According to the Facebook social network, it is apparently not allowed to complain about anti-Semitism: “Their method is a silent boycott. Jewish and Israeli children living in Norway suffer from loneliness in schools.” The group’s operators plan to start a fight to force Facebook to return the group to activity. “No Norwegian newspaper was willing to report on the deletion of our group. But if a Palestinian wrote an anti-Semitic article on Instagram and it was deleted for him – that would open the news in Norway.” Comedian Roseanne Barr, who followed the group, called state television “Nazis”
The Facebook group of the Jewish community in Norway is no longer active. Facebook decided to delete it, after complaints about many cases of anti-Semitism in the country during the last eight years. The group had about 5,000 followers, and now its founders suspect that the deletion was done due to the fact that Norway wants to hide the fact that it is an anti-Semitic country.
The operators of the group Stoppsemittisme på NRK – intend to start a legal battle in Norway soon, with the aim of forcing Facebook to return the group to activity.
On Alfalag, an Israeli-Norwegian citizen who has lived there for 35 years says:
“This is not only a serious violation of freedom of expression, but even worse: disposal of a vital resource in the fight against anti-Semitism on state television and other media in Norway. The group was removed after Facebook claimed that the group was defined as ‘dangerous people and organizations, who spread propaganda of a terrorist organization. These are, of course, videos that came to the group from the massacre, and included atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists.
At first Facebook’s bot removed videos and posts, and sent warnings. I was warned that I was spreading propaganda of a terrorist organization. I responded and explained that we are fighting terrorism and trying to spread information and knowledge about anti-Semitism and harming Jews in the world – and then I received an answer that they reject my complaint. The straw that broke the camel’s back was a post comparing protesters in Oslo who burned the Israeli flag to Hamas protesters who burned an Israeli flag.
Elfalag continues: “Their method is silent confiscation. Jewish and Israeli children who live in Norway suffer from loneliness in schools. They suffer from threats. I, for example, have experienced threats on the phone. It is not pleasant to be a Jew in Norway today. For Norwegians, Zionism is a bad thing. In Norway there is a great sensitivity to freedom An expression, but only on one side. No Norwegian newspaper was willing to report on the deletion of our group. But if a Palestinian wrote an anti-Semitic article on Instagram, it would open the news in Norway.” However, several websites in the country reported the deletion.
Comedian Roseanne Barr, who followed the group, called state television “Nazis” after they published a video comparing the housing plight of students to what happened in Auschwitz. In addition, the local television published a cartoon 4 years ago that read “Jewish pigs” under the figure of an ultra-Orthodox.
“We searched and did not find in the Norwegian announcement a single word about the terrible crimes committed by Hamas against Israelis and Israelis, crimes recognized by the United Nations and crimes that continue to be committed against the abductees and the abductees who have been held captive by Hamas for six months,” the Foreign Ministry statement said. In the Norwegian attitude towards the State of Israel, which does everything a democratic country is supposed to do to protect its citizens.”
Norway, where about 2000 Jews live and has a large Muslim immigration, has since the terrorist attack on October 7 become a country extremely hostile to Israel, and the two countries are currently in the most acute diplomatic crisis in the history of their relations. Some Jews in Norway are now thinking of leaving the country.
Rabbi Yoav Melchior, rabbi of the Jewish community in Oslo, says that such anti-Semitism has not existed in the country since World War II.
He described the situation in Norway in recent months: “Unfortunately, the situation is very worrying. There is a wave of anti-Semitism that we have not seen before. We warned about this in the Jewish community already a few weeks after the attack on October 7. We issued a very important announcement, there were many meetings on the subject. We did not see Such a wave since World War II, such an aggressive wave of anti-Semitism – also at the level of what is said in the media.”
The Norwegian foreign minister, Aspen Barrett Aida, was the only Western foreign minister who condemned Israel and did not call for the release of the abductees. He compared Israel to Russia on three occasions and said that Europe loses credibility when it does not condemn Israel for the same things for which it condemned Russia, as he put it. He also forbade the king to send a letter of condolence to Israel after October 7. Norway expressed support for the lawsuit against Israel in The Hague and refuses to recognize Hamas as a terrorist organization.
: “There are many members of the Jewish community who clearly say that they are debating whether they want to stay living in Norway, after the last period.” However, he said that one should immigrate to Israel for other reasons: “I think the reason for immigrating to Israel should not be because of anti-Semitism, but out of Zionism and out of a connection to the people of Israel and the desire to live in the Land of Israel, and that is what we educate.”
