Eide’s latest condemnation undermines the goal he says Norway is aiming for

Norwegian policy has been fixed for many years: “Norway’s long-term commitment seeks to contribute to a negotiated two-state solution where two states, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace within secure and internationally recognized borders. Norway believes that only a negotiated two-state solution can provide lasting peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.”

With his latest condemnation of Israel, Espen Barth Eide undermines this goal. On 2 April, the Minister for Foreign Affairs expressed in a press release:

“I condemn the destruction of Shifa Hospital. Shifa has been the most important hospital in Gaza, and the destruction is enormous. According to reports, hundreds of people have died as a result of the destruction, and the material damage is enormous.

Protection of the wounded, sick and health services is a fundamental obligation in humanitarian law. The Shifa hospital is in ruins and, according to Doctors Without Borders, is completely out of business. Large sections of the population have been dependent on hospital treatment. The reports that twelve patients at the hospital have died as a result of malnutrition and lack of treatment during the military operation are outrageous.”

Barth Eide’s condemnation undermines a peaceful solution, because it inflames Islamist terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad – forces that can never imagine a two-state solution. They also do not want negotiations with Israel, but want to raise the banner of Islam over every inch of the Jewish state.

There is significant information about what happened at Shifa that Barth Eide never mentions.

Hamas abused Gaza’s hospitals for military purposes for a number of years. See, for example, in-depth reporting in the New York Times from February 2024, a newspaper that the Foreign Minister says he reads.

The hospital management at Shifa rejoiced over terrorist rockets against Tel Aviv, according to a Norwegian doctor.

Israeli forces first cleared the Shifa hospital of terrorists in November 2023. https://twitter.com/IDF/status/1774859978366468357also this time in violation of international law.

On March 19, the IDF launched an operation in the Shifa compound to once again stop the terrorist organization’s misuse of a protected facility. In the space of two weeks, more than 200 armed terrorists have been killed and more than 500 confirmed members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad arrested. Among those arrested are leading figures in the two EU-listed terrorist organisations, according to the IDF. Weapons were found hidden in CT machines. Weapons were also found in the maternity ward. Weapons were hidden in pillows and beds, in ceilings and walls. The Israeli soldiers had orders to do everything to avoid harm to patients, medical personnel or medical equipment.

Islamist terrorists hiding in hospitals stand in the way of a future in which a Palestinian state “lives side by side in peace” with Israel. If the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are to have a good future, such forces must be eliminated. That is what the IDF did in the last weeks of March. For this they deserve support, not condemnation. If Barth Eide had rather condemned that Hamas is trying to re-establish itself in the north of Gaza, he could have helped to achieve what he says is Norway’s official policy.

Norway’s foreign minister must also ask himself: Will a “two-state solution” be something that creates peace, or something that puts Israel’s enemies in a better position in their warfare against the Jewish state? Read the article Seven things to note about the “two-state solution” after 7 October.