Israel’s Norwegian Ambassador Compares Critics Of Israel To Nazi Collaborators
Raphael Schutz Image by YouTube
By Ari Feldman April 4, 2018
Israel’s ambassador to Norway compared critics of Israel to Nazi collaborators in comments on Facebook, the Washington Post reported.
Raphael Schutz made the comments under his post about recent clashes on Israel’s border with Gaza. Video footage shows Israeli snipers shooting unarmed Palestinian protesters with live ammunition.
In a post published Saturday, Schutz claimed that 10 of the Palestinians killed in the shooting were “deeply involved in terrorism.” The post generated a furious debate in the comments. In responses to two comments, Schutz compared the commenters to Vidkun Quisling, the leader of Norway during the Nazi occupation from 1940 to 1945. He oversaw the deportation of hundreds of Jews to death camps, and was executed after the war during a nationwide purge of Norwegians who had collaborated with the Nazis.
“Industry of lies and pure antisemitism as might be expected from a descended [sic] of Quisling,” Schutz wrote in response to one man. “Quisling would be proud of you,” he wrote to another.
Schutz confirmed to the Norwegian press that he wrote the comments himself. He also said that more Norwegians were involved in sending Jews to camps than in saving them from the Nazis, one paper reported.
In response to media reports, Schutz took to Facebook again. Referring to commenters who compared Israel to Nazi Germany, he wrote, “any Norwegian who dares to support and promote the above mentioned lies is doing it in an historical context that makes him, or her, a metaphorical descendant of Quisling.”
Contact Ari Feldman at feldman@forward.com or on Twitter @aefeldman
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
