Swedish professor links Israel to Norway massacre

Ola Tunander suggests Israel behind bloody terror attacks committed by Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik in July, stirring up controversy in Oslo

A Swedish professor suggested Israel was behind the bloody terror attacks committed by Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik this past July, stirring up controversy in the country.

Research professor Ola Tunander of the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) published an article in the Norwegian academic journal Nytt Norsk Tidsskrift in which he called to further examine Brevik's motives.

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According to Tunander, it is possible that some country was behind the terror attacks, hinting that Israel might be that country.

Far right extremist Breivik, 32, had previously confessed to the Oslo bombing, which killed eight people, and to the youth camp massacre which killed 69 at the small island of Utoeya northwest of Oslo earlier in July.

In December the confessed killer disputed an expert conclusion that he is criminally insane. His lawyer was quoted as saying: "We have examined a good part of the report that details the conversations he had with the psychologists."

Breivik "reacted by saying that it contained factual errors (and) lies and that his statements were taken out of context," his lawyer added.

Tunander claimed that in order to carry out a terror attack of such magnitude the involvement of state forces is needed, “and we can’t rule out that being the case this time too,” he wrote.

July 22 in history

While quoting the controversial article, the Swedish news site The Local presented the professor's theory. Tunander mentioned the political tensions between Oslo and Jerusalem in the months prior to the terror attacks in light of Norway's intent to recognize a Palestinian state.

He goes on to link between July 22, the date of Breivik's killing spree, and the significance of that date in Israel's history. Tunander brings up the Lillehammer affair of 1973, when Mossad agents accidently killed a Moroccan waiter in the Norwegian city believing he was Ali Hassan Salameh, the chief of operations for the 1972 Munich massacre of Israeli athletes. One of the agents was arrested the day after the murder, on July 22nd.

The Norwegian professor also discussed the bombing at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem carried out by the Irgun on July 22, 1946.

“We have discussed the right-wing extremist Israeli and Judeo-Christian side of Breivik’s network, Israel’s interest in disciplining Norway, and Israel’s celebration of bomb attacks. In this respect, Breivik’s attack appears to resemble a new king David Hotel attack: July 22nd,” he said.

PRIO director Kristian Berg Harpviken told Norwegian magazine Minerva that Tunander's article left him with a feeling of “considerable unease.” Harpviken added that it was a wrong call on behalf of the Nytt Norsk Tidsskrift to publish it.

Tunander said that it was unfair to conclude from his article about any intention to link between Israel and the most murderous event in Norway's history since World War II.