A new survey shows that anti-Semitism in Norway is increasing. Photo: Terje Pedersen / NTB
Of NTB | 06.05.2024 19:04:46
Social conditions: – Our findings reflect an international trend, where escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is followed by increased anti-Semitism. We believe that this is also the most important factor behind the results, where many years of decline in the spread of anti-Semitism in Norway have now been reversed, says director Jan Heiret at the HL center in a press release.
The HL center has carried out attitude surveys which measures Norwegians’ attitudes towards Muslims and Jews since 2011. In January/February this year, the aim was to investigate whether attitudes have changed after the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas.
– Norway is still among the countries with a relatively small prevalence of traditional anti-Semitic attitudes, roughly on a par with other countries in North-West Europe, says Heiret.
– The results indicate that attitudes towards Muslims are to a lesser extent influenced by the situation in the Middle East, says Heiret.
Compared to the attitude surveys from 2017 and 2022, more people have taken a critical view of Israel’s politics. Support for the Palestinians as a party to the conflict is now three times as high as support for Israel.
Among those questioned, 11.5 per cent answered that they support several of the stereotypical notions included in the survey. For example, 21 percent respond that they believe that the statement “Jews see themselves as better than others” is completely or fairly true. 17 per cent support that “Jews have become rich at the expense of others”, and 12 per cent believe that “Jews themselves bear much of the blame for being persecuted”. This is still relatively low.
In comparison, 31 per cent of those questioned in 2024 have pronounced prejudice against Muslims. That is roughly the same proportion as in 2022. Some of the claims with the most support are “Muslims are themselves much to blame for growing Muslim anger” (45 per cent) and “Muslims are more violent than others” (increase from 26 to 33 per cent).
(© NTB)