NORWAY 2003-4

 

Norway is characterized by a low level of antisemitism, expressed mainly in harassment of Jews by Muslim youths and dissemination of hatred on the Internet. Neo-Nazi publications, which were the main purveyors of antisemitism in the 1990s, were joined by extreme left journals after the outbreak of the second intifada in 2000.

 

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY

There are approximately 1,500 Jews in Norway, out of a population of 4.4 million, mostly in and around the capital Oslo; about 200 Jews live in Trondheim. Both cities have a synagogue. The main organizing body is the Jewish Community of Oslo, which operates a kindergarten, a home for the aged, a kosher grocery store and a ritual bath, and publishes the periodical Hatikwa. Ritual slaughter is forbidden by law, and kosher meat is imported.

In March 1999, Norway became the first country occupied by Nazi Germany in World War II to create a fund for the restitution of Jewish property confiscated by the Quisling government. A significant part, NOK40 million, of the settlement between the State of Norway and the Jewish communities of Norway finances the Center for Holocaust and Religious Minority Studies in Norway, a research and documentation institution affiliated with the University of Oslo.

 

POLITICAL PARTIES and extra-parliamentary groups

Political Parties

The opposition right-wing populist Progress Party (Fremskrittspartiet) is the third largest political party in Norway, with 25 out of 165 seats in the national parliament. It calls for a stricter asylum and immigration policy, and has twice called for the banning of circumcision of baby boys according to the Jewish and Muslim rituals. At the same time, the Progress Party is overtly and strongly pro-Israel and pro-American, hence attracting some support among Norwegian Jews. During the 1990s it was revealed that some party members had been in contact with extreme right racist groups in Oslo, such as the Norwegian Association (Den norske forening) and People’s Movement against Immigration (Folkebevegelsen mot innvandring), some of whose representatives appeared as invited guests at their meetings. Party chairman Carl I. Hagen is sharply critical of Austrian FPÖ leader Jörg Haider’s sympathies with the Nazis during World War II and has repeatedly told the Norwegian media that he is opposed to Nazism. In 2000, the Progress Party expelled several high-profile members for overly populist and/or racist attitudes. Most of these expellees founded a new party, the Democrats. It should be noted that racism in the Norwegian context means utterances directed mainly at immigrants from the Middle East and Africa.

The Democrats are led by Vidar Kleppe. Former Progress Party MP Jan Simonsen joined the Democrats in October 2001, and is currently their only representative in the parliament. The Democrats are similar to the Progress Party in many respects; however, they have made more anti-immigrant utterances in public.

The National Alliance (Nasjonalalliansen), founded in 1999, consists of several marginal extreme right parties, such as the White Electoral Alliance (Hvit Valgallianse), White Youth (Hvit Ungdom), United Nationalists (Forente Nasjonalister), the Norwegian Patriot Unity Party (Norges Patriotiske Enhetsparti), Norway against Immigration (Norge Mot Innvandring) and the Fatherland Party (Fedrelandspartiet). The model of the National Alliance is the French Front National.

In the summer of 2000 the party changed its name to the Norwegian Popular Party (Norsk Folkeparti), and the leadership was taken over by Oddbjørn Jonstad, one of the expellees from the Progress Party, and several convicted criminals. Jonstad was forced to leave the party in March 2002 because of his “excessively liberal outlook,” and the party restored its former name, the National Alliance.

During the municipal elections of September 2003, several members of the National Alliance, which did not compete in the elections due to a lack of public support, ran as candidates of the Progress Party and the Democrats.

 

Neo-Nazi and Racist Groups

Compared to Sweden and Denmark, extreme right-wing activity in Norway is marginal, and the number of organized racists is no higher than 200. Extreme right-wing groups concentrated their activity in southern, eastern and central Norway. There are close ties between Norwegian neo-Nazis and similar groups in Sweden, Great Britain and the United States. Members of Norwegian groups often visit neighbouring groups, particularly in Sweden, to participate in concerts and meetings, and import most of their music from abroad. On 19 July 2003, 70 activists of National Youth (see below) held a secret concert in Skedsmo, near Oslo. Danish neo-Nazis and the German neo-Nazi band Rassenhass participated. However, no large-scale international meeting has been arranged by Norwegian neo-Nazis.

Most Norwegian Nazi groups are small and badly organized. Their main activity is disseminating anti-immigration and antisemitic propaganda on the Internet. The two most publicized neo-Nazi crimes in recent years, the Boot Boys’ tribute to Rudolf Hess in August 2000 and the murder of Benjamin Hermansen in January 2001 (see below), both sparked instant, broad and strong condemnation from Norwegian political leaders as well as from the general public.

The most violent group, Boot Boys, which changed its name to National Youth in summer 2003, was founded in 1997 by Tore Wilhelm Tvedt, who was ousted as leader due to his ban on alcohol. Boot Boys was subsequently headed by Terje Sjøli, and had fewer than 50 members, most with a criminal record. Three members of Boot Boys were responsible for the murder of the Norwegian-African teenager Benjamin Hermansen in Oslo.

In August 2000, 40 members and supporters of Boot Boys arranged an illegal demonstration in the small town of Askim, south of Oslo, to commemorate the death of Rudolf Hess. During this demonstration, Terje Sjøli made a speech in which he accused Jews and immigrants of corrupting Norway through fraud, robbery, murder, rape, and the “destruction of the Norwegian way of thinking.” After trials in the lower court system, the Norwegian Supreme Court in December 2002 acquitted him of violation of Article 135A of the Penal Code, which outlaws racist incitement. This decision, effectively permitting racist harassment, sparked a wave of criticism from political and religious leaders, journalists and intellectuals.

During the autumn of 2003, National Youth initiated closer collaboration with Swedish neo-Nazis, notably White Aryan Resistance (Vitt Arisk Motstånd), in an attempt to build an ideologically strong organization and to counter their reputation as being mainly a bunch of drunken villains. The Norwegian police are closely monitoring this development.

The Norwegian National Socialist Movement (Norges Nasjonalsosialistiske Bevegelse), led by Erik Rune Hansen, has 40–50 members, publishes the magazine Gjallarhorn, and in 1999 issued The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. This group is associated with the transnational neo-Nazi Blood & Honour, whose Scandinavian branch includes the Norwegian neo-Nazi activist Erik Blücher. In contrast to Boot Boys, the Norwegian National Socialist Movement counts older individuals among its members, some of whom were active Nazis during World War II.

Vigrid, founded and led by Tore Wilhelm Tvedt, formerly leader of Boot Boys, is the only group that appears to be growing. It identifies closely with the US National Alliance, and members of Vigrid have been involved in murders and armed robberies. It has published the magazine Vigrid since 1999, but most of its propaganda, directly mostly against Jews but also against non-white immigrants, is spread via the Internet. In March 2001 the Norwegian Association against Antisemitism and the Association for Secular Humanism lodged a complaint relating to antisemitic material which appeared on the Vigrid homepage. In April 2002, Terje W. Tvedt was sentenced to prison for violation of the racial incitement article of the Penal Code. This was the first time a Norwegian citizen was given a sentence for racist incitement on the Internet. In July 2003 Tvedt wrote in the Norwegian centrist-conservative tabloid VG that Jews, whom he referred to as parasites, should be “cleaned out and sent home.”

Vigrid actively recruits very young followers, and practices its own versions of Christian baptism and confirmation. Terje W. Tvedt, who claims to be the prophet of the Norse god Odin, seeks to convert Norway to paganism after expelling or killing Jews and immigrants. Due to these alarming attempts to reach out to children and young teenagers, the Norwegian police launched a campaign in 2003 to counter Vigrid propaganda among elementary and high school students.

In February/March 2003, branches of the New Medicine (Den nye medisinen), based on the theories of former German physician Ryke Geerd Hamer, opened in Oslo and Bergen. Hamer claims that international Jewry knows the cure for cancer and other lethal diseases, but refuses to disclose it in order to exterminate the non-Jews of the world. Hamer, who draws heavily on the racist writings of British New Age conspiracist David Icke, was deprived of his medical licence by a German court in 1989, and sentenced to prison in 1993 and 1997 for unlawful practice of medicine in Germany; followers of his in Austria and France were investigated for murder after forcing cancer patients to terminate their prescribed chemotherapy. The activities of the New Medicine were condemned by the Norwegian Research Council in March 2003.

 

Antisemitic activity

The situation in Norway is nowhere near as grave as in Denmark or in Sweden. Most ‘antisemitic’ sentiments are expressed in connection with the Middle East situation, and are usually random and unorganized, such as letters to the editors and postings on the Internet.

However, the outbreak of the second intifada in September 2000 resulted in a wave of antisemitic activity directed against the Jews of Norway. In particular, the Israeli army’s Operation Defensive Shield in March and April 2002 led to an increase of harassment, vandalism and threats. Jewish children received death threats from Muslim classmates and teachers chose not to intervene; Jewish teenagers who wore the Star of David were beaten up; and windows in the home of the president of the Jewish community in Oslo were smashed. Moreover, the daily tabloid Dagbladet notified the police concerning a hit list it had obtained containing names of prominent Norwegian Jews. Although the origin of the list is unknown, the police boosted security around leading members of the Norwegian Jewish community. Further, the Ministry of Justice granted 6 million NOK to strengthen security arrangements around the synagogue and Jewish community center in Norway. Most political parties strongly condemned these attacks on Norwegian Jews, and Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik visited the Jewish kindergarten in Oslo as a sign of solidarity in spring 2002.

Anonymous death threats sent to prominent Norwegian Jews in November were the only major antisemitic incidents recorded in 2003. The investigation into the complaints was dropped in June 2004. Harassment (including verbal insults and bullying and occasionally physical attacks) of Jewish children and youths by young Muslims continued. Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik met in April 2004 with two young victims to listen to their stories. The meeting, and the prime minister’s sharp criticism of antisemitism, was given full-page coverage in Aftenposten, Norway’s leading daily (centrist-conservative) broadsheet.

Neo-Nazi publications aside, the weekly Friheten (Freedom), the organ of the extreme left Norwegian Communist Party/NCP (Norges Kommunistiske Parti), is the most active conveyor of classical antisemitic motifs. In Friheten, in particular, reports and features on the campaign against terrorism, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians abound with Jewish stereotypes as the secret rulers of the world, economic usurpers and disloyal citizens of the state of Norway. However, letters to the editor, opinion pieces and cartoons with similar content also appear in mainstream newspapers. For example, on 19 September 2003 Israeli PM Ariel Sharon was portrayed in Dagbladet as a pig, excreting on Arabs. After protests were received by the Norwegian Press Committee, the secretary replied that wide latitude should be given to what is considered good taste in order to preserve freedom of speech.

Anna Nikoline Duus, of Bergen, runs a German-language website, Deutsche Zeitung, supporting British Holocaust denier David Irving and claims Jewish atrocities against Palestinians. Arne Borgir, a Norwegian Nazi who fought in Hitler’s Waffen SS, tried to publish a book, Holocaust – Myth or Reality? anonymously. He was exposed by the anti-fascist magazine Monitor, the Norwegian affiliate of Searchlight, which found his material on the website of Aftenposten, Norway’s leading daily. Aftenposten withdrew the material and is considering action against Bogir. The book is designed by extra-terrestrial group member Pal Aune, who alleges that “the Elders of Zion” orchestrated September 11, the towers were brought down by remote control and 4,000 Israelis absented themselves from work at the World Trade Center that day.