OSLO (Nettavisen): In front of several thousand demonstrators in Oslo, Mads Gilbert took a strong stand against the Norwegian government and the mass media.
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In minus 14 degrees and bitterly cold, the doctor and activist gave an almost 15-minute long appeal to those present, outside the Nobel Center in the capital.
– I had problems holding back, because I start to laugh when I see this. It is incredible that so many people move from their comfort zone, out into the cold, to stand together for a people who are so far away and who are suffering as enormously as they are now, Gilbert tells Nettavisen.
– It says something that the politicians and “mainstream media” can juggle as much as they want, people cut through the lies and untruths and half-truths. They show where they stand.
Requires Russia processing
On the day three months after Hamas attacked Israel, at least 23,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Gilbert expresses his incomprehension to Nettavisen that the Norwegian state has not imposed any form of sanctions against Israel.
– I think the government must do a lot more. They showed enormous vigor against Russia when they invaded Ukraine. It already started in 2014 with the invasion of Krym. Something that is quite similar to the situation in Gaza now, he says.
Here you can see an excerpt of Gilbert’s speech:
Norway, together with the EU, has come up with several sanctions packages and a boycott of Russia after their invasion of Ukraine. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sider Norway has 29 sanctions against various countries. Israel is not on this list.
– Why is Israel in this special position? And why doesn’t Støre dare to use the same means against Israel, as against Russia? ask the doctor.
He points out that both NATO and the USA are possible reasons why no sanctions have been implemented.
– I think both Jonas Gahr Støre and Espen Barth Eide want to do something, but they don’t have the balls to stand up to the state of Israel when they are carrying out genocide in Gaza. It’s absolutely too damned, he adds.
Nettavisen has submitted the criticism from Mads Gilbert to the Prime Minister’s office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The former refers to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which has not responded to the inquiry.
Støre has said this
On 23 December, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre (Ap) made a call to the Israeli authorities:
– You have to think this through thoroughly. They may lose their sympathy, which they have had after the cruel terrorist attack on 7 October, if this continues, Støre said at the time.
Also read: Mads Gilbert at a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Oslo: – They shut us out
The Prime Minister has stated that Israel’s warfare in the Gaza Strip is a violation of international law. Høyre, Venstre, Senterpartiet, SV and Rødt share that view, but disagree on the question of whether there should be consequences for Norway’s relationship with Israel.
The protesters ask that children in Gaza not be killed:
In November, SV put forward a proposal in the Storting for an international arms boycott and harsh economic sanctions against the country. Åsmund Aukrust, foreign policy spokesperson in the Labor Party, said that any sanctions are not something Norway can do alone.
– We believe that Israel violates international law. We absolutely use every opportunity to convey that to the Israelis, the Palestinians and everyone else. Should sanctions be applicable, it is something we may have to do together with other countries, Aukrust told NRK.
Compares with the Germans’ invasion of Finnmark
In the same appeal, Gilbert harshly criticized how the Norwegian media have covered the war. Among other things, Norwegian and international media, so-called “mainstream media”, filter and block news from Gaza.
– While NRK and Aftenposten must have a balance and ask the Israelis what they think. I should have seen the editor who in 1944 here in Norway was going to make a report about the burning in Finnmark, and said to the journalist “Remember to call Goebbels then” or “Remember to call Quisling to get his version too”.
– This is not a conflict, it is an illegal occupation – just as brutal and perhaps even more brutal than the occupation of Ukraine. Why shouldn’t the Norwegian media cover this as thoroughly and comprehensively as they have covered the occupation and the struggle that Ukraine is waging against the occupying power, thunders the doctor.
– The comparison with Finnmark and the Second World War, isn’t that stretching it a bit far?
– No, occupation is occupation. It is illegal, it is not allowed to occupy another country, and in any case it is not allowed to settle one’s own population in an occupied country. Israel has been doing that since 1967 and they get away with it all the time. No country in the world has as many UN resolutions against it, which it has broken, as Israel.
– It is a completely absurd special position: The right to kill civilians, the right to kill pregnant women, the right to kill children and bomb hospitals. We would never accept it if it happened to people like me and that: With white skin and blond hair and blue eyes. This is a deeply racist project, and it shows very clearly through the press coverage – in my opinion.
Aftenposten: – Totally disagree
Nettavisen has submitted the criticism from Gilbert to both NRK and Aftenposten. Aftenposten’s head of foreign affairs, John Hultgren, believes the Norwegian doctor misses his criticism.
– I completely disagree with that. Time and again we have produced reports that present what is happening in the Gaza Strip, without feeling any responsibility for simultaneous countermeasures, he says and highlights, among other things, a reportage from 24 December, where they clearly show the situation Palestinians are in.
– We have described the conditions in Gaza very thoroughly. We do not try to get Israel to answer every time, but it is interesting and important to know what Israel’s thoughts on the war are and what their “endgame” is.
Aftenposten has a Middle Eastern correspondent who reports on the war. In addition, Hultgren himself has been down to report on the situation. Foreign journalists are not allowed into Gaza, which makes coverage demanding.
– We have bet relatively heavily on it, so I think it is very wrong to say that NRK and Aftenposten have not done much to report on what is happening down there.
NRK’s foreign affairs editor, Sigurd Falkenberg Mikkelsen, they work closely to create a truthful picture of the war and its brutality.
– We work with this according to normal press ethical standards. This means, among other things, that we have to verify images and claims as best we can before we publish. In a time when there is an overflow of images and opinions on social media, it is an important task for editor-controlled media, he writes to Nettavisen.
2024-01-07 17:54:05
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