Israel revokes status of Norway envoys to Palestinian Authority

OCCUPIED AL-QUDS: Israel said on Thursday it was revoking the diplomatic status of Norway´s envoys to the Palestinian Authority accusing Oslo of “anti-Israel behaviour” during the Gaza war and drawing a formal protest.

Norway -- a key facilitator in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, particularly in the secret negotiations that led to the Oslo Accords of the 1990s -- swiftly summoned the Israeli ambassador to lodge a formal protest.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said he “ordered the termination of any representation on behalf of the Norwegian embassy in Israel vis-a-vis the Palestinian Authority,” which has limited powers in urban areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

“There is a price for anti-Israel behaviour,” Katz added in a statement, citing Norway´s recent recognition of a Palestinian state and backing of a pending International Criminal Court case implicating Israeli leaders in alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Norway accused the hard-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of adopting an “extreme” response.“This is an extreme action that first and foremost affects our ability to help the Palestinian population”, Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said in a statement.

Barth Eide later called in an Israeli embassy official to hear a formal protest.

“A short while ago, I summoned Israel´s representative to Norway and met her at the foreign ministry to protest against this decision,” the minister told journalists.

The Palestinian Authority accused Israel of resorting to “baseless pretexts” to put pressure on any government that tries to halt “violations against our people”.

A statement from its foreign ministry expressed “condemnation and strong disapproval of the decision by the (Israeli) occupation authorities to restrict the work of Norwegian diplomats operating in the occupied State of Palestine, including Jerusalem”.

It also expressed “rejection and disapproval of Israel´s attempts to create baseless pretexts to pressure countries and international institutions that support our people and contribute to diplomatic and legal pressure on the occupying power to halt its crimes and violations against our people”.