Last May, Spain, Ireland and Norway recognised the State of Palestine. Israel called the decision a “reward to Hamas”, released mocking videos (in which the Islamist group thanked them for the decision) and showed the ambassadors of the three countries an unpleasant recording of the kidnapping of female soldiers during the attack on 7 October 2023. “The decision will have more serious consequences for our relations,” warned the director general of Israeli diplomacy, Yaakov Blitshtein.
As the months passed, the controversy cooled down. Until Thursday, when Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced that he would stop accrediting Norwegian diplomats to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and that within a week he would revoke the diplomatic status of the eight who deal with the PNA. Their visas, issued by Israel, will be valid for three months, in order to prepare for their departure. “Those who attack us and carry out a biased policy against us will pay a price,” the minister said on the social network X.
The Norwegian ambassador in Tel Aviv, Per Egil Selvaag, received the diplomatic note on Thursday at the Foreign Office. The trigger seems to have been Norway’s presentation, three days earlier, of its observations on the situation in the country. amicus curiae (when a country, person or organisation offers its assistance, without being a party to the case) before the International Criminal Court (ICC). In these, he stresses that the Oslo Accords (which he helped forge) in no way limit the court’s jurisdiction over crimes committed in Palestine. The ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, asked judges last May for arrest warrants for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; his Defence Minister Yoav Gallant; and three Hamas leaders, of whom Israel only considers the newly appointed political leader, Yahia Sinwar, alive.
In his message, Katz breaks down the list of grievances towards Oslo: “Instead of fighting Palestinian terrorism after October 7 and supporting Israel in its war against the Iranian axis of evil, Norway chose to reward Hamas murderers and rapists by recognizing a Palestinian state. But they didn’t stop there: they also joined the baseless lawsuit against us.” [por genocidio] at the International Criminal Court, requesting arrest warrants for the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defence. Norway has pursued a biased policy on the Palestinian issue and will therefore be excluded from any involvement in it.”
The move is expected to mean the end of diplomatic representation both in the PA and in Israel, so as not to maintain one without the other. Norway’s Foreign Minister, Espen Barth Eide, has already described it as an “extreme act” that “affects the country’s ability to help the Palestinian population” and will have “consequences for the relationship with the Netanyahu government.” He has also interpreted it as a new sign that the Israeli prime minister “actively works against a two-state solution.” The minister, whose request for a visit was rejected by Israeli diplomacy last month, did not specify the measures that will be taken. He only said that they are being studied.
Two representations
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Norway has an embassy in Israel (in Tel Aviv) and another in Al Ram, between Jerusalem and Ramallah, which handles relations with the Palestinian National Authority, manages visas for Palestinians and provides services to their nationals. The embassies of Slovenia and Ireland, which have also recognized the Palestinian State this year (144 of the 193 member countries of the United Nations have already done so), are in Ramallah, where the famous Muqata (the presidential headquarters) and the ministries of the ANP.
Their cases are different from that of Spain, which carries out these functions through the general consulate in Jerusalem, one of the eight considered historical in the Holy Land. It dates back to 1853 – during the time of Queen Isabel II, a century before the birth of the State of Israel – and manages the Obra Pía, the heritage of the Spanish State in the area. Relations with Israel are through the Embassy in Tel Aviv.
Last May, Minister Katz banned the Spanish consulate in Jerusalem from “providing services to Palestinians” in the West Bank, in retaliation for the recognition of the Palestinian State and for the use by the Second Vice President of the Government and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, of the phrase “From the river to the sea.”
Norway has a particular connection to the Middle East conflict. Its capital gave its name to the most important agreements signed between Israelis and Palestinians in 1993. In January, Oslo used its role to facilitate a bridging mechanism to unblock the release to the PA of funds that Israel collects and is obliged to transfer to it under these agreements. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right politician, had been withholding the portion intended for civil servants’ salaries in Gaza, and the PA refused to accept only a portion, but eventually relented.
In May, when Norway recognised the State of Palestine, Smotrich called for the mechanism to be scrapped. Last week he already took 100 million shekels (about 24 million euros) from the sum legally due to the PA, to give it to relatives of victims of terrorism.
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