Here you find information and photos of the Photo exhibiton displaying Norwegian Zionism from 1949 to 1971 A.D. The exhibition was vandalised and removed by the government of the city of Bergen.

Norwegian Zionism 1949-1971

The basis of prosperity

In the summer of 1945, Norway stands out as one of the fortunate nations in Europe, which was little destroyed by the ravages of the Second World War.  The rebuilding of Eastern Finnmark was relatively painless and quick. The Gerhardsen government decided in May 1946 to establish Europehjelpen, as a collaborative body between the labor movement's Norwegian People's Aid and the Red Cross. The purpose was to help refugees in Europe. When the state of Israel was established in May 1948, 850,000 Jews were thrown out of Arab countries and Persia, which is a protest against the existence of the new Jewish state. The Jews became refugees again, and needed help to make the journey home to the Promised Land, a journey that the Israelis call Aliya.  The Norwegian government and the National Organization (LO) got involved. 

In 1949, Jewish children were flown from Tunis to Fornebu. They had been granted free accommodation at a children’s camp in Vestfold, the former Nazi camp called Grefsrudleiren.  One of those who got involved strongly was secretary general of the Labor Party Haakon Lie.  After becoming stronger physically and mentally, these children were to be reunited with their parents or guardians, and to be integrated into the new state of Israel. 

On November 20, the tragic plane crash occurs. 27 Jewish children and the crew of six lose their lives when their plane steers at Hurum south of Oslo. Only one child survives. Isaac (12).  The tragedy created great involvement in the Labor Party and LO. This will be the start of Norwegian Zionism in the years 1949-1971.

Warm Norwegian Zionists such as Haakon Lie, Einar Gerhardsen, Martin Tranmæl, Halvard Lange, Jens Christian Hauge and Trygve Bratteli took pity on Israel, and supported the cause of the Jewish state. Immediately after the plane crash, AP decided that they should collect money and build a Norwegian kibbutz in Israel as a gift to the families of those left behind. In 1951, Arbeiderbladet editor Martin Tranmæl went to visit the kibbutz named Moshav Yanuv. This visit put presidents. Throughout the 1950s, many members of the Norwegian labor movement went to Israel to help build Kibbutzim. These trips turned out to be working holidays with content and meaning.

Prime Minister Einar Gerhardsen visited Israel in 1961. He had his wife Vera and son Rune with him. Norwegian Zionism had support right up to the top in the Labor Party and LO. In August 1962, Einar Gerhardsen received Israel’s first Prime Minister David Ben Gurion at Fornebu, when he came on an official visit to Norway. On 17 May 1961, Prime Minister Golda Meir was on an official visit to Norway, and joined the legendary garden party at Jens Christian Hauge’s home in Slemdal in Oslo. On 1 June 1971, Meir was back in Oslo for the last time as prime minister. She was picked up at Fornebu by Prime Minister Trygve Bratteli and his wife Randi.

Jens Christian Hauge was Norwegian Minister of Defense from 1945 to 1952. Then the former MILROR chief resigned unexpectedly as a minister, and started a law practice in Oslo. This chess move gave Hauge the freedom to help the State of Israel acquire Norwegian heavy water. This is how the Jewish state became able to develop nuclear weapons. The heavy water is said to have been delivered from Norway to Israel in 1959. The Socialist People’s Party and others on the extreme left wing of Norwegian politics have tried to discredit Hauge’s role. He has been accused of acting on his own, and concealing that Israel had military intentions with its Norwegian-backed Dimona nuclear reactor in the Negev desert. This could not possibly have resulted in correctness. On 5 May 1995, Jens Christian Hauge was awarded the civic act medal in gold by Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland. This medal would hardly have been awarded to Hauge if he had acted disloyally towards Prime Minister Einar Gerhardsen and the Norwegian government in 1959. Jens Christian Hauge was a loyal team player.

Haakon Lie was one of the team players. On the first of May 1956, Lie had the slogan “Let Israel live” created. The general secretary of the AP ensured that this slogan was in place on all May Day trains in Norway this spring. Lie visited Israel several times. Not least during the Six Day War in 1967, Lie was present at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.

7th of October 2024 the photo-exhibition was inagurated. 8th of October, the city government og Bergen took it down, and locked these photos into a room controlled by the government. This nulification of the freedom of expression was only recorded in the Christian weekly newspaper “Norway Today”, and the Evangelical TV-station “Visjons Norge”.