NORWAY 2006

 

The level of attacks, both physical and printed, against Norwegian Jews and their institutions in 2006 was the highest since the end of World War II. The most serious incident was a gunfire attack on the Oslo synagogue on 17 September.

 

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 of the settlement − NOK40 million − 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 to the University of Oslo.

 

POLITICAL PARTIES and extra-parliamentary groups

Political Parties

Since World War II, none of Norway's main political parties have a history of consistent antisemitic activities or antisemitic utterances. In January 2006, accusations of antisemitism were directed at the Socialist Left Party (SV), currently part of the centrist-left government coalition, for singling out Israel but not other countries that allegedly violate human rights for a trade boycott. Neither the rest of the government (consisting of the Labour and Center parties) nor the opposition supported the proposal.

 

Neo-Nazi and Racist Groups

Extreme right-wing activity in Norway is marginal, and the number of organized racists is no more than 150. Extreme right-wing groups concentrate 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 their neighbors, particularly in Sweden, to participate in concerts and meetings; they import most of their music from abroad.

Most Norwegian Nazi groups are small and poorly organized. Their main activity is disseminating anti-immigration and antisemitic propaganda on the Internet. The most violent group, National Youth, formerly, Boot Boys (until 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 in Oslo of the Norwegian-African teenager Benjamin Hermansen, in January 2001 (see ASW 2003/4).

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. The group is associated with the transnational neo-Nazi Blood & Honour, whose Scandinavian branch includes the Norwegian neo-Nazi activist Henrik Blücher. In contrast to National Youth, 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, former 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. The group 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.

Vigrid actively recruits very young followers, and practices its own versions of Christian baptism and confirmation. Tore Wilhelm 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 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 (see ASW 2003/4).

Tore Tvedt was convicted in April 2002 for claiming that Jews had sexual intercourse with their dead. He was sentenced, but appealed to the Supreme Court, which acquitted him. In 2003, Tvedt was again reported to the police by the Jewish Community of Oslo and the Center for Anti-Racism in Oslo for stating in an interview with the daily tabloid VG that all Jews "must be wiped out," since they were the alleged enemy. In October 2006, Tvedt was sentenced for this and similar remarks to 45 days in prison; he has appealed (see http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1501085.ece).

 

ANTISEMITIC ACTIVITIES

The year 2006 was the gravest in terms of antisemitic manifestations since 1945 in a country otherwise known as peaceful. Some of the incidents were extremely violent.

 

Violence and Vandalism

In the early morning of 17 September, the Oslo synagogue was attacked by gunfire. Thirteen bullets were shot, damaging the façade and a frieze symbolizing the post-Holocaust resurrection of Norwegian Jewry. This was the first time a Norwegian place of worship had ever been attacked by firearms. It was condemned across the Norwegian political spectrum and the synagogue and community center were given extra police protection for several weeks.

Four suspects were arrested three days later. Three of them were released, but the alleged head of the operation, a 29-year-old man of Pakistani origin with a criminal record, remains in custody after it transpired that he may also have been involved in a plot to assassinate the Israeli ambassador in Oslo and attack the American and Israeli embassies there (see http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1462108.ece; also General Analysis).

On 13 September, the Norwegian media revealed that members of an Algerian terror cell, arrested in Italy in 2005, had planned a terrorist attack on the Oslo synagogue. The Norwegian police as well as the Jewish Community of Oslo had been made aware of this plot in November 2005 (see http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1453707.ece).

A month earlier, during the night of 2 August, the synagogue was stoned and several windows were broken. The unknown male perpetrator defecated on the stairs in front of the synagogue before disappearing (see http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1408305.ece).

On 15 July, the cantor of the Oslo synagogue (who wears a skullcap in public) was beaten up while he was strolling through the center of Oslo by three men of Middle Eastern appearance. The men fled when they noticed the surveillance cameras on the surrounding buildings. Subsequently, the board of the Oslo Jewish Community issued a recommendation that Jewish Norwegians as well as tourists refrain from speaking Hebrew and wearing skullcaps and Stars of David in public (see http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1393945.ece).

On 2 August several gravestones were vandalized at the Jewish cemetery in Sofienberg, Oslo.

 

Attacks in the Press

On 10 July, cartoonist Finn Graff of the popular tabloid daily Dagbladet portrayed Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as a concentration camp commander firing at random at Palestinian inmates. The cartoon was inspired by a scene from Steven Spielberg's movie Schindler's List, where Commandant Amon Goeth of the Plaszow concentration camp fired from his balcony at Jewish prisoners for fun. The Israeli embassy in Oslo reported the cartoon to the Norwegian Press Ethics Committee, which ruled that its content was acceptable. It should be noted that during the debates over the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in February 2006, Graff explicitly stated that he would never dare mock Muslims in his cartoons due to fear of violent repercussions.

On 5 August, the intellectual and internationally renowned Norwegian author Jostein Gaarder published an op-ed, "The Chosen People," in the centrist daily Aftenposten, recommending the end of the State of Israel and urging the Jewish people to prepare for another exile. Styling himself as the Jewish prophet Amos, Gaarder claimed to have written the op-ed (in Norwegian) as a wake-up call to the world's Jews. Among other things, he wrote:

Our patience has its limits, and so does our tolerance. We don't believe in divine promises as a basis for occupation and apartheid. We have left the Middle Ages behind us. We are embarrassed by those who believe that the god of plants, animals, and galaxies has appointed one particular people as its favorites and given them funny stone tables, burning bushes, and a license to kill.

Moreover, Gaarder employed traditional Christian anti-Judaism − with Judaism symbolizing primitive brutality and Christianity, mercy, humanity and progress − in order to justify his criticism of the second Israeli invasion of Lebanon:

We do not recognize the rhetoric of the State of Israel. We do not recognize the bloody spiral of retribution of the vendetta and "an eye for an eye." We do not recognize the principle of the thousand Arab eyes for one or two Israeli eyes. We do not recognize the collective punishment or population diets as a political weapon. It's been two thousand years since a Jewish rabbi criticized the ancient doctrine of "an eye for an eye."

(for an unauthorized translation, see: http://vyer.typepad.com/hereticsalmanac/2006/08/translation_of_.html).

In an interview accompanying the op-ed, Gaarder told Aftenposten that he, too, would never have published the Danish Muhammad cartoons due to respect for the religious feelings of Muslims. Several Norwegian writers and cultural figures such as former Prime Minister Kåre Willoch and best-selling author Anne B. Ragde supported Gaarder's views; however, he was strongly condemned by historians Odd Bjørn Fure, Einhart Lorenz and Håkon Harket, and by author Herman Willis. After just a few days of media debate, Gaarder refused to take part in further discussions.

Gaarder claimed that ten prominent Norwegian experts on the Middle East had read and approved his op-ed before it was published. The name of only one of these individuals has been published: the journalist Odd Karsten Tveit, Norwegian state broadcast correspondent in the Middle East, who has often been criticized for anti-Israeli sentiments in his dispatches (for Norwegian link, see : http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=128171; for English links to the Gaarder debate in general, see http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1414033.ece).

In late August 2006, the daily Aftenposten revealed that Firuz Kutal, leader of one of the Oslo branches of the Socialist Left Party, had participated in the Iranian Holocaust cartoon contest (see David Menashri, "Iran, the Jews, the Holocaust"). Kutal claimed that he was unaware that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad actually denied the Holocaust (for Norwegian link, see: http://www.aftenposten.no/kul_und/article1435954.ece).