OSLO, Aug 7: Norwegian writer Jostein Gaarder faced heavy criticism on Monday after he said Israel had lost its legitimacy as a country and mocked the notion of the Jews as God’s chosen people.

Gaarder’s opinion piece Saturday in daily newspaper Aftenposten triggered angry responses from Norwegian Jews, who said his comments went far beyond legitimate criticism of Israel’s policies.

“It’s the worst thing I’ve read since ‘Mein Kampf’,” said Mona Levin, a Jewish Norwegian writer, referring to Adolf Hitler’s autobiography.

Gaarder, whose most famous work is the 1990s best seller ‘Sophie’s World’, wrote in his opinion piece that Israel had ‘massacred its own legitimacy’ through its ‘unscrupulous warfare’.

“The state of Israel in its current form is history,” Gaarder wrote.

His links between religion and Israeli politics also provoked strong reactions.

“We smile with anguish at those who still believe that the god of the flora, fauna and the galaxies has chosen a certain people as his favourites, and given them funny stone tablets, burning bushes and license to kill,” Gaarder wrote.

Critics warned such comments could stir anti-Semitic sentiment.

“By giving the impression that Israeli politics are governed by Jewish religious ideas, Gaarder’s column can fuel old prejudices and create new hatred of Jews,” religious scholar Bente Groth wrote in Aftenposten.

Some scholars backed Gaarder, saying he should be allowed to criticise Israel without being labelled an anti-Semite.

Gaarder later said he regretted writing ‘funny stone tablets’, an apparent reference to the Ten Commandments, but stood by his criticism of Israel. —AP