Against the background of the ongoing conflict between Hezbollah, Israel and the rest of Lebanon, Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet published a cartoon by Finn Graff on July 10 which depicts Israeli PM Ehud Olmert as the infamous SS Major Amon Goeth, who used to amuse himself by sniping at random Jews from his balcony in the Paszow death camp.

The scene was famously depicted by Steven Spielberg in Schindler’s List and some people are not happy at the comparison:

In response, the Norwegian Israel Center against Anti-Semitism, an Oslo-based organization comprising Jews and Christians, has appealed to the government to speak out against hatred of Jews.

“We have launched a campaign to get Norwegians to send letters to the minister of justice to make Norway a safer place for Jews,” said center founder Erez Urieli by phone from Oslo.

“We should not go underground. We have to take care of anti-Semitism before it becomes dangerous,” he said.

According to the BBC, Israel’s ambassador to Norway has complained to press regulators about the cartoon claiming that it somehow went “beyond free speech” and would be “open to prosecution” in some countries.

Lars Helle, Dagbladet’s acting editor-in-chief, disagrees although the newspaper is taking the complaint seriously.

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