This was sent to me by a relative. I found it thought-
provoking and am just passing it along. I do not know
the source.
-Ben
Why I won't be seeing the fjords this summer
By Bennett M. Epstein � May 20, 2002
��On the heels of Mr. Roed-Larsen's now-infamous remark that Israel
"ceded all moral ground" in Jenin, comes word from his home country of
Norway
that
some supermarket chains have decided to place special identification
stickers
on products from Israel. Other Scandinavian countries may follow suit. The
Norwegians say the stickers do not constitute a "boycott" of Israel; they
just want their customers, who are overwhelmingly pro-Palestinian, to pay
attention to where these products are produced. Maybe the rest of us should
run down to our local supermarkets with a pad of yellow "post-it" notes
so that consumers of Norwegian salmon or Jarlsberg cheese can also pay
attention to where those are produced. Stick them on the packages with a
note:
these products come from a place with a shameful past that continues to
operate as a European free zone for Neo-Nazis and other right wing
extremists.
Those asking the question of whether Europeans are anti-Israel because
of Israel's actions in fighting terror, or because of their own latent
anti-Semitism, should study the example of Norway.
Behind the current disclaimer of a boycott you will find that Norwegians
are
quite experienced at boycotting Israel. Norwegian labor unions have
recently refused to off-load Israeli farm produce. Last year, a Norwegian
"labor
youth movement" organized a campaign to ban Israeli singers from the
Eurovision
song contest. Another Norwegian group has been boycotting Israeli oranges
since the early 90s. This group, "Boikott Israel," rejuvenated by the
latest
"Intifada" to include a boycott of all Israeli commerce, denies on its
website that
it is anti-Semitic but states that its goal is the end Israel's "50 year
occupation"
of, and the return of all refugees to, a "free Palestine."
Not anti-Semitic? In 1941, the graffiti on Jewish businesses
in Oslo read: "Jews, go to Palestine." To campaign now in Norway to get the
Jews
out of "Palestine" seems anti-Semitic to me, if only by process of
elimination.
Indeed, the roots of Norwegian boycotts of Israel run deep. Anti-Semitism
has
held a unique place in Norwegian politics since the 1930s when Vidkun
Quisling, later the leader of a Nazi puppet government in Norway, formed
the National Union Party. While many Norwegians fought with the
Resistance,
many became eager collaborators of the Nazis, including some 60,000 members
of the National Union. Under its auspices, Norway formed its own branch of
the
SS and established academies sending hundreds of officers each year to the
German military. One very active neo-Nazi group in Norway today is the
Institutt for norsk okkupasjonshistorie (Institute for the History of
Occupied Norway), composed of descendants of members of the Quisling party,
the Waffen SS and others dedicated to cleansing their wartime reputation.
The aspect of the holocaust in Norway that was particularly Norwegian
was
the
liquidation of Jewish property, much of which was divided up by Quisling
and his followers. When the war ended, the Norwegian reparations commission
shamelessly accepted doctored figures kept by the Quisling government in
order to reject most Jewish claims and avoid paying others more than pennies
on the dollar. Then in 1997 a new commission, appointed after a journalistic
expose of the injustice of the first commission, issued a report, which
actually recommended adherence to the earlier decision. However, a scandal
erupted when it was discovered that an organization of former Nazis had
provided a scholarship to a researcher on
the new commission. The Norwegian prime minister ultimately intervened and
compelled the government to accept a dissenting report.
Today, neo-Nazi propaganda, band concerts and other events are
commonplace
in Norway. Norway's ultra right-wing groups play host to gatherings of
like-minded groups from Sweden and Denmark with little fear of official
interference. More significantly, according to a report published by the
Stephen Roth Institute of Tel Aviv University, the extreme right wing
Progress Party is the second largest party in Norway with 25 out of 160
seats
in the Parliament. Among other racist and anti-immigration views, this party
advocates banning male circumcision. Schechita (kosher slaughter) is
already forbidden by Norwegian law.
Given their past and present history, Norwegians are hardly qualified to
accuse any other country of having ceded "moral ground." Their warning
stickers on Israeli goods are the modern-day equivalent of painting "Joden"
on the Jewish-owned businesses of Oslo and Trondheim in 1941. We needn't
be reminded that after that, all of Norway's remaining Jews were deported
to Auschwitz. Fewer than 30 survived the Holocaust.
I'm not the sort that usually pays attention to boycotts and
counter-boycotts, because often you don't know who you are really hurting.
But there is a good reason why I won't be buying Norwegian products any
time soon, or cruising on the Norwegian Line. Their stickers have caught my
attention.
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