[1] His father was hired as head of accounting in the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions in 1933, and the family moved to Bærum.
He finished his secondary education in 1940, and had his political career interrupted by the occupation of Norway when the Labour Party was declared illegal.
[4] As a diplomat he was regarded by US authorities in 1975 as "perceptive, capable and highly intelligent, with a fine appreciation of the 'realities' of dealing with the Soviets.
Although understanding and helpful to Americans, he is reportedly an independent thinker and a skillful, tenacious advocate of the Norwegian position.
[1] His tenure coincided with a very turbulent period in Israeli society, with the Yom Kippur War, the Munich massacre, and the Mossad assassination of Ahmed Bouchiki in the small Norwegian town Lillehammer in 1973.
In a 1974 letter to his employers in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway, Graver explained the Bouchiki case as a result of Western European countries failing to heed a call from Israel to cooperate on counter-terrorism.