Subscription 790/year or 190/quarter

To criticize Israel

ANTISEMITTISM / The starting point for this post is a comment to the newspaper Vårt Land which was not accepted by the newspaper's debate editor.




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

We knew that the media has power, but sometimes it is inexplicable that a necessary debate is hindered, and that the media thus limits the opportunity to learn and find ways out. The media has and provides defining power – the power to say what is right and wrong, what can be discussed, and what can be ignored. And not least who will be allowed to. This is a power that should not be abused.

There are countless examples around the world of situations where the strong party has the power to define what is happening: Those who have fought for civil rights or in women's struggle, for gay rights or in labor struggle have many experiences of how their work and desires have been stamped and hindered by those in power.

In our time, the Palestinians' almost 75-year struggle is one of the strongest examples of how the media's coverage of the struggle for independence and freedom is systematically kept down, in this case not only by Israel as an occupying power, but also by its systematic use – and in my opinion abuse – of the Jewish history that is uncritically accepted by the outside world.

To define reality

More than 70 years ago it was said that "a people without a country came to a country without a people". It was the story of Israel's creation. But the Palestinians do not exist in that narrative. It took decades and endless suffering before a new story was slowly built up and told. In this story, the Palestinians' "catastrophe" – their nakba – is highlighted. It is still their fight for the right to their own home and land.

Unfortunately, far too many have accepted that it is Israel that has the right to define reality for everyone who lives in the country. This defining power to determine what is the "true" narrative of Israel and Palestine is still controlled by the government of Israel and its friends.

In 2021, there were several examples of what this also means in Norwegian reality. When Bishop 3Solveig Fiske# drew a parallel between occupation in Norway and the everyday lives of the Palestinians, she was brutally put in her place by Rabbi Joav Melchior of the Mosaic Community of Faith (DMT). It was a mockery of history and the victims, Melchior said.

When a photo exhibition in Bergen in September described Palestinian everyday life as a "daily crucifixion", it was the director of DMT, Ervin Kohn, who intervened. He criticized the church's lack of settlement with anti-Jewish attitudes. A notice in Vårt Land 30.10.2021 caught my interest: There was not a word there that it is completely legitimate – even according to Jewish definitions of anti-Semitism – to criticize Israel. In this way, Kohn did not contribute to enlightening and finding ways out of anti-Semitism, but to actively cover up the situation under a cover of the danger of anti-Semitism.

"Israeli Jews"

When I recently commented (see below) on Vårt Land's journalist Emil Andre Erstad's claim that "ordinary Russians claim great responsibility" for what is happening in Ukraine, my response was rejected by Vårt Land. I had drawn a parallel from Russia to Israel with the question of whether Erstad would say the same about the responsibility "Israeli Jews" have for what is happening in Palestine? Vårt Land's debate editor Dana Wanounou justified the rejection by saying that my post "wasn't precise enough", since I mentioned "Israeli Jews" and not all the world's Jews in my question. In other words, something that could have been clarified quickly. Was it convenient for the newspaper to reject the entire issue. And if so why?

From North America, on the other hand, it is very inspiring to see what members of the organization Jewish Voice for Peace say about Israel's abuse of the Palestinians. Many of them post messages about the occupation and declare that "this must not happen in my name". But Vårt Land never writes anything about this. Unfortunately.

From my point of view, Vårt Land, Kohn and Melchior have a significant responsibility for enlightenment within Jewish circles so that we can have a new and more free conversation about the situation in Palestine. Under the cover of their power of definition and expression, for far too long they have been allowed to make demands on the outside world, but without helping to shed light on how two people should be able to live in the same country with equal rights.

Trygve Natvig
Trygve Natvig
Chairman of Ny Tid.

Related articles