anti-Semitism anti-semitism in Norway Dagbladet

ANTI-SEMITISM IN NORWAY’S DAGBLADET, PUBLISHING POISON…….

 

An op-ed was published yesterday by the Dagbladet, the paper which printed yet another anti-Semitic cartoon by Finn Graf that compared Israelis to the Nazis. Finn Graf believes himself to be a clever little man, when in fact he’s just another anti-Semitic Norwegian lefty who hasn’t the brains of a jackass. KGS

NOTE: The Tundra Tabloids also received the following information that:

“the three people of the three major American Jewish organizations who signed the letter, are among the five people the Jewish community of Oslo invited with foreign office money before the summer, to convince them that the situation in Norway for the Jews is not bad. All it has done is to inform them more about the endless anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism in Norway. You might call it a “boomerang effect.”

“Freedom of speech means you may not criticize my newspaper!”

Such was the essence of former editor-in-chief Lars Helle’s argument in response to complaints about a Dagbladet cartoon that compared the situation in Gaza to the Holocaust. Published on the day of Gilad Shalit’s release, the cartoon depicted Palestinian prisoners entering “Gaza,” with the subheading “Jedem das Seine,” (“Everyone gets what they deserve”), the inscription on the entrance to the Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald.

The cartoonist, Finn Graff, displayed disturbing ignorance both of the Holocaust and of Gaza. The rest of us know that there are no crematoria in Gaza. Israeli soldiers are not subjecting tens of thousands of Gazans to slave-labor as an exploitative method of murder. Nor are Israelis injecting Gazans with deadly viruses to conduct medical experiments. In fact, with Gilad Shalit’s release, there are no Israelis at all in Gaza. Yet, when asked why he made the comparison, Graff responded, “Because I think it fits.”

The comparison of Israel to Nazi Germany was a major topic of a roundtable discussion in Oslo in June that we participated in with editors of the major Norwegian newspapers, the Middle East correspondent for the state television channel, and Norwegian media analysts. When confronted with a previous cartoon by Finn Graff, published by Dagbladet, showing former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as a Nazi, Lars Helle reverted to the position that Graff was not an anti-Semite and the cartoon provoked a healthy public debate.

In response, we explained the inherent anti-Semitism of the Nazi comparison: to equate Israel with the Nazis is to brand Israel as evil and to call for its destruction. Its inclusion in the European Union’s working definition of anti-Semitism is widely accepted and fully justified. We appealed to the responsibility of the media not to spread anti-Semitism and explained the difference between responsible criticism of Israel and indiscriminate demonization. We said that what is in Graff’s heart is not the issue; what appears on Dagbladet’s pages is. We now know our words clearly fell on deaf ears in the case of Helle.

But not of everyone. Ervin Kohn, the head of the Jewish Community of Oslo, was not alone in criticizing the latest cartoon and the decision to publish it. Erling Rimehaug, an editor at Vart Land and one of the more encouraging participants at the roundtable discussion, wrote about how the cartoon insulted Holocaust victims and Dagbladet’s editorial failure in running it.

It would do no harm to Norway’s freedom of press if Dagbladet’s new editor made clear that anti-Semitism will not be tolerated, including the pernicious comparison of Israel with the Nazis. Such editorial responsibility would better serve Norway’s press and readers than the outlandish demand that newspapers be above any criticism. Publishing anti-Semitism is not an exercise in freedom of the press; it is merely the peddling of harmful lies.

Andrew Srulevitch, Anti-Defamation League
Eric Fusfield, B’nai B’rith International
Mark Weitzman, Simon Wiesenthal Center

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