Foreign Ministry and Norway’s Jewish community sharply criticized Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre for attending an alternative event marking the 87th anniversary of Kristallnacht rather than joining the official ceremony organized by the Jewish community.
At the same time, a man carrying an Israeli flag was assaulted following a Kristallnacht memorial in the city of Sarpsborg in southeastern Norway. He sustained minor injuries, and the attacker was later released by the police.
In a blistering statement, Israel’s Foreign Ministry said Støre’s participation in the alternative event, organized by the Norwegian Center Against Racism, represented “a new record of moral corruption, anti-Israel hostility, and antisemitism.”
“The prime minister chose to attend a ceremony that turned a horrific event of murder and persecution of Jews — the anniversary of Kristallnacht — into a weapon against the Jewish state, Israelis, and Jews,” the statement said. “This is an insult to the memory of Holocaust victims, especially the more than 750 Norwegian Jews deported and murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators.”
The ministry accused the organizers of exploiting Holocaust remembrance to spread anti-Israel and antisemitic messages, saying Støre had “sent a dangerous message that even the memory of Holocaust victims can be manipulated for political purposes.”
In his speech at the alternative ceremony, Støre said, “We know that persecution doesn’t start overnight — it is planned in broad daylight, just as the registration and deportation of Norway’s Jews in 1942 were planned meticulously, mainly by Norwegians. So we must ask: are we really that far from 1938 Nazi Germany?”
He acknowledged that many Norwegian Jews “made it clear they did not wish to be here today,” but added that modern hate “can appear online — in social media, in comments, even at memorials.”
“As prime minister, I want to say that my government will do everything possible to protect, support, and stand by Norway’s Jews and all minorities,” Støre concluded. “Norway must be a country where one can proudly say: I am Jewish.”
However, his remarks did little to ease criticism in Israel or within Norway’s Jewish community, which accused the government of turning Holocaust commemoration into a platform for political messaging rather than remembrance.