Researcher believes picture of Eide with Palestine activist is problematic

The photo of Red politician and Palestine activist Mona Osman from Skien together with Espen Barth Eide was taken on Wednesday 1 May in connection with the celebration of the Workers’ International Day of Struggle in Grenland. Osman published the photo on Friday.

In the text of the Facebook photo, Osman writes “Today I have radicalized Espen Barth Eide!”. In the picture she is holding a poster with the text “Fuck Israel. Fuck capitalism. Fuck Nato.”

– Fuel on the fire

– It should be beneath the dignity of the activists to abuse a Norwegian foreign minister to promote their own political purposes. Without thinking about the type of damage and knock-on effects this could cause, says Middle East expert and professor Hilde Henriksen Waage to NRK.

She says she fears that such images could cause major problems for Eide and the role Norway plays in the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

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– For Espen Barth Eide, this is very serious. It is pouring fuel on the Israeli fire, which seizes every opportunity to criticize Norway, says Waage to VG.

– Norway is not just anybody in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. We have played a role in this for more than thirty years. We lead the Giverlandsgruppen, which is the only forum where Israel and Palestine talk to each other, she continues.

– Does not represent Eide’s view

Espen Barth Eide rejects that this in any way represents his or Norway’s view:

– The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Norway are neither against Israel, capitalism or NATO, writes Tuva Bogsnes, head of communications in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to NRK.

– The woman in the picture was part of a group that had turned up to demonstrate against the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the government. Eide didn’t know who she was, she adds.

Bogsnes tells VG that Eide also did not know that Osman’s father is referred to by the Jerusalem Post as a “terrorist” because he is suspected of having participated in a terrorist attack in Paris in 1982. He was extradited to France in 2020.

NTB has not succeeded in getting a comment from Osman. Nor has she commented on the matter to NRK or VG.