In August 2006, author Jostein Gaarder sparked a controversy in Norway after publishing an op-ed "God's chosen people" in the Aftenposten, one of the country's major newspapers, in which he produced scathing criticism of Israel which at the time was engaged in the 2006 Lebanon War.
The text was perceived by scholars such as Yehuda Bauer and Shimon Samuels of the Simon Wiesenthal Center as deeply antisemitic.
The piece, titled "God's Chosen People" was written in response to the 2006 Lebanon war and claimed that Israel was "a state founded on anti-humanistic principles and on the ruins of an archaic national and warlike religion."
The op-ed, which Gaarder, in a 7 August 2006 NRK Channel 2 radio debate said was read by "countless people" and "Middle East experts" prior to publishing, was written in the literary form of a biblical prophecy, believed by some to be inspired by the Book of Amos.
We laugh with embarrassment at those who still believe that the god of the flora, fauna and galaxies has chosen one particular people as his favorite, and given them amusing stone tablets, burning bushes and a license to kill.
In the article, Gaarder contrasts the use of religious legitimization of war and occupation with humanistic values, quoting Albert Schweitzer: "Humanitarianism consists of never sacrificing a human being for a cause."
The op-ed contrasted Israel with the teachings of Jesus: We do not recognize the old Kingdom of David as a model for the 21st century map of the Middle East.
The Kingdom of God is compassion and forgiveness.Furthermore, he claimed that many Israelis celebrated the death of Lebanese children, comparing this behavior to the Biblical story where the Israelites celebrated God's plagues against Egypt: We don't believe that Israel grieves any more for the forty killed Lebanese children than it has wailed over the forty years spent in the desert three thousand years ago.
He finishes his op-ed by envisioning a future in which the Israelis are the refugees, but hoping that they will be shown mercy: Peace and free passage for the evacuating, civilian population no longer protected by a State.
[12][13][14][15][16] The official position of the Church of Norway has long been to condemn the use of Christian themes to put Judaism in a bad light.
Translated into 53 languages and with 26 million copies sold, so many of his readers will mourn Gaarder's current loss of vision, coherence and, above all, his recruitment to the forces of darkness.
Obsessed with the Jews as "God's Chosen People," Gaarder regurgitates this concept's classic antisemitic definition as "arrogant and domineering."
Several members of the Norwegian Jewish community, however, said that regardless of Gaarder's intent, the article served to legitimize deep-rooted antisemitic attitudes by tying them in with a public opinion already hostile to Israel.
In addition, Racheli Edelman, the owner-publisher of Schocken Publishing House, is looking into whether the op-ed could form the basis of a lawsuit against Gaarder.
[23] Associate professor in Middle Eastern history Hilde Henriksen Waage at the University of Oslo commented that: "Any debate about the politics of the state of Israel drowns in accusations of antisemitism and racism" and intimated that Gaarder would not be safe in Norway after this op-ed.