A letter from Norway: A Call to Reveal Antisemitism in Norway

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday June 24, 2002 19:09 by Sean Mccarthy

The Norwegian press is mobilizing against Jews in a horrifying way. The same antisemitic arguments used 50 years ago are used now against Israel, i.e. Jews. Pro-Israeli articles are not published in newspapers. Pro-Israeli facts are not subject for radio and TV. Almost every single day Norwegians TV and other media attack Israel. If they don't find strong enough arguments, stronger interviews are imported from international sources, as long as they blame the Jews.

My wife and I are Israeli Jews living in Norway in the last years. I am a biologist and web designer and my wife is a chemist researcher. We established an organization that balances the media war against Israel. There are Christians and Jews all working together, supported by about 30 organizations.

The Norwegian press is mobilizing against Jews in a horrifying way. The same antisemitic arguments used 50 years ago are used now against Israel, i.e. Jews.

Pro-Israeli articles are not published in newspapers.

Pro-Israeli facts are not subject for radio and TV.

Almost every single day Norwegians TV and other media attack Israel. If they don't find strong enough arguments, stronger interviews are imported from international sources, as long as they blame the Jews.

During the Holocaust it was Norwegian people who collected the Jews and sent them to Auschwitz, not Germans. The Jews here remember it and are frightened, so many don't support Israel from fear of being identified.

Attacks on Jews occurred, even if not to the extent of physical violence as known in central Europe.

Emails with antisemitic stereotypes are every day "pleasure". Last time I got an antisemitic telephone call was yesterday. A man called and told me that the terrible things that happen "down there" are because Jews continue to behave violently and crude, continuing their way as described in the Bible: people who abandon The Lords ways and every short period do crimes against The Lord and humanity. The reason why we all suffer there, he said, is because we killed Jesus and never accepted him as Messiah. He explained that it is natural that we now "kill Palestinian children and steal their land" .

The ideas are old and Norwegian media use the same arguments.

The mobilization of the main (governmental) Norwegian TV and radio channel, NRK, is well documented by the editor of the excellent Norwegian newspaper Dagen, Odd Sverre Hove. We can soon publish a translation to English of this three month work beginning from September 2000. He investigated every day media bias and published the report. However, Norwegian media, not only NRK, refuses to discuss any criticism of itself. Therefore, Israel is under a growing danger of isolation also by Norway and Jews are exposed to growing hatred.