JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON: Israel said on Thursday it was revoking the diplomatic status of Norway’s envoys to the Palestinian Authority accusing Oslo of “anti-Israel behaviour” during the Gaza crisis and drawing a formal protest.

Norway — a key facilitator in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, particularly in the secret negotiations that led to the Oslo Accords of the 1990s — swiftly summoned the Israeli ambassador to lodge a formal protest.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said he “ordered the termination of any representation on behalf of the Norwegian embassy in Israel vis-a-vis the Palestinian Authority,” which has limited powers in urban areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

“There is a price for anti-Israel behaviour,” Katz added in a statement, citing Norway’s recent recognition of a Palestinian state and backing of a pending International Criminal Court case implicating Israeli leaders in “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” in Gaza.

Norway accused the hard-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of adopting an “extreme” response.

“This is an extreme action that first and foremost affects our ability to help the Palestinian population”, Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said in a statement. “We are considering what measures Norway will take to respond to the situation that the Netanyahu government has now created”, he added.

Barth Eide later called in an Israeli embassy official to hear a formal protest. “A short while ago, I summoned Israel’s representative to Norway and met her at the foreign ministry to protest against this decision,” the minister told journalists.

US reaction**

The United States on Thursday criticised its ally Israel for revoking the diplomatic status of Norwegian envoys to the Palestinian Authority, saying Oslo has played an important role in the Middle East.

“Norway has a long history of playing a productive role when it comes to engaging with the government of Israel engaging with the Palestinian Authority,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters. “We don’t think steps to prevent them from playing that role are particularly helpful,” he said.

Miller pointed to Norway’s secret diplomacy in brokering the landmark 1993 Oslo Accords, signed on the White House lawn and more recently in collecting tax revenue intended for the Pales­tinian Authority.

The United States says it supports a Palestinian state but that it needs to come through negotiations with Israel.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2024