“I am very fond of Israel and Israel’s people. I am not always so happy about what the government does,” Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide told The Jerusalem Post at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on Tuesday.
“I am 100% totally, every day and night, against antisemitism.”
The conversation was mainly focused on two topics: Eide’s commitment to the fight against antisemitism, and his concurrent criticism of Israel’s political echelon and its decisions.
In terms of antisemitism, Eide was clear that “there is no tolerance for connecting a legitimate critique of a particular government’s choices with antisemitism.”
He stressed Norway’s involvement in the fight against Jew-hatred. For example, he gave the fact that the “beautiful Jewish Museum in Warsaw is partly funded by Norway.”
While Eide himself admitted that he is “a known critic of much of what’s happening in Gaza,” he said he “rejects antisemitism in all its forms.”
Eide was in Israel to attend the IHRA conference in Jerusalem, something he said was “a good opportunity to come to make that point that if every critique of the actions of the Netanyahu government is responded to by an accusation of blood libel or antisemitic action, we run the danger that it undermines the real fight against antisemitism.”“It dilutes the point,” he added.
“There is a real problem in the world, which is an age-old hatred of Jews, of course, and it should not be misused by either side.”
“Nevertheless, I come here and stand up with everybody at this conference against antisemitism, because it’s a fight that is incredibly important for me.”
Norway has lower rates of antisemitism
While Eide said Norway has lower rates of antisemitism than many other European countries – citing an Anti-Defamation League statistic – he acknowledged that there has been more since October 7.
These citizens, he said, “have brought with them this bad habit of talking about Israel as the Jews.”
“You know, the Jews did this. The Jews did this. And I think, ‘Stop doing that.’ It’s not the Jews. It’s a secular government in a democratic state that is making these choices, and feel free to criticize them, but don’t call it the Jews.”
Eide lamented the fact that at the moment, Israel acts as if any criticism is antisemitic. “That just closes the debate,” he told the Post.
To be friends with Israel, Israel has to make it possible for other countries to support it, he said.
He added that last week, “the majority of EU countries said that they would look into suspending whole or parts of the Association Agreement, [which would constitute] the first real economic sanctions.
“We in Norway do not believe in individual national sanctions, but we do believe that at the end of the day, there must be a conversation about the cost of what’s going on.”
Eide said the “sad thing for everyone is that although our bilateral diplomatic relations are normal, [Israel] stopped issuing necessary licenses for those [Norwegians] operating in the West Bank.”
He referenced Norway’s closure of its representative office in the West Bank town of al-Ram in August 2024 as a result of Israel’s decision to revoke the licenses of Norwegian diplomats.
“I would like to get back to where we were,” said Eide. “This was actually practically helping Palestinians in occupied territories. And we believe that there’s a clear obligation on the side of Israel either to provide services themselves to [the] population and their occupation, or at least to allow others to do that. And by blocking that, it’s violating the obligation of an occupier.”
Norway would follow ICC's issuance of arrest warrants
When questioned over whether Norway would abide by the International Criminal Court’s issuance of arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant – should they enter the country – Eide said that “as a very principle position, which actually has nothing to do with any individual case, we are bound by the obligations of the ICC.
“If there is an arrest warrant from the ICC, we would execute it.”
Nevertheless, he said, “Norway was one of the first countries to recognize Israel [and] Israel has been held in very high esteem in Norway, to a very high degree.
“Of course, this has also been met with the disappointment of developments that we don’t like. But I will use any opportunity to make clear that Norway sees itself as a true friend of Israel, and true friends sometimes have to tell their friend when we think they are on the wrong track. I think if I do something wrong in my personal life... my best friend should come and tell me that, you know, you need to change course.
“So in that view, I think a friend can also be critical, and there’s no lack of friendship, but we need to hold each other as states on the planet to a certain set of rules.”
He also said that Norway, alongside a “growing group of European countries, Canada, and several Arab and Islamic countries, are deeply involved in an initiative to revive the idea of a two-state solution by trying to identify the concrete steps that would be necessary to do it.”
Eide highlighted the importance of a proactive approach to such a solution, saying, “Everybody has always been waiting for somebody else to do something first.”
Universal recognition of a Palestinian state
The most important piece of the puzzle, he added, is the “universal recognition of a Palestinian state. Not just any Palestinian state, but the Palestinian state which sits in Ramallah, established under the Palestinian Authority, which is not Hamas, which is as critical of Hamas as Netanyahu is.”
He added that he speaks often to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, who he said has no love for Hamas, and therefore endorsing a PA-state recognition would be “anti-Hamas.”
Such a solution would also involve continued normalization between Israel and Arab states, “where Saudi Arabia leads the group that says ‘we want to normalize.’”
He said many Arab nations would be happy to have normalized relations with Israel, and would support its security, but on the condition of the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“There would be land that would then be Palestinian, and one would have to find a solution to settlements. There could be land swaps that were envisaged in the Oslo Accords, starting with the ’67 borders, but then you exchange territories, maybe to compensate for what has been built and so on.”
He added that a Palestinian state, like all other states, would have “rights, but also responsibilities.”
“And one of the responsibilities, exactly as Israel has and Norway has, is that you have to keep order in [your] own territory. You can’t have, you know, all kinds of groups, which would mean you have to demobilize Hamas, get them out of governance, and prepare for the return of the PA or what would then be the Palestine government in Gaza, so that you have a two-state solution and not a three-state solution or a one-state solution, right?”
He said that the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian Liberation Organization have “renounced violence and laid down their arms, and they stuck to that promise, which is why you do not have Gaza in the West Bank.”
Nevertheless, he stressed that a potential collapse of the PA could lead to the “long-term risk of another Gaza.”“Then you have another chaos situation from which new threats against Israel can emerge, which is bad for Israel.”
When asked whether he could envision a future with no terrorist or security threats against the State of Israel, Eide said it was possible, but “if you were able to give Palestinian youth an alternative, the ability to build a state, commercially, economically, culturally, politically, I think that would be a strong argument for going away from the militant route.”