| Submit your comments on this article |
| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Norwegian author says Israel has lost right to exist |
| 2006-08-11 |
| An article in a leading Norwegian newspaper last weekend lambasted Israel and Judaism and said Israel has lost its right to exist in its present form. Entitled "God's chosen people," the article by author Jostein Gaarder in Aftenposten is raising a storm in Norway. Gaarder, author of the book "Sophie's World," links the Israel Defense Forces' acts in Lebanon to Jewish history and foresees the coming dismantling of the state as it exists today, with the Jews becoming refugees. In an interview with Haaretz Gaarder said Thursday that he was misunderstood. "As John Kennedy declared in Germany 'I am a Berliner', I say now 'I am a Jew'", he said. The article compares Israel's government, the Afghan Taliban regime and South African apartheid, and states, "We no longer recognize the State of Israel" and "the State of Israel in its current form is history." "We call child murderers 'child murderers,' and will never accept that they have a divine or historic mandate excusing their outrages," Gaarder writes. "Shame on ethnic cleansing, shame on every terrorist strike against civilians, be it carried out by Hamas, Hezbollah or the State of Israel!" Gaarder repeatedly refers to the role Judaism plays in Israel's territorial aspirations, writing, "We don't believe in the notion of God's chosen people. We laugh at this nation's fancies and weep over its misdeeds." He writes, "It is the State of Israel that fails to recognize, respect or defer to the internationally lawful Israeli state of 1948. Israel wants more; more water and more villages. To obtain this, there are those who want, with God's assistance, a final solution to the Palestinian problem." The article has triggered off thousands of comments and dozens of stormy debates in the Norwegian media. It also has sparked off a debate about Gaarder's alleged anti-Semitic tendencies and the right to criticize Israel. The Jewish journalist and music critic Mona Levin spoke out in public against Gaarder and said she was shocked by the Norwegian government's silence. She blasted the cabinet for not denouncing what she described as "the most appalling thing I've read since 'Mein Kampf.'" "We're dealing with an ignorant man, a hate-filled man who derides Judaism," she said in an interview from Oslo. Levin said it was unacceptable that a man of such international repute (26 million copies of his book have been sold) could attack an entire ethnic group and that politicians would remain silent. "This is a classic anti-Semitic manifesto, which cannot even disguise itself as criticism of Israel," said Professor Dina Porat, head of the Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism at Tel Aviv University. "The writer does not address the conflict in its contemporary context but reaches back thousands of years to assert that the Jewish people have traits of cruelty that have remained unchanged and account for the current war," she says. Porat says that according to the European Union, denying Israel's right to exist -- arguing that its existence is racist -- is an anti-Semitic statement. She also finds in Gaarder's text the use of classic anti-Semitic symbols, like infanticide. "I've been head of the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism for 15 years and it's not every day that I get to read such a radical document, in terms of its content and rhetoric," she said. Gaarder writes, among other things, "We do not believe that Israel mourns 40 killed Lebanese children more than it has lamented for more than 3,000 years 40 years in the desert. We note that many Israelis celebrate such triumphs like they once cheered the scourges of the Lord as 'fitting punishment' for the people of Egypt." He writes that the first Zionist terrorists started operating in the days of Jesus. Speaking to Haaretz on Tuesday, a day before he stopped talking to the media, Gaarder said he was misunderstood and emphasized that he is a friend of Israel and the Jews. "I think what Hezbollah is doing is terrible," he said, adding that he supports Israel's right to exist as a national homeland for the Jews since 1948. Gaarder said he does not question Israel's right to exist, "but not as an apartheid state." He said he could understand how his article could be interpreted as "anti-Jewish" and admitted that if he were to rewrite it, he would change a few things. He is aware he has hurt the Jews in Norway, he said, adding that he would make sure the article is not translated into other languages. However, Gaarder refused to retract publicly his main theme. Aftenposten's political editor Harald Stanghelle said he saw no problem publishing Gaarder's article. "Of course I don't agree with what he says," he said. "But an open debate on the issue is better than a covert one. "Gaarder's voice is important in the Norwegian discourse and it was right to publish the article," he said. Meanwhile, the furor over Gaarder's article coincides with a series of anti-Semitic incidents in Norway, including the desecration of an Oslo Synagogue and cemeteries and the assault and battery of a skullcap-wearing youngster. |
| Posted by:leroidavid |
| #9 Um, no. Israel has not lost the right to exist. A state has the right to exist for as long as it can defend itself. The moment that it can no longer do so, the moment that someone else's army is able to march in and take over - that's when a state loses the "right" to exist. You cannot take that right away, and it is intrinsic to all states - despicable ones like Iran included. |
| Posted by: The Doctor 2006-08-11 16:49 |
| #8 Norwegian author says Israel has lost right to exist That's why Israel has a formidable military and a second strike nuclear capability - so that its citizens don't have to rely on the protection and help of Norwegians to survive... |
| Posted by: john 2006-08-11 16:45 |
| #7 Sophie's World has to be the most tedious book I've given up on. Not to bore you with the details, but all the previous problems in the world existed because there wasn't a United Nations and women didn't have rights. Preachy and dull: a painful combination. |
| Posted by: Dreadnought 2006-08-11 15:33 |
| #6 The Jewish journalist and music critic Mona Levin spoke out in public against Gaarder and said she was shocked by the Norwegian government's silence. She blasted the cabinet for not denouncing what she described as "the most appalling thing I've read since 'Mein Kampf.'" No offense to the other posters here, and I agree with you, but I'm a LOT more concerned with the antizionism of Ahmadinijad. He actually intends to do something about it. I guess his speeches aren't "written down" so that doesn't count like this goon's book. |
| Posted by: BA 2006-08-11 14:54 |
| #5 That's because Israel = zionism, zionism = racism, and racism = nazism. Hence, israeli are nazis, paleos are WWII jews, and this free us europeans from the neurotic Holocaust guilt we've been forcefed... thus allowing progressives to be antisemite again, even though this is a big no-no (rightwing antisemitism is a serious thoughtcrime, but antizionism is not, in fact it's progressive). |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-08-11 14:37 |
| #4 Who the hell asked him? |
| Posted by: mojo 2006-08-11 10:33 |
| #3 26 million copies of his book have been sold This must be the best selling book by a Norwegian by at least an order of magnitude. I wonder who bought it? Otherwise, if Israel has lost it's right to exist in its present form then the solution is a bigger Israel. At least more Arabs will get to enjoy legal due process and civil rights. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2006-08-11 09:03 |
| #2 Gaarder said he was misunderstood and emphasized that he is a friend of Israel and the Jews. Was he riding shotgun with Mel Gibson? Looks like they've got their stories straight. You lose the right to exist when you aren't willing to fight for it. Israel knew that from the beginning. The Europeans appear to have forgotten it and, unfortunately for them, will probably realize it the hard way soon. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-08-11 09:00 |
| #1 Due to the current rate of immigration there will be an Israel long after Norway is just a memory. This will be unfortunate as Aboriginal Norwegians are great people. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2006-08-11 08:48 |