Norway unveiled plans to increase spending to combat antisemitism against a backdrop of rising terrorism threats linked to Jewish and Israeli targets.
The government’s updated measures to protect the minority of 1,500 Jews in the country of 5.6 million reflect a situation that is “more serious than it has been for a long time,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said in a speech in Oslo.
The efforts will include more funding for Jewish and human rights centres, educating the police on hate crimes, and sending Norwegian youth on study trips to concentration camps.
Last month, Norway’s security service raised the terror threat level from medium to high — following similar increases in neighbouring Sweden and Denmark since last year — citing the war in the Middle East and increasing threats against Jewish and Israeli targets. The country is among the minority in Europe to have formally recognised a Palestinian state.
In April 2024, a Jewish grave site in Trondheim, Norway’s fourth-largest city, was vandalised, with Stars of David ripped up from the ground and broken.
A plan to combat hate speech against Muslims is due to be published in December, while measures to prevent discrimination against the indigenous Sami people are expected next year, Store added.
“A society that begins to tolerate incitement against Jews will at the same time tolerate hate speech against Muslims, against queer people, and other vulnerable groups, and that is a society that is not good for anyone,” Store said. “So antisemitism is a bit like the canary in the coal mine — when it’s there and potent, it’s a warning sign.”
