One hundred famous Norwegians call for cultural

and academic boycott of Israel

By EIP • on November 24, 2010 • Filed under: Antisemitism, Europe

By Cnaan Liphshiz
European Jewish Press
November 24, 2010

A Norwegian ex-premier denounced their boycott call.

Egil Drillo Olsen, coach for the national Norwegian football team, recently
wrote in Aftenposten, the country’s second largest paper, that the call to
boycott Israel was “in line with what 90 percent of the world’s population
believes. There cannot be many other opinions.”

The petition is the last item in a string of similar and high-profile initiatives
to have taken place in Norway over the past two years. It was signed by
coach Olsen and 99 other public figures from the arts and culture, who
stated that a boycott is “necessary” not only to help Palestinians, but also
to “support Israelis opposing the occupation.”

Norwegian former Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik called the boycott
call “unhelpful” and “not representative” of the current government’s
policy.

Bondevik, who presided over the Norwegian government for seven years
over the period 1997 until 2005 on behalf of the Christian Democratic
Party, added he wished to “reassure” Israelis that “boycott is not an issue
in Norway.”

But Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld, a senior researcher of anti-Semitism and

anti-Zionist trends in Scandinavia, alleges Norway is a “pioneer” in the
Western world promoting boycotts and hatred against Israel.

Gerstenfeld, Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Jerusalem Center

for Public Affairs, notes some “uniquely Norwegian developments
unparalleled elsewhere in the West.”
Among them, he lists praise that Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr
Stoere wrote last year for a book accusing the Israeli army of deliberately
killing Gazan women and children, and the promotion of a Norwegian
diplomat who had compared Operation Cast Lead in Gaza with the action
of the Nazis.

That same year the major Norwegian State pension fund divested from
Elbit Systems because of the company’s involvement in building the
security fence.

Since then, Norwegian shares in several other Israeli companies have

been divested. In November 2009, a Norwegian university, NTNU in
Trondheim, became the first in the West whose Board openly discussed
boycotting Israel. The plan was ultimately unanimously rejected.

“Norway’s case is unique because it is a country dominated by a political,

media and cultural elite with deep-rooted anti-Israeli attitudes stemming
from their political world view,” Gerstenfeld said. “It poses a threat to
Israel because it may be the place where precedents are set in the
campaign to delegitimize Israel.”

Click here to read the original article in The European Jewish Press