Israel Matzav

Norwegian diplomat uses discredited 2001 photo to compare Israel to Nazis

This sort of thing just shouldn't surprise us anymore. A Norwegian diplomat stationed in Saudi Arabia has sent an email using her foreign ministry account in which she compares Israel's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza to the extermination of six million Jews by the Nazis.

The e-mail, sent out by Trine Lilleng, a first secretary at the Norwegian Embassy in Riyadh, includes a juxtaposition of black-and-white pictures from the Holocaust with color images of Operation Cast Lead.

"The grandchildren of Holocaust survivors from World War II are doing to the Palestinians exactly what was done to them by Nazi Germany," the e-mail states.

A copy of the e-mail was obtained by The Jerusalem Post.

The 40-plus pictures included as attachments in the e-mail include the famous image of a Jewish boy with his hands raised as a German soldier points his gun at him, next to an image of an Israeli soldier aiming his weapon at a Palestinian boy.

Another depicts a German soldier firing his weapon, next to an IDF soldier shooting his, while others juxtapose the barbed wire surrounding ghettos and concentration camps to the fence around Gaza, and the West Bank security barrier.

The e-mail asks recipients to forward the message to others.

Reached on her cellphone in Riyadh, Lilleng told the Post she had sent the message to "a few friends" in a "private e-mail," and had not sent any copy to the Post.

She would not say whether it was proper for her to use her ministry e-mail account for such a controversial message.

"I am not interested in saying anything about that," she said.

Israel has demanded an apology. The Norwegian embassy in Tel Aviv has declined comment.

I've placed a copy of one of the pictures from the email at the top of this post. I'm sure all of you recognize the picture on the left side of the terrified Jewish kid with his hands up in the air during a round-up from a Jewish ghetto in the Holocaust. Some of you may even recognize the picture of the right of the terrified 'Palestinian' kid, which long precedes Operation Cast Lead, but for those who don't, here it is.

And here's what Ms. Lilleng didn't show you (and what was not published at the time either): A picture of what the 'Palestinian' kid was doing before he wet his pants:

Here are some details about the two pictures:

On April 6, [2001] a Reuters photographer was on hand in Jerusalem to record a Palestinian child being arrested by Israeli police, who in his fear, wet his pants.

The photo is very dramatic, showing the pain and panic of a child in a terrifying situation.

The photo was published, sometimes partially cropped, in publications worldwide, including Time magazine (European edition, April 16, 2001), VG, Norway's largest daily newspaper (www.vg.no), Argentina's popular La Nación (www.lanacion.com.ar) and others. Pro-Palestinian groups also widely distributed this dramatic picture, to gain sympathy for their cause.

What was not shown, however, was a photo taken by Reuters just a few minutes earlier -- depicting the same "innocent little boy" rioting against Israeli forces. (His pants are still dry.)

Here is some more information about the incident in question (Hat Tip: Shy Guy):

On April 13, 2001 the head of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat, abuses the same child and the truth by inviting the boy to his bureau in Ramallah and gives him words of encouragement for the above acts of violence (Aliam newspaper, April 14, 2001). They pose commonly displaying the picture with the wet pants ....

If you go here, you will find several other manipulative uses of the photo of the child with wet pants on Islamic websites all over Europe.

So Ms. Lilleng is using a discredited photo of an 'innocent child' to compare Israel to Nazis. We should not be surprised. In August, the Norwegian government (which is not part of the EU) announced that it would like to hold talks with Osama Bin Laden. Norway is a huge supporter of the 'Palestinian Authority' and has contacts with Hamas. Norway is also part of a Euroweenie organization called the Negotiations Support Unit, which is a group of European countries who are encouraging the 'Palestinians' not to compromise on the 'right of return,' and instead to flood the state of Israel with 'refugees' so as to do demographically what they could not do militarily.

And by the way, Norway also supports 'Peace Now' and has given more than $1 million to fund the Clinton Library. But of course, Mrs. Clinton doesn't owe them anything....

Hopenchange coming soon!

UPDATE 1:45 AM

Dr. Rusty has an important update to this story.

UPDATE: Thanks to Norwegian Blogger Jupp who is definitely not a Euroweenie, we find out that Trine Lilleng is also a blogger who goes by the handle hedoorientia. Her website, "Orientia in Saudi", has mysteriously disappeared. But thanks to the great Google cache (its mystery is exceeded only by its power) it turns out there was a reason Jupp deleted her blog: it's full of editorial cartoons equating Israeli action against terrorism with the holocaust. You can click the Google cache page or head over to Jupp's, who took screenshot's of Lilleng's deleted blog.

Make sure to check out the link. Lilleng's blog is a bunch of crude, anti-Semitic cartoons. This is a 'diplomat'?

Don't expect the Israeli government to have anything to say about this.

I wonder how many more Norwegian 'diplomats' like Lilleng are out there.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:05 AM