This is a guest post by Christian Tau of NIJ.

Most Norwegian books are dearly priced and contribute to nothing except the prestige of their authors, yet still manage to capture the public eye. Meanwhile Eirik Eiglad’s recently published “The anti-Jewish riots in Oslo” is receiving no publicity whatsoever. For the sin of contrasting too sharply with Norway’s “goody two shoes” image of being a humanitarian superpower, Eiglad’s book is being quietly ignored to death.

In March 2009 the Jerusalem Post published an article on anti-Semitism in Norway containing several erroneous pieces of information (it was immediately withdrawn). At the time, the Norwegian expert on the Middle East Hilde Henriksen Waage claimed that something “akin to a smear campaign” was being conducted against Norway by the “Israeli right-wing”. Even though Ms.Waage could provide no evidence of any kind, her allegation found fertile soil. Only ten months later, the allegation of the “Israeli conspiracy” had grown to the point where it could be voiced by nobody less than Norway’s foreign minister Jonas Gahr Støre who in January told Haaretz “There are references to anti-Israel sentiments in the Israeli press, and I see part of that as a campaign, which is being organized and orchestrated from circles who point out enemies of Israel [in Norway].”

Norway it seemed, had no problems. Støre was in Israel to criticize Israel, not to be criticized himself. And so the critical voices in Haaretz and Jerusalem Post were shrugged of as yet another case of un-named forces in Israel engaging in an anti-Norwegian smear-campaign. Støre will find it harder to shrug of Eirik Eiglad’s book “The anti-Jewish riots in Oslo.”

Eirik Eiglad is neither Israeli nor right-wing but a left-wing Norwegian. His book “The anti-Jewish riots in Oslo” punches great, gaping holes not only in the conspiracy theory Støre so eagerly grasped after in January. Ms.Waage’s story of right-wing Israelis conducting a smear campaign against Norway is simply blown out of the water, quite simply because even if there was such a conspiracy it could not possibly “orchestrate” a left-wing activist such as Eiglad, who refuses to be orchestrated even by the movement to which he himself belongs - the Norwegian left. Yet the value of Eiglad’s short treatise goes beyond the dismantlement of a conspiracy theory. It pierces to the very core of Norway’s perception of herself as a righteous nation whose criticism of Israel is motivated entirely by humanitarian concerns.

Anti-Jewish riots in Oslo

The 103 widely spaced pages of “The anti-Jewish riots in Oslo” is a narration of the riots of January 2009 when rioters, under the pretext of demonstrating against Israel’s war against Hamas, turned downtown Oslo into a four-day war zone. Eiglad points to the calls of “kill the jews”, to the placards commemorating Khaybar, to the attacks on the institutions of what anti-Semites perceive to be Jewish power (The Freemason’s Lodge, McDonald’s, etc), to the physical violence, and all the time to the lacking ability of the Norwegian Left to discriminate between legitimate and disproportionate criticism of Israel not to speak of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.

As the author was present at all the major events of the riots he can draw on a wealth of first-hand experiences, and does so with a highly satisfactory level of literary skill. The mass of detail he provides goes beyond any previous narration, as does the level of analysis and reflection. With regards to the chain of events as they unfolded during the course of the four days examined, it will be difficult for anybody to prove the author wrong.

A left-wing activist

Author Eirik Eiglad is the editor of Communalism, a journal which reports as its purpose to “provide a forum for the exposition of Communalism as a viable political alternative”, and his political outlook on life is made glaringly obvious on almost every page of “The anti-Jewish riots in Oslo”.

While watching a pro-Palestinian attack on a completely peaceful pro-Israel peace rally, Eiglad finds himself caught between “hell and a hot place, between Hamas supporters and the Christian Right“. Later in the book, Eiglad and a friend reminisce over the good old days of the pre-Hamas intifada, when the Palestinian struggle could still be perceived as a noble cause. The political right-wing is consistently portrayed as xenophobic rabble rousers, and when Behind the Humanitarian Mask (Ed:Manfred Gerstenfeld, JCPA) makes the list of recommended reading it is “despite the conservative focus of many of its contributors”. For an appendix, this kind of warning is rare.

To really show his colours the author at one point even admits to having participated in Blitz and AFA “mobilisations” against neo-Nazis. This is less than savoury. For the first thing Blitz and AFA indiscriminately apply the badge of neo-Nazi to anyone they take a dislike to. For the second, during the riots in Malmö in 2009 AFA fought shoulder to shoulder with the very neo-Nazis it proclaims to be fighting against, merely in order to stop an Israeli citizen from playing tennis. Rather than being anti-fascist, AFA is basically a rivalling outfit. For Eiglad to unashamedly admit to contacts with such a group is breathtakingly worrying and indicative of the dire moral straits in which the Norwegian left finds itself.

An ominous silence

“The anti-Jewish riots in Oslo” is an important book for several different reasons. Firstly, it is a convincing eyewitness testimony of the worst riots Oslo has seen for decades, if ever. Secondly, it provides accurate and reliable detail on the pattern of blatantly anti-Semitic incidents which occurred during the riots. Thirdly, the book examines the relationship between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, a great taboo in contemporary Norway. Furthermore “The anti-Jewish riots in Oslo” places responsibility for the riots with the Norwegian left - where it belongs - and encourages that movement to mobilize against anti-Semitism and Islamisism in the same manner that it mobilizes against other kinds of fascism. All in all, this ought to make for a book of exactly the sort which a humanitarian superpower such as Norway ought to embrace. This is not happening.

Instead of endorsing the book, the Norwegian left (which encompasses the central part of the media) has received Eiglad’s book with an icy silence. This is telling - “The anti-Jewish riots in Oslo” poses poignant questions to which there the Norwegian left has no ready answers, and they must find it extremely troubling. And this time, the option of simply shrugging of the criticism as yet another machination of the Israeli right-wing just won’t work, so the only technique left in the tool box is to pretend the book isn’t there.

“The anti-Jewish riots in Oslo” is well written, provides valuable insights, is a mere 103 pages long, in English and sells for $15.

Give Norway a helping hand and buy it.

Do it now.