History of The Jews in Norway - Antisemitism in Norway

Antisemitism in Norway

The mainstream Norwegian political environment has strongly adopted a platform that rejects antisemitism. Residual antisemitism has still persevered in private circles. The prevalence and intensity of anti-Israel activism, especially from the radical left, has raised a debate about possible blurring of the lines between anti-Israelism and antisemitism.

Shechita, Jewish ritual slaughter, has been banned in Norway since 1929, which predates the similar ban by Nazi Germany. The ban is justified on the grounds of animal welfare, however critics have pointed out that hunting, including whaling by harpoon, are allowed despite animal welfare concerns.

There have been episodes of desecration of the synagogue in Oslo. On 17 September 2006 the synagogue in Oslo was subjected to attack with an automatic weapon, only days after it was made public that the building had been one the planned target for the Algerian terror group GSPC that had been plotting a bombing campaign in the Norwegian capital. The synagogue in Oslo is under continuous surveillance and protected by barriers. On 2 June 2008 Arfan Qadeer Bhatti was convicted on the shooting attack and given an eight year preventive custody sentence for serious vandalism. The Oslo city court judge could not find sufficient evidence that the shots fired at the synagogue amounted to a terrorist act. In July 2006 during the 2006 Lebanon War the congregation issued an advisory warning Jews not to wear kippot or other identifying items in public for fear of harassment or assault.

In August 2006 Jostein Gaarder published an op-ed in Aftenposten that stirred controversy over its content and literary form, with allegations of antisemitism and an intense public debate.

In December 2008, Imre Hercz filed a complaint to the Pressens Faglige Utvalg against a comedian who mocked the Holocaust, but fellow comedians and his TV station have backed the controversial performer. Otto Jespersen joked on national television in his weekly routine of holding an infamous monologue, that "I would like to take the opportunity to remember all the billions of fleas and lice that lost their lives in German gas chambers, without having done anything wrong other than settling on persons of Jewish background". Jespersen also presented a satirical monologue on anti-Semitism that ended with, "Finally, I would like to wish all Norwegian Jews a Merry Christmas - no, what am I saying! You don't celebrate Christmas, do you!? It was you who crucified Jesus", on December 4. Jespersen has received criticism for several of his attacks on social and ethnic groups as well as royalty, politicians and celebrities, and in defence of the monologue TV2 noted that Jespersen attacks in all directions, and that "if you should take seriously, there are more than just the Jews that should feel offended".

In 2010, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation reported that anti-Semitism was common among Norwegian Muslims. Teachers at schools with large shares of Muslims reported that Muslim students often "praise or admire Adolf Hitler for his killing of Jews", that "Jew-hate is legitimate within vast groups of Muslim students" and that "Muslims laugh or command to stop when trying to educate about the Holocaust". One Jewish father also told how his child, after school, had been taken by a Muslim mob (though he managed to escape), reportedly "to be taken out to the forest and hanged because he was a Jew".