The Gaarder Debate Revisited: Drawing the Demarcation Line between Legitimate and Illegitimate Criticism of Israel
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Abstract
This chapter explores the afterlife of the newspaper op-ed article “God’s chosen people”, written by Jostein Gaarder in 2006, and the intense and heated debate it sparked off. In this debate, Gaarder was accused of antisemitism due to his portrayal of the Jewish religion as archaic and violent and his indication that Israel, following its brutal warfare in the region, had lost its right to exist. The chapter looks into how the opening of the Norwegian Center for Holocaust and Minority Studies and a growing public awareness of the Holocaust may be seen as possible reasons for the fierce criticism of Gaarder and how his op-ed became the prime example of criticism of Israel crossing the line to antisemitism. The chapter argues that the “Gaarder debate”, despite Gaarder’s own attempts to free himself from the stigma of antisemitism, lives a life of its own as a narrative abbreviation. As such, the allusion to Gaarder is used to mark the red line between criticism of Israel and antisemitism. The “Gaarder trope” is even used to discuss latent antisemitism in contexts outside Norway.
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Antisemitism: Discourse Main Topic: Antisemitism Israel Criticism Newspapers, Magazines and Periodicals Antisemitism: Left-Wing
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The material in this publication is covered by the Norwegian Copyright Act and published open access under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence.
This licence provides permission to copy or redistribute the material in any medium or format. These freedoms are granted under the following terms: you must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the licence and indicate if changes have been made to the material. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. If you remix, transform or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material. You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the licence permits. The licensor cannot revoke the freedoms granted by this licence as long as the licence terms are met.
This licence provides permission to copy or redistribute the material in any medium or format. These freedoms are granted under the following terms: you must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the licence and indicate if changes have been made to the material. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. If you remix, transform or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material. You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the licence permits. The licensor cannot revoke the freedoms granted by this licence as long as the licence terms are met.
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51–75
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978-82-15-03467-6
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Download can be found on page, The Gaarder Debate Revisited: Drawing the Demarcation Line between Legitimate and Illegitimate Criticism of Israel
Bibliographic Information
The Gaarder Debate Revisited: Drawing the Demarcation Line between Legitimate and Illegitimate Criticism of Israel. . 2020: 51–75. https://archive.jpr.org.uk/10.18261/978-82-15-03468-3-2019-03
