NORWAY RECEIVES HAMAS VISA APPLICATIONS

C O N F I D E N T I A L OSLO 000558

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/04/2016
TAGS: PREL PTER CVIS PGOV IS NO KPAL
SUBJECT: NORWAY RECEIVES HAMAS VISA APPLICATIONS


Classified By: P/E Counselor Mike Hammer, reason 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Norwegian MFA DAS for Middle East Affairs Kaare
Eltervaag told us on the afternoon of May 4 that Norway
received this morning (May 4) visa applications from two
individuals representing Hamas. The applications were
delivered to the UNDP offices in Gaza (Note: UNDP represents
Norwegian interests in Gaza). The visa applications will be
sent by normal processing procedures to the UNDP office in
Jerusalem, where the Norwegian Representative Office in Al
Ram will collect them. The Representative Office will then
forward the applications to the Norwegian Embassy in Tel
Aviv. Eltervaag told us that the visas applications will not
be adjudicated in Tel Aviv but by the MFA in Oslo.


2. (C) Eltervaag said that one of the visa applicants, named
Yahya al-Abadza, is a new applicant. In addition to
al-Abadza, Salah Mohammed al-Bardawil -- who has been denied
a Schengen visa -- has applied. The previously mentioned
Hamas traveler Mohammed el-Rantisi has apparently not applied
for a Norwegian visa. Eltervaag did not know what kind of
visas the applicants had applied for. He assumed that
al-Bardawil had applied for a Norwegian national visa;
however, Eltervaag suggested that, since al-Abadza has not
previously applied, he has most likely applied for a Schengen
visa from Norway.


3. (C) Eltervaag could not give us an indication of what the
political decision will be on visa issuance and said that he
honestly could not provide a time-line for a Norwegian
decision. The fact that one of the applicants has not
previously been denied a Schengen visa may add an extra
wrinkle.


4. (C) Speaking to us earlier in the day, MFA Office
Director Joern Gjelstad said that to issue a Norwegian
national visa, it would be necessary for Norway to justify
doing so on the grounds of overriding humanitarian reasons,
national interests, or fulfillment of international
obligations. Gjelstad gave his personal opinion that on face
value, an application for a Norwegian national visa from one
of the Hamas individuals should be refused, since none of
these three criteria are objectively met in a way that
overcomes the higher aim of Schengen solidarity. However,
Gjelstad admitted that this is a highly political matter in
Norway, and that the members of junior coalition partner
Socialist Left party (SV) and many fractious Labor
parliamentarians do not understand how Schengen works.

5 (C) Comment: This is crunch time for the Norwegian
government. Will PM Stoltenberg and FM Stoere maintain
solidarity with Norway's Schengen partners and hold course
with Quartet views, or succumb to the left's domestic
pressure to issue visas and meet with Hamas? Given that
keeping the government coalition together is a extremely
important goal for Stoltenberg, we cannot predict with any
degree of certainty which way this decision will go, but we
will continue to urge that Norway not issue the visas.

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