What? According to the Norwegian elite’s meme, anti-Semitism in Norway doesn’t exist, or at least not in greater measure than anywhere else!

There are a few interesting points to note surrounding this whole issue of anti-Semitism in Norway. First of all:

2) In Spring 2010, they were more reluctant in their interviews and said that there was a certain truth in what he (Gerstenfeld) said.

3) In August 2011, the leader of the Jewish community in Oslo, Ervin Kohn attacked Dr.Gerstenfeld in the Dagen. This response is included below the fold in this post. In it Dr.Gerstenfeld clearly accuse Kohn of distorting the facts.

4) Today, the Jewish community more than fully confirms what Gerstenfeld has been saying all the time.

Also worth noting is the whitewash report from the Norwegian Holocaust Center that presented a skewed report on anti-Semitism in Norway. Read more of what I had to say about here:

“I find it hard to believe that those who held radical or ”moderate” pro-Palestinian views (50% and 75% respectively) did not exhibit anti-Semitism. Also, please do note the lack of mention of which groups of people actually exhibited anti-Semitic views from the 600 000 number.”

From Norway, Israel and the Jews website:

Three quarters of Jews living in Oslo believe anti-semitism in the population has grown.

by: Sigbjørn Kiserud sigbjorn.kiserud @ vl.no

This morning the Jewish community reeled the results of a survey among the members of the congregation. The numbers are striking. Of about 300 Norwegian Jews at the synagogues in Oslo and Trondheim, 54 percent said that they had experienced anti-Semitism.

– This is important to know, because we now identify antisemitism as something special. We now have to address the fear of discussing this topic, Ervin Kohn the leader of the community in Oslo told Vårt Land at a press conference today

Schools.

There are indications that more and more experience hatred of Jews. Of all respondents, it is not a single person who believes that the extent of anti-Semitism has been reduced over the last ten years. Many also say that they have experienced anti-Semitism in school.

– We have probably under reported the problems our children face. We have said that we have not experienced much anti-Semitism, but the figures show that the reality is different, Kohn said.

NOTE: Read more of this report at the Norway, Israel and the Jews website. Below is the response Dr.Manfred Gerstenfeld delivered to Ervin Khon, who attacked Gerstenfeld over his supposed ”distorting of the facts“. Looks like it’s mea culpa time, don’t you think?

A Response to Mr.Kohn

Dr.Manfred Gerstenfeld

Chairman of the Oslo DMT claims in Dagen that I present a distorted picture of anti-Semitism in Norway. Last year I met his predecessor Anne Sender and several of her colleagues in the Oslo Jewish community building, to discuss Norwegian anti-Semitism. They did not succeed in refuting even one of my arguments and facts. Before the visit, I had offered DMT to give a free lecture to their members. They turned my offer down. If they believed that they could show in the debate that I was wrong, they should have accepted my offer.

The second edition of my book in English “Behind the Humanitarian Mask,the Nordic Countries, Israel and the Jews” can now be downloaded at no cost from the internet. In the footnotes are the sources of the facts I mention, which are not what Kohn falsely claims: extremists. If he read my book Antisemmitismen I Norge he would see who spread the lie that I said that Norway is the most anti-Semitic country in Europe.

If the DMT invites me to Oslo, as they did with the American Jewish delegation in June, Kohn can debate me publicly and show his audience that I am wrong. It would cost little time and money and would be far more effective publicly than attacking me in Dagen. If Kohn succeeded, he would end many of my opportunities to criticize the pioneering acts of anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism in Norway in media abroad.

The risk for Kohn in such a debate however, is that I may expose not only the fallacies he presents about me but also how he under-represents Norwegian anti-Semitism. I could say that there is probably no other country in Western Europe where one third of Jewish schoolchildren are physically or verbally harassed at least two or three times per month. Worse still, the problems of Jewish schoolchildren are known for almost ten years now and little or nothing had been done about them, otherwise they would not persist until today. 

I could quote in great detail how in 2009 the Norwegian government feted Nazi-collaborator Knut Hamsun, an admirer of Hitler and Goebbels. Which other Western European government did anything similar? I could relate how TV2 invited condemned British Holocaust denier David Irving at their expense and gave him more than a quarter of an hour television time. Several other European countries would not even let Irving enter. I could detail the greatest anti-Jewish riots in Norwegian history in 2009 in Oslo as described in Eirk Eiglad’s book. And also tell the case of Otto Jespersen, who commiserated with the billions of lice and fleas on the bodies of gassed Jews. Which company management elsewhere in Western Europe would have backed Jespersen as that of the TV2 did. I would also mention death and other threats received by Jews. Against much of this the Jews’ many friends in Norway are largely helpless. All this would only be the beginning of my description of the often unique Norwegian phenomena of anti-Semitism.

Concerning anti-Israelism I might mention that the Norwegian government partly financed the exposition of the Hakon Gullvag anti-Israel hate drawings in Damascus, Syria. That in a country where far more civilians have been murdered recently than in Norway. Oslo’s Rabbi Joav Melchior wrote in Aftenposten that he was hiding their paper — where one of these hate drawings was shown — from his son. I could project the pictures of the anti-Israeli incitement of youngsters from 14 year onwards in Utoya. I might show the picture of Minister Kristin Halvorsen at an anti-Israeli demonstration standing next to a sign that says that the US and Israel are the axis of the greatest evil. There were also shouts of “death to the Jews.” there. I would illustrate why the Norwegian government is soft on anti-Israel terrorism and indirectly supports it. All this would again only be the beginning of my description of the double standards among Norway’s cultural elite.

Kohn’s interview demonstrates once again how some Norwegian Jewish leaders help to distort the debate on anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism.