Norway, Ireland and Spain say they will recognize a Palestinian state. That's a historic but largely symbolic move that further deepens Israel’s isolation more than seven months into its grinding war against Hamas in Gaza.
Norway, Ireland and Spain recognized a Palestinian state on Wednesday in a historic move that drew condemnation from Israel and jubilation from the Palestinians. Israel ordered back its ambassadors from Norway and Ireland.
It was a lightning cascade of announcements. First was Norway, whose Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said “there cannot be peace in the Middle East if there is no recognition.”
Gahr Støre said the Scandinavian country will officially recognize a Palestinian state as of May 28. “By recognizing a Palestinian state, Norway supports the Arab peace plan,” he said.
Just took a look at the reddit comments on a similar piece of news. It's a cesspool of just-created accounts up voting each other on pro-Israel comments.
It's a pity some influentiable people won't be able to immediately notice that they are bots.
Reddit has been pretty much captured by Israeli propagandists. Lots of single-issue accounts created in the last few months - seems very well coordinated.
Yep r/worldnews went from condemning Russia for their war crimes on Ukraine to damn near universally praising and supporting Israel's war crimes on Palestine.
Sadly, I don't think it's all bots and propagandists. A lot of them are real people that really do have that level of cognitive dissonance.
Your comment made me finally go there and check. Wow, the comments here and there are night and day. The most common comment on similar threads is "Norway, Spain and Ireland are showing the world that terrorism works".
Spain has XXI century Western Values, unlike the US which seems to have never entered the XXI century when it comes to Humanist values and Israel which at best has the Western Values of early XX century Germany.
I haven't seen a bigger nation of virtual signaling government being completely at odds with their population. It's a glorified tax heaven and I no longer wish to call it my home. I have voted with my wallet and moved out.
Irish history is messy and very few even bother to look deeper into it.
In a recent survey, 46% of Norwegians responded that they have more sympathy with Palestinians, whereas only 12% have more sympathy with Israelis. 32% responded that their sympathy with Palestinians has increased in light of recent events.
I can imagine several reasons why Norway is so different from for example Germany and France in this regard.
One is that we have a pretty well-organized civil society, including an organized Jewish community that is actively outspoken about Israeli extremism. My impression is that leading voices in the Mosaic community in Norway are frequently outspoken on the side of humanity.
Another reason is of course that we are still bitter about the collapse of the Oslo Accords. There's simply no question Israel were the ones who killed it.
Even before this, Israel might have had less goodwill in Norway following the Lillehammer affair where Mossad murdered some random waiter who was on his way home from the cinema with his pregnant wife. One of the agents involved in placing 13 bullets in Ahmed Bouchikhi has since stated that they knew they were shooting the wrong man.
More importantly however, it probably relates to the story we tell ourselves as a nation.
We're in all likelihood prouder of our war efforts than most of Europe, and certainly more than pro-Israeli countries like Germany and France. A lot of us (myself included) have family members who helped Jews flee the country following the occupation, at the risk of death penalty should they get caught.
The author of our national anthem took active part in the Dreyfus affair, among other things writing in a French newspaper that the French government was the "most shameless of any civilized people".
These people, among others, make up the core of what we consider Norwegian national identity. As a result the average Norwegian might be less afraid of criticizing Israel than the average German (or French), as we consider ourselves to be firmly footed on the right side of history.
Of course, history is more complicated than that. A lot of us will simply not read Hamsun, and never mind that Jews had to be allowed into the Kingdom in the first place. History is complicated, but the stories we choose to tell and the ways we choose to frame them matters a lot.
Also, Norwegians are pretty left-leaning, and we put a lot of effort promoting ourselves as a peace nation. Probably doesn't hurt either.
The Vikings really got their shit together. From raiding and pillaging to having one of the the highest standards of living in the world. If only more countries would follow their example!
There is also the fact that thousands of Norwegians served in Lebanon for 20 years and witnessed IDF first hand. They took their stories home with them. I served in Kosovo and most of my colleagues had spent years in Lebanon. One time a very Christian solider watching the news in a joint TV room comments loudly and negativeo on palestinians in a news story and it almost came to blows. No one liked Hezbollah, but many hated the IDF. I heard the story of the Qana massacre from a Norwegian patrol that was present (the wiki article dosent mention them.) To hear the story how they had to shut the shelter door on civilians as there was no more room is enough to break your heart.
Y'all got a ton of roundabouts on your roads. I love it! I've literally complained to my home town while they're in the planning stage for 2 new traffic lights.
We have a large center of town roundabout and a few small ones. No idea why they won't pursue that option.
Most people are anti genocide at the very least. The only person that I personally know that has vocally supported Israel was part of the political party FRP (think wannabe republicans/Trump supporters).
I don’t know the actual demographics, but I can say one sees a lot of Palestinian support in the streets. Many demonstrations and such. But I think the issue has gone well past the former xenophobic line. Seems to me many people I would have otherwise expected to be opposed to antizionists are still like, “maybe genociding children isn’t the right thing to do.”
Afaik both of them. It's very good that they do this, more governments should follow, and more people should rally together to do this.
In my country on the other hand, the people are solidly pro-Palestine, but the government is way too Israel-oriented.
My own view is that ideally, both countries should be recognised and Israel should retreat from all West Bank and Gazan territories, as well as the Golan heights.