analysis
Whatipeparates t
Hebrew Universit
from all others?
With Friends
Like Norway
I
Ann Herzberg
Times of Israel
L
ast week, Shimon Peres vis-
ited Norway and was feted by
King Harald V. In anticipation,
Norway's ambassador to Israel Svein
Sevje gave an interview to the Jerusalem
Post highlighting the friendly relations
and expanding business and cultural
ties between his country and the Jewish
state.
Sevje stressed the Norwegian govern-
ment's support for Middle East peace
based on two states for two peoples
and opposition to poisonous Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) cam-
paigns. These deepening connections
and rejection of de-legitimization are
welcome.
However, despite these strong expres-
sions of support and friendship, the
Norwegian government continues to
provide tens of millions of kroner to
organizations that actively promote
BDS, campaign against the right of the
Jewish people to self-determination and
seek to undermine the Oslo Framework
(the international framework originat-
ing in Norway, established to lead to the
creation of a peaceful Palestinian state
living side by side with Israel).
These activities, financed with public
money, directly oppose Norwegian
policy, damage Norwegian-Israeli ties
and damage the prospects for Middle
East peace.
A number of Norwegian-funded
groups have launched vicious cam-
paigns libeling and harassing compa-
nies that do not share their extreme
political views. For example, Norwegian
People's Aid (NPA) receives more than
200 million kroner from the govern-
ment and has played a central role in
getting companies excluded from the
Norwegian Pension Fund based on
tendentious and even false factual and
legal claims.
NPA has also called for economic
warfare against SodaStream. This
Israeli company employs more than
900 Palestinian workers under condi-
tions far better than they could obtain
elsewhere. However, one of its many
factories is located just within the West
Bank, in an area slated to be part of
Israel under any peace deal. In NPNs
radical world view, this marginal con-
nection is enough to target the compa-
ny and its employees, threatening them
with financial ruin.
Much of NPNs distorted "research"
comes from the organization Who
Profits, a leading member of the anti-
Israel BDS campaign. In addition to
intense collaboration with NPA, Who
Profits itself currently receives funding
via the Fagforbundet Trade Union.
Similarly, the Norwegian government
funds the Civic Coalition of Palestinian
Rights in Jerusalem and in 2012, pro-
vided more than 8 million kroner to
the Norwegian YMCA-YWCA. These
groups are both active in BDS.
In addition to BDS, the Norwegian
government supports other forms of
political warfare targeting Israel. One
such grant involves massive funding
provided to the Norwegian Refugee
Council (NRC), which in turn is fun-
neled to local NGOs, in order to flood
Israeli courts with hundreds of lawsuits.
Since 2011, the government of
Norway, along with the United
Kingdom and the E.U., has provided
the NRC with a staggering $20 million
in taxpayer funds to wage legal warfare
against Israel and the Oslo framework.
This funding is directed toward the
NRC's "Information Counselling and
Legal Assistance" (ICLA) project.
According to documents examined by
NGO Monitor, the aim of the project
is to manipulate Israeli democracy to
achieve "changes in Israeli policy and
practice" and to provide "evidence and
analysis to form the basis for interna-
tional pressure on Israel."
In practice, NRC has used its millions
to finance a flood of lawsuits before
Israeli courts and administrative bodies
to challenge Israeli sovereignty in Area
C of the West Bank, even though such
sovereignty is assigned by Oslo. With
its government financing, the NRC
has funded at least 700 cases in Israeli
courts involving some of the most con-
troversial and contentious issues relat-
ing to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Moreover, statements made by those
associated with the NRC program sug-
gest another more nefarious goal of the
project — to sabotage the Israeli justice
system.
The visit of President Peres to Oslo
and the statements by Ambassador
Sevje suggest that Norwegian-Israeli
relations are about to enter a new
phase of increased friendship and
cooperation. Ending counterproduc-
tive funding to groups that seek to
damage these relations would be a
good beginning.
Vision.
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Anne Herzberg is the legal adviser of
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