NORWEGIAN LAWYERS SUE ISRAEL FOR WAR CRIMES ABUSES

C O N F I D E N T I A L OSLO 000315

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/27/2019
TAGS: PREL PINR PHUM IS NO
SUBJECT: NORWEGIAN LAWYERS SUE ISRAEL FOR WAR CRIMES ABUSES

Classified By: Deputy Chief of Mission Kevin M. Johnson
for reasons 1.4 b and d


1. (U) As widely reported in the international press, a group
of Norwegian attorneys filed with the Public Prosecutor's
Office a request for the Government of Norway to pursue a war
crimes case against Israeli officials for actions in Gaza.
The lead attorney pressing the matter is a well know human
rights lawyer who has taken cases before the EU Human Rights
Court.


2. (C) The decision of whether to proceed rests with the GON
Public Prosecutor's Office and the MFA has been at pains to
note this is a purely legal matter for that office to
consider. Under a recent change to Norwegian law, there is
now universal jurisdiction for certain serious offenses such
as war crimes. Thus, technically the Office could choose to
move forward with this. However, to date the Office has not
taken similar cases forward, choosing for example not to
prosecute a Norwegian company involved in Guantanamo several
months ago. This is probably partly driven by the nature of
the Chief Public Prosecutor, Siri Firigaard, who is not prone
to political gestures. It is also driven by the fact that
there are only five prosecutors in the Office and a
tremendous backlog of serious cases, including some war crime
cases against individuals from the Balkans who now reside in
Norway. When post last spoke with Firigaard, she bemoaned
their lack of resources and the overwhelming number of cases
before them. The attorneys filing this request also seem to
doubt they will get far, saying that simply filing the
request makes their point.


3. (C) The Israeli Ambassador to Norway told Embassy Oslo
that the GOI had mentioned the lawsuit as an item of concern
to the Norwegian MFA's political advisor, Vegard Ellefsen.
This lawsuit issue is the latest in a string of events which
highlight the Israeli Embassy's concerns. In early winter
during the Gaza war, Oslo saw a series of large anti-Israel
demonstrations, some of which turned violent. More recently,
the Israeli Ambassador formally protested Norwegian Foreign
Minister Stoere's decision to stay in the room at the UN
Racism Conference in Geneva during the Iranian President's
speech. The Ambassador also confidently told us that the
embassy will likely sue the Norwegian National Broadcasting
Company for what they perceive to be very biased news
magazine reporting on Hezbollah and the Gaza war.
WHITNEY