Norway: ‘Israel going too far’ in Gaza

Top Norwegian politicians on both the right and left sharpened their tone towards Israel on Saturday, deploring its ongoing attacks on Gaza and its civilian population. As demonstrations against the attacks took place around Norway, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said Israel is “going too far,” while the Conservatives’ leader of the foreign affairs and defense committee in Parliament, Ine Eriksen Søreide, thinks Israel is now breaking the rules of war.

Both Norway’s Labour-led government and the opposition in Parliament strongly supported Israel’s right to defend itself after being initially and brutally attacked by the Palestinian organization Hamas on October 7. Both Eide of the Labour Party and Søreide of the Conservatives, a former defense- and foreign minister herself, stress, however, that also the right to self-defense falls under the international rule of law.

“These rules are being broken now,” Søreide said, “and (Israel’s) massive blockade of Gaza, which is hindering humanitarian aid, is a violation of the rule of law.” Eide fully agrees, stressing that there’s “a clear line between the military and civilians in a war.”

“The situation (in Gaza) is catastrophic,” Eide told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) Saturday afternoon, “and that applies for everyone, unfortunately also the Norwegian citizens who are there.”

He acknowledged that Israel is carrying out “an operation to attack Hamas’ military facilities, but when that happens in the form of massive bombing of whole quarters in Gaza, that’s far from the basic principles over how war shall be conducted, and we believe they (Israel) are going too far.”

He stressed how Norway condemned Hamas’ “gruesome and beastly terrorist attack” on Israel, which killed around 1,400 Israelis, “in the strongest of terms.” He now fears Israel is losing much of the sympathy it had, however, as its own attacks on Gaza mobilize the world against Israel.

“This is in Israel’s disfavour,” Eide told NRK. “This is no advantage for them, because in the long term them must live in peace with the Palestinians and their Arab neighbours. We say that as a friend of Israel, because this (Israeli leaders’ strategy at present) is extremely dangerous.”

He still believes that the only solution is one involving two states, one for Israel and one for the Palestinians. Norway is still not a member of the EU, but was glad EU leaders at least backed a proposal from Spain for an international peace conference for the Middle East.

https://www.newsinenglish.no/2023/10/28/norway-israel-going-too-far-in-gaza/