Norway closed its representative office in the Palestinian Authority after the Israeli Foreign Ministry revoked the diplomatic status of eight Norwegian employees working there.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry has withdrawn the diplomatic status of the eight Norwegian diplomats because Norway recognised the Palestinian state following the October 7 massacre by the Islamist Hamas terrorist organisation and supported the issuance of arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders, according to Foreign Minister Israel Katz’s page on X, reports the tev.hu.
„Whoever acts against us, we will act against it. We will continue to maintain the status and national honour of the State of Israel,” the foreign minister wrote on Sunday in the wake of the incident.
The eight representatives who lost their diplomatic status will be forced to leave Israel following the decision. The diplomats have been told their accreditation will be revoked within a week and their visas within three months, but all have been offered the chance to apply for new accreditation.
Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide called the decision of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government „extreme and unreasonable”, and promised that Oslo would continue to work for a „viable Palestinian state” despite the setbacks.
Norway’s representative office, which was closed on Friday, was operating in the town of Al-Ram, on the West Bank. The decision is directed against „the Palestinians and the Palestinian Authority and all those who defend international law, the two-state solution and the Palestinians’ legitimate right to self-determination,” said Barth Eide.
The European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States have also criticised the withdrawal of diplomatic status and drawn attention to Norway’s role in the Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts over the past three decades.
Photo credit: Fayez Nureldine / AFP
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