(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Truls Lie mentioned the fact that I was watching the documentary active life about Hannah Arendt's legacy, followed by two security guards. He has also included in the event's program that Rina Rosh, the Israeli participant in the panel, works in "occupied East Jerusalem".
What these two facts have in common is that they are completely irrelevant to Hannah Arendt and her philosophy. On the other hand, the examples are clearly what I expressed in my speech at the event – there are people who are not interested in Arendt's work per sebut rather use it as a remedy in their anti-Israeli campaign. Truls Lie is clearly one of them.
His bias is coming when he writes that many view Israel as a modern form of a totalitarian state, and that in Israel one can be punished for calling for a boycott. I can describe this as "alternative facts", but I prefer to be less diplomatic – these are simply lies. There are countless examples of Israel being an open and pluralistic society, such as the Israeli Knesset, our democratically elected parliament. In the Knesset, there are about 15 (by 120 representatives) Muslim parliamentarians, who consider themselves Israeli citizens with Palestinian heritage, and who express their opinions freely. Only an ignorant person can express himself about "the exclusion of Palestinians' opinions" in Israel.
Since Lie mentioned the fact that I was present at the event with two security guards, I would like to mention that these are Norwegian. They belong to PST and were assigned to me from the first moment I set my feet on Norwegian soil, based on the threat image I am exposed to. In other words, I do not have security guards around the clock due to some form of pride, because of paranoia or because I like it, but as a result of decisions taken by the Norwegian authorities. I propose that Truls Lie should ask the extent to which distorted and biased ideas about Israel, as he expresses them in his article, can contribute to the atmosphere that requires the presence of security guards around me.
Schutz is Israel's ambassador to Norway (see also interview and video in Ny Tid September 2015)
