Once again, anti-Semitism shows its ugly side in Europe and elsewhere in the world. He pushed his way through time and space and from generation to generation. In Ålesund, Rune Furelid has taken up this dishonorable tradition.
On St. Olav’s Square, in the heart of the city, he has exhibited a large drawing in a golden frame, a representation of the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, with a Hitler mustache and a swastika bracelet. This “work of art” is just a turn away from where the Steinfeld family lived and a few hundred meters from where they had their shop until they were transported to Germany and murdered by the Nazis in 1943 – only because they were Jews.
– I first tagged it on walls. There it was painted over. But this had to come out.
How is it possible to display this racist propaganda so brazenly and proudly as Furelid does in a public place in the city and afterwards in Sunnmørsposten on 12 April? Fair enough, he has not posted the drawing on the internet, because then he could “risk” “destroying important sales platforms”, must know.
Furelid also twists the love of neighbor and writes “do unto others as others do unto you”. “In other words, I mean that Netanyahu is doing to others what others did to the Jews.” How much history-less and tactless does it take to claim something like this? 6 million European Jews were systematically murdered during Nazism, including 760 Norwegians. Cultures were wiped out. A tragedy that left survivors with body and mind damage forever. Now the Jews are once again unsafe in Europe, while the Holocaust is still fresh in everyone’s memory.
“When I draw parallels to Hitler, it is otherwise linked to Netanyahu, not to the Jews as a group”, Furelid hypocrites. He knows very well that when you draw a leader of a democratic state in that way, it is of course a symbol for the people. Despite the terrible things that happen in the war in Gaza after Hamas’ murder raid in Israel on 7 October, it is nowhere near what happened to the Jews in Europe during Nazism.
Such a comparison downplays the extermination of the Jews and the similarity between the victims and their executioners. He makes insulting statements that have nothing to do with the case, but only help to whip up the mood against a designated minority in Norway. He mocks the Jews for the trauma of the Holocaust right after they have experienced the worst and largest pogrom since the war. It’s unbelievable!
But I am most shocked by the lack of reaction in the city. This anti-Semitic harassment can stand in a prominent place and be printed on the front page of the local newspaper, with almost no reaction.
What do the mayor, the leaders of the political parties, the other elected representatives think? What does the church mean? What do the non-profit organizations think? We have two universities/colleges in the district – do they have nothing on their minds? And what do ordinary eelsundarians think?
