11.07.2002
Press release: Norwegian Labor Party Youth Movement (AUF) demands to put Ariel Sharon and other Israeli leaders on trial.
The Norwegian Israel Center (NIS) is a voluntary, idealistic and politically independent documentation and resource center that works at promoting a more balanced view towards Israel, and therefore fights antisemitism. At the same time, we try to build a bridge between Jews and Christians.
On 10.07.2002, Mrs. Eva Kristin Hansen, the leader of the Norwegian Labor Party Youth Movement (AUF), called upon the Attorney General of Norway to investigate whether Israel’s “Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and other Israeli leaders can be put on trial for crimes they committed”. Kristin explained that the AUF demand for a trial comes in light of “…killing of ambulance personnel, occasional destruction of civil targets and illegal executions of civilians”. (se article)
Less than a day after this AUF petition was sent to the court, Norwegian former Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg (Labor) spoke before the AUF in which he attacked Israel. NIS notes that it was not long so ago - 20.4.2002 -, when Stoltenberg gave a speech attacking Israel, while Nazi Swastikas and other horrible anti-Jewish banners were held up in front of the Norwegian parliament (see pictures). Such symbols are otherwise forbidden for use in demonstrations organized by Neo Nazis.
NIS is aware of the important position that the AUF has in the political life of Norway, particularly concerning the Norwegian Labor Party. AUF has produced many important leaders of the Labor Party. Naturally, their opinions influence their environment and Norway.
As young AUF members, future central Norwegian Labor Party leaders, called in 1971 for the destruction of Israel: “The qualification for lasting peace must be that Israel cease to exist as a Jewish state”…These words were written by former Prime Minister Haakon Lie (Labor) in his book [Slik Jeg Ser Det (As I See It), part II, p. 132]. This destruction is what the Labor party calls “peace”. Former Foreign Minister Bjorn Tore Godal was the leader of that same AUF that formulated this declaration, which showa obvious religious antagonism to Judaism. Can we trust that Godal was neutral and clean of prejudice while he handled Israel under the Oslo Process?
Since the 1970’s, Norwegian Labor leaders have supported the PLO. The PLO, we remind you, is committed to destroy Israel, a point that did not prevent Norway from awarding it’s leader no less than the Nobel Peace Prize. Torbjoern Jagland, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Jens Stoltenberg and Terje Roed-Larsen have followed the line that supports PLO. NIS finds it difficult to understand how such leaders can contribute to a more peaceful Middle East.
NIS notes that racism is defined as negative discrimination of an ethnical group. Racism against Jews is defined as Jew-hatred, or antisemitism.
NIS is aware that the leadership of the Norwegian Labor Party Youth Movement does not necessarily represent the majority opinion. We therefore warn against labeling the whole Norwegian Labor Party, and all of its daughter organizations, as antisemitic.
NIS is, however, very concerned by the fact that the leadership of the Norwegian Labor Party and its daughter organizations might stimulate and encourage Jew-hatred, which is already well developed in Norway. In 2002, Jews are being harassed, Jewish children are being discriminated against in schools and some of the Jews “feel the earth burning under their feet”. Therefore, it is not surprising that Jews try to maintain a low profile and, especially, deny any connection to the Jewish state, the target for modern Jew-hatred. Norway has never been a place in which Jews could feel equal and permanently safe, particularly before and during the Holocaust (
http://www.norskisraelsenter.no\engl\index-engl-KOMMERSNART.htm).
This attack by the Labor Party on Israel came only a short time after the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) on 1.5.2002 called Norwegians to boycott products produced in the Jewish state, Israel. LO is traditionally controlled by the Labor Party. Therefore, we ask the leader of The Norwegian Labor Party and its Youth Movement branch: If you really care about human rights, …
What have you done about the Syrian and PLO responsibility for the massacre of more than 100,000 Christians in Lebanon between 1974 and 1982? Did you try to save them or punish those responsible?
Why do you blame the prime minister of the Jewish State for what Christians phalangists - led by a Syrian agent - did, as revenge for a continuous Moslem massacre? Why not blame the Christians and Moslems involved?
Have you tried to stop the ongoing massacre of Christians in Sudan? During the last years, more than 1.5 millions Christians have been massacred there. Where have you been? Where are you now?
What will you do to improve the life of millions of Moslem Arabs, suffering from tyranny under every single Arab regime, and especially under the PLO?
Israel, surrounded by Moslem countries to the north, east and south and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, is fighting daily for its survival. The Arab League established the PLO in 1964 as an umbrella organization for various Arab groups, with the aim of wiping out Israel as an independent state. This is clearly incorporated into the PLO charter and into the "constitution" of al-Fatah, an organization led by Arafat since 1958. With Israel as an exception, the Moslem Arabs have managed to eradicate any non-Moslem minority in the Middle East. But they still won’t give up. This is the real background of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
NIS therefore encourages The Norwegian Labor Party Youth Movement to consider a change in its radical line. Please support democracy in the Middle East and fight for equality and human right for Jews, Christians and Moslems in the Arab-occupied Middle East.
Erez Uriely, Director
Norwegian Israel Center (NIS)
