Dr.Manfred Gerstenfeld: One more time, and slowly…
Sir, – “Norwegian Jews tell of ‘troubles,’ but tolerance in Norwegian society” (March 31) had a statement from a spokeswoman of the Norwegian Socialist Left Part in which she referred to an event in Oslo attended by Finance Minister and party leader Kristin Halvorsen as a “demonstration for peace in Gaza.” She added that it included appeals for interreligious peace and called upon Israel to stop the war in Gaza.
On April 2, you ran a letter from the Norwegian ambassador on the sme subject, in which he said that “the minister took part in a manifestation for ceasing of hostilities in Gaza. It lasted for about an hour and was a dignified and peaceful event.”
By then Tundra Tabloids, a Finnish blog in English, had already printed a picture of Halvorsen at this demonstration. So had the Norwegian business paper Dagens Naeringsliv, followed later by the third largest daily, Dagbladet.
In that picture, Halvorsen is seen smiling while very close to her someone holds a sign reading: “The greatest axis of evil – USA and Israel.” The event had been announced as a demonstration for peace, but in fact there were many attacks on Israel.
Manfred Gerstenfeld
Jerusalem
More here about the Halvorsen incident
UPDATE: It’s even more worse than thought, Gerstenfeld informs us that: “Since then I have found out from an old article in Vart Land that the reality was even much worse than I had described it. There were indeed shouts of “Death to the Jews” and Rabbi Melchior and the chair of the Norwegian Jewish community Anne Sender left the so-called peace demonstration because of its one-sidedness against Israel.”
Jewish community Chairman Anne Sender and Rabbi Melchior:We had to leave the demo, it was that bad
According to the Vårt Land report: “They heard demonstrators screaming “slaughter Israel, kill Jews, go and take them. Fucking Jew, go away” shouted some to Melchior, who wears a kippa.”
