Reader’s letter This is a debate entry, written by an external contributor. The post expresses the writer’s views.
I imagine a picture. A Palestinian girl – 10-12 years old – sitting on a rock and showing the v sign with both hands. Behind we see ruins, a battlefield. This is Gaza 2024. An area as black as almost 1/3 of Vågå, with around 2 million inhabitants.
Imagine 2 million after the valley from Åsårbrue to Garmo. The fence. The only access is over Slådalen. If anyone at all slipped through. This is Gaza. For more than 200 days, this area has been exposed to bombing, day and night. As in all wars, it is the innocent civilians who suffer the most. But it is not just bombs and artillery that kill. As a result of the Israeli blockade, the people of the Gaza Strip lack water, food, fuel and medicine. Hospitals and infrastructure are razed, bombed, razed to the ground.
· At least 34,000 people, primarily civilians, have been killed by the Israeli forces in Gaza.
· 70,000 are injured, as many as there are people in the whole of Gudbrandsdalen.
· 10,000 people are missing. Many of them are buried under bombed and destroyed houses and buildings.
· More than 500,000 people in northern Gaza are occupied by Israeli forces. Israel refuses the UN and WHO to deliver vital aid.
· According to the UN, there are 37 million tonnes of wreckage and munitions that have not exploded; in a densely populated area.
These numbers are getting bigger every day, every hour.
What does the world community do? What is Norway doing? Beyond chatting? Beyond sorry? Beyond “recommending”? Beyond attempts at diplomacy?
– The US has carried out more than 100 different arms sales to Israel since the war in Gaza started. Has Norway ever criticized the USA?
– The Norwegian Oil Fund owns shares worth billions of kroner in several of the American weapons companies that sell weapons to Israel. Has Norway done anything about this?
– When is Norway’s foreign minister going to call Israel’s ambassador on the carpet and condemn this, which looks more and more like deliberate genocide?
– When will the sanctions come? (such as in the case of Ukraine)
– When are we going to recognize Palestine as a state. As 138 other countries have done, such as Sweden.
There is reason to ask these questions. And there is reason to demand answers.
In a few days, we will happily perform in the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö, next to Israel. We are not braver!
Terje Kleiven, Lam
