Tomorrow ends the consultation period for Norway’s proposed law to imprison citizens who engage economically with Jews who live in Judea and Samaria.
The prison-time aspect of this law has gotten the most attention, understandably. But there are two more reasons for the outrage.
First is that in order to criminalize legal economic activity, Norway will have to finesse the fact that this new law will conflict with its standing body of law, which has a double-criminality requirement.
What that means is that in order for Norwegian citizens or businesses to be prosecuted in or by Norway for actions taken abroad, the behavior has to be legally punishable in the country where those acts are carried out. Normally, then, if an activity is legal in Israel, Norwegians may participate in that activity without fear of being arrested when they return home. The law under consideration carves out an exception for itself to this rule.
The main reason for double-criminality statutes has to do with sovereignty. Norwegian law considers it bad form to extend its own jurisdiction to other countries, such as Israel. There are exceptions to this, of course: war criminality, for example. But there do not appear to be exceptions that match the kind of basic economic activity that would be criminalized in the Israel-boycott law under consideration.
In other words, Norway would have to take unprecedented legal action in order to enforce a law aimed only at the Jewish state.
It gets worse. In addition to the double-criminality exception, the Norwegian law also includes the following vague assurance to Palestinians: “In addition, an exception is proposed from the law’s other prohibitions for actions that have a sufficient Palestinian connection.”
That is a Google translation of the line, but the generality is the key. What this in effect means is that the government intends to make an exception for non-Jews, because they are not generally considered settlers. You will essentially be allowed to trade with an Arab but not a Jew in the same municipality.
Norway will argue that the point of this exception is to distinguish between national governments. But the effect is the same: The law will almost certainly be enforced differently for Jews and for non-Jews.
So while the intention behind the law is not totally irrelevant, it does not change what this law will look like in practice: Norway’s Jews will be most affected at home, and Jews abroad will be singled out for boycotting.
Oh, and it gets even worse. Norway’s state broadcaster reportedly said the law would apply to East Jerusalem, a fact that is consistent with the expectations of the bill since its introduction a few months ago.
The irony of this should not be lost. Jerusalem—east, west, north, south—is not a settlement. I know this because I read the Oslo Accords, named for where their negotiating process was launched in earnest. That is, the oldest agreed-upon outline of a two-state process comes to us from Norway.
Jerusalem and settlements are both considered final-status issues, and they are repeatedly and intentionally kept separate in the accords. That means the final nail in the coffin of the Oslo Accords may be hammered into place by Oslo in the coming days.
The self-cannibalizing nature of the international community’s obsession with Israel is surpassed only by its sense of entitlement. Countries like Norway claim to govern only that which takes place in Norway—and also some Jews in the Middle East because it disapproves of their street address.
And in case anyone might think the Norwegian government is acting in good faith, we have the foreign minister’s comments to clear up that misconception. Here is Espen Barth Eide as quoted in the Times of Israel: “Israel has become far too accustomed to being able to intimidate Western countries by saying they were antisemites if they criticized Israel for abuses and violations of international law. Now the [protective cover] that Israel has in many ways enjoyed is gone.”
In other words, this has nothing to do with a temporary increase in “settler violence” over the past year. Norway has merely been waiting for a good pretext to hit Israel, and now it has found one.