Anti-Israel protesters yelled “child killers” through speaker phones at participants of an Israeli Independence Day celebration in Oslo, Norway on Sunday.
Videos shared with The Jerusalem Post show scores of pro-Palestine activists waving banners with slogans such as “Death to the IDF” and “Zionists are terrorists” while shouting “intifada revolution,” “No Zionists in our streets” and “child killers” at the several hundred pro-Israel celebrants.
The event was arranged by the Joint Committee for Israel to take place outside the Storting (Norwegian parliament). There were also many Iranian dissident attendees, and two speeches by exiled Iranians, who spoke warmly of the friendship between Iranians and the Jewish people.
Nevertheless, the celebration was marred by constant chanting from across the road. The chanting was also directed at the Iranians, with shouts of “No one will protect you, f****** Iranians!”
The clips were filmed by Norwegian Jewish podcaster Henrick Beckheim. He told the Post that a guard rushed over and said told him to stop filming “because it might provoke them.”
‘No reactions from police. Norwegian society, or media’
“It’s insane that they are chanting, ‘Long live the intifada,’ basically calling for the murder of Jews with basically no reactions from police or Norwegian society, or media,” he told the Post.
“The police allow them to make so much noise with their megaphones so close to us that they almost drown us in noise, and makes it difficult to hear the Israeli and Iranian speeches.”
“It’s insane to witness that this is permitted,” he said.
Israel’s charge d’affaires Eytan Halon wrote on X/Twitter that it was an incident of “shameless and terrifying Jew-hatred directed at an Israeli independence day celebration yesterday in central Oslo.”
Halon called on the authorities to take real and immediate action to “protect Norway’s Jewish minority from violent antisemitism.”
Norwegian MP Joel Ystebø (Christian Democratic Party) wrote to the Justice Minister after the incident to question what is going to be done “to ensure that the police intervene against and follow up on threats and hateful speech in the public sphere.”
“During a demonstration outside the Storting on Sunday, protesters in the surrounding area shouted slogans such as ‘Global intifada,’ ‘Death to the IDF,’ and ‘No Zionists in our streets,’” he wrote. “Such statements appear to be threats, hate speech, and incitement to violence, made in the public sphere and in the immediate vicinity of the national parliament.”
“Although freedom of expression is strongly protected in Norway, the law sets limits on speech that involves threats, harassment, or glorification of violence.”
Ystebø said that the incident raised questions about the police’s handling of the situation, including the assessments made on-site and the threshold for intervention.
He also questioned the minister on if he believes that the handling of the incident outside the Storting was in line with current laws and practice.
Ystebø gave a speech at the Independence Day celebration, during which he lamented the rise in antisemitism in Norway.
“Today, antisemitism often appears in a new form. Not always as open hatred of Jews, but as one-sided and demonizing hatred of Israel,” he said. “When Israel alone is made responsible for all suffering, when terror is excused, when the world’s only Jewish state is pressured over its right to exist, then it is not just left-wing radical activists – it is always anti-Zionism. And when Norwegian Jews experience children who hide who they are, families living with police protection, synagogues that must be guarded: Jews in Norway must be able to live safely.”
