mainly by the sword".
Dagbladet is continuing its obsessive coverage of a couple of articles that were featured in the Jerusalem Post. Being a tiny country, Norwegians are extremely interested and concerned about what foreign countries are thinking of Norway, but Dagbladet is really going overboard this time around. The top story in VG deals with accusations that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza earlier this year, though VG is also trying to compete on the Jersualem Post story.
Anyone interested in real news may be interested to read that The Guardian reports from Sri Lanka that "the displaced civilian population is suffering a fresh wave of human rights violations including arbitrary arrests and abductions". A story published by ReliefWeb claims that 2 million people are at risk in Congo, and an article in the Herald Tribune reports how at least 400,000 people have been killed in Darfur during the last three years (countries like China and Sudan are largely to blame, but Norwegians can not be bothered about these issues).
Labels: anti-semitism, exposure, israel, norwegian media
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Why Did Not Kristin Halvorsen Leave The Demonstration?
It is possible that the Norwegian Finance Minister Halvorsen participated in a demonstration on January 8, and not January 10 as stated in my original blog entry. The actual date does not matter, however, as the outcome and content of the different anti-Israeli demonstrations were fairly identical. In fact, I previously posted a video of the January 8 demonstrations.
The blog "Tundra Tabloids" raises some good points regarding this issue, though it also acknowledges that Ms. Halvorsen did not shout any anti-Semitic slogans:
"What is one to think of a politician who understands well enough that, shouting "death to the Jews" is wrong, and doesn't want to be depicted as doing such a thing, but more than willing to participate in a demonstration with those who were doing just that? Kristin Halvorsen is of course justified in wanting to correct the facts to the J'lem Post story, but will she ever apologize for participation in an event where people were in fact shouting "death to the Jews"? I doubt it".
The blog "Tundra Tabloids" raises some good points regarding this issue, though it also acknowledges that Ms. Halvorsen did not shout any anti-Semitic slogans:
"What is one to think of a politician who understands well enough that, shouting "death to the Jews" is wrong, and doesn't want to be depicted as doing such a thing, but more than willing to participate in a demonstration with those who were doing just that? Kristin Halvorsen is of course justified in wanting to correct the facts to the J'lem Post story, but will she ever apologize for participation in an event where people were in fact shouting "death to the Jews"? I doubt it".
Labels: anti-semitism, hamas, israel, kristin halvorsen
Norwegian Newspapers Misinterpreting The Jerusalem Post
The big news in Norway today is an article that was published in the Jersualem Post on March 30 and removed shortly thereafter. The title of the article was "Norway: Increased anti-Semitism has local Jews anxious" (available for a short time through this link as it was cached by Google), and focused on the Anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sentiment that have exploded in Norway.
While the article by Maya Spitzer focuses on a wide range of issues and examples of recent anti-Semitism in Norway, the Norwegian papers are focusing exclusively on the following paragraph:
"During the war, Olso was fraught with violent anti-Israel demonstrations. Numerous government officials decried Israel's actions in Gaza - including Minister of Finance Kristin Halvorsen, who led a march shouting, "Death to the Jews!" Norwegian doctor Mads Gilbert, who worked in Gaza and disseminated stories about Israel's brutality, became a national hero in the Norwegian media".
It is the first sentence that is the subject of discussion, basically as it can be interpreted that Finance Minister Halvorsen herself shouted "Death to the Jews". While Kristin Halvorsen represents a political party that has an intense hatred of Israel (due to a mixture of anti-colonialism and anti-Semitism), the Socialist Left Party, Ms. Halvorsen never shouted racist slogans. However, the anti-Israeli demonstration on January 10, 2009, had a strong Anti-semitic element. In the picture, Kristin Halvorsen (the blonde woman in the left of the picture) is posing next to a poster saying "USA and Israel the biggest axis of evil". Your head needs to pretty messed up to think that the USA and Israel are more "evil" than countries like Saudi-Arabia, Iran, North-Korea, to take just a few examples.
The demonstration led by Finance Minister Halvorsen ultimately culminated in an attack on the Israeli embassy, after which 100 individuals were arrested (almost all have later been released due to Norway's broken judicial system). Please enjoy a video from the January 10 demonstration below (consider it a Norwegian version of the Planet of the Apes):
Ironically, when the conflict in Sri-Lanka erupted shortly thereafter, despite a much higher civilian toll it was ignored by both the Norwegian media and people. Of the hundreds of countries in the world, the only nation that the Socialist Left Party wants to boycott is Israel.
By the way, for a good laughter, check out Kristin Halvorsen's background to see what it takes to become finance minister in Norway:
"After taking some university courses in pedagogy (1,5 years) and criminology (1 year) without receiving a degree, Halvorsen worked for a while as a legal secretary".
That is it. That is all. Then again, thanks to its oil revenue, Norway could probably install a real monkey as finance minister (not just a human version) and still do ok.
Dagbladet has three articles on this story: 1, 2, 3. VG has also covered the story.
While the article by Maya Spitzer focuses on a wide range of issues and examples of recent anti-Semitism in Norway, the Norwegian papers are focusing exclusively on the following paragraph:
"During the war, Olso was fraught with violent anti-Israel demonstrations. Numerous government officials decried Israel's actions in Gaza - including Minister of Finance Kristin Halvorsen, who led a march shouting, "Death to the Jews!" Norwegian doctor Mads Gilbert, who worked in Gaza and disseminated stories about Israel's brutality, became a national hero in the Norwegian media".
It is the first sentence that is the subject of discussion, basically as it can be interpreted that Finance Minister Halvorsen herself shouted "Death to the Jews". While Kristin Halvorsen represents a political party that has an intense hatred of Israel (due to a mixture of anti-colonialism and anti-Semitism), the Socialist Left Party, Ms. Halvorsen never shouted racist slogans. However, the anti-Israeli demonstration on January 10, 2009, had a strong Anti-semitic element. In the picture, Kristin Halvorsen (the blonde woman in the left of the picture) is posing next to a poster saying "USA and Israel the biggest axis of evil". Your head needs to pretty messed up to think that the USA and Israel are more "evil" than countries like Saudi-Arabia, Iran, North-Korea, to take just a few examples.The demonstration led by Finance Minister Halvorsen ultimately culminated in an attack on the Israeli embassy, after which 100 individuals were arrested (almost all have later been released due to Norway's broken judicial system). Please enjoy a video from the January 10 demonstration below (consider it a Norwegian version of the Planet of the Apes):
Ironically, when the conflict in Sri-Lanka erupted shortly thereafter, despite a much higher civilian toll it was ignored by both the Norwegian media and people. Of the hundreds of countries in the world, the only nation that the Socialist Left Party wants to boycott is Israel.
By the way, for a good laughter, check out Kristin Halvorsen's background to see what it takes to become finance minister in Norway:
"After taking some university courses in pedagogy (1,5 years) and criminology (1 year) without receiving a degree, Halvorsen worked for a while as a legal secretary".
That is it. That is all. Then again, thanks to its oil revenue, Norway could probably install a real monkey as finance minister (not just a human version) and still do ok.
Dagbladet has three articles on this story: 1, 2, 3. VG has also covered the story.
Labels: anti-semitism, jerusalem post, kristin halvorsen, norway
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