World Jewish News

A synagogue in Norway.

Norway: Jewish student is branded with a red-hot coin in anti-Semitic attack

A 16-year–old Jewish student was the victim of an anti-Semitic attack in Oslo, Norway, on Monday, the Simon Wiesenthal Center reported.
The son of an Israeli father, the youth was branded with a red-hot coin by a fellow student at a school barbecue, leaving a visible burn on the back of the victim’s neck.
The victim’s family were not contacted by school officials following what appears to have been the latest in a long line of anti-Semitic bullying and violence as a result of his Israeli providence, primarily at the hands of ethnic Norwegians.
The student’s mother had previously complained of an anti-Semitic atmosphere in the school during a radio interview in 2010, saying at the time: “I see this avoidance as a dangerous development among both ethnic Norwegian and immigrant groups. And nobody, neither teachers or principals, intervenes in this matter. There is a refusal to address this issue – it is too sensitive,” she claimed.
This follows a study by an Oslo Holocaust centre that claims that anti-Semitism in Norway is not as prevalent as previously suggested. The report by the Oslo Center for Studies of the Holocaust and Religious Minorities found that 8% of Norwegians do not want Jews as neighbours or friends, with 11% claiming they feel antipathy towards Jews and 12.5% of the population admitting to being prejudiced against Jews.
The study, released last month, further contended that the prevalence of anti-Semitism in Norway is “limited”, likening it in intensity to those levels experienced in the UK, Denmark and Sweden.
The report itself has, however, been heavily criticised in Norway, as the number of Muslim respondees sampled is vastly disproportionate to numbers present in the country. When further delved into, the statistics yielded by the survey show that 38%of those polled equate Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to Nazi treatment of Jews during the Holocaust, emulating an emerging phenomenon in Europe of anti-Zionism giving way to a form of anti-Semitic sentiment.
According to author Manfred Gerstenfeld, who addressed the issue of anti-Semitism in Norway in his 2008 work Behind the Humanitarian Mask: The Nordic Countires, Israel and the Jews subsequent Norwegian administrations’ neglect of the issue “is a direct result of teh reporting of many Norwegian media, biased acts by part-time anti-Semite ministers, as well as senior academics.”
Criticising the limited remit of the study, which doesn’t take into account bias across political, media and academic spheres, he argues that a moiré comprehensive report “would provide vital information about the double standards practiced against Israel by large parts of the Norwegian elite. These double standards are defined as anti-Semitic acts in the European anti-Semitism definition. Such new study,” he continues, “would also highlight a far more profound Norwegian anti-Semitism than this recent one does.”
A recent poll in German national Stern magazine, for instance, claimed that 59% of Germans describe Israel as “aggressive”, with 70% answering that “Israel pursues its own interest without consideration for other nations”.
Norway has itself enjoyed a fractured relationship with its small Jewish community of 1,000, dating back to the Second World War. The Norwegian government chose to apologise belatedly for its role in the deportation and subsequent deaths of its Jewish population for the first time this year, when prime minister Jens Stoltenberg admitted: “Norwegians carried out the arrests; Norwegians drove the trucks and it happened in Norway”. The much maligned wartime Norwegian leader Vidkun Quisling ordered Norways’s 2,100 wartime Jewish members to register in 1942 – more than a third of this numer were then deported to death camp, with many others finding refuge in neighbouring Sweden.
Stoltenberg admitted to continued prevalence of anti-Semitism in Norway, when he said: “I regret to say that the ideas that led to the Holocaust are still very much alive today, 70 years later”. Jewish community leaders have criticised the lateness of Norway’s admission of its collusionist past, equating wartime Norway to Vichy France in having adopted its own anti-Jewish laws. French president Jacques Chirac apologised in 1995 for his country’s complicity in the Holocaust.
Norwegian academic Johan Galtung also caused uproar in the minority Jewish community in Norway earlier this year, when he suggested that Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, who massacred 77 people last summer, may have been working on the orders of Israeli intelligency agency Mossad. He also recommended widespread reference to the notoriously anti-Semitic work The Protocols of Zion, claiming it drew undeniable parallels with Jewish-founded investment bank Goldman Sachs.
Chabad emissary to the country Rabbi Shaul Wilhelm commended widespread media criticism of the controversial Galtung, who is noted for his work in peace studies and conflict resolution:
“He is a known anti-Semite and anti-Israel voice in Norway so he’s not mainstream, but all the newspapers mentioned it and criticised him, so that was quite nice,” Wilhelm said. “On the other hand, he founded the peace research institute that receives funding from the government. Obviously, he is cited in those circles where people search for reference points.”
Meanwhile, the Oslo Jewish community has asked local police to begin monitoring anti-Semitic incidents, following a marked increase in recent months. According to member of the Det Mosaike Trossaumfund organisation, they experienced 11 incidents in March alone, involving forms of harassment, vandalism and threats, as menacing letters, Nazi salutes and sharp objects have all been directed at a synagogue in Oslo. Police have so far not granted the request, claiming there have not been enough incidents to warrant official registration.
The Norwegian boycott movement has also followed similar lines to more high-profile developments in Denmark and south Africa, where government ministers have recommended supermarkets label products produced in West bank settlements as ‘made in the occupied Palestinian territories”, to allow consumers to make informed decisions about the origins of the goods they buy.
In May, major Norwegian retailer VITA announced it was suspended sale of Israeli cosmetics brand Ahava across its 160 stores, over objections to the products “originating from settlements in the occupied territories. VITO’s CEO Roar Arnstad explained the decision was due to the settlement in which the products were produced being “established in violation of international law”.
“We consider it difficult to buy goods from the occupied area from the 1967 war and will from this date suspend the purchase of goods from the occupied territory,” Arnstad affirmed.
However, a representative for the company responding to protests over the decision, by insisting it did not amount to a boycott of Israel. The Israeli Embassy in Oslo responded to news of the ban, by issuing a statement saying: “The only way to resolve the painful conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is through direct negotiations and dialogue between the parties. A boycott in this case is counterproductive.”

EJP