Israel–Norway relations are the bilateral relations between Israel and Norway. Norway was one of the first countries to recognize Israel, doing so on 4 February 1949. On 11 May 1949, Norway was one of the U.N. members that voted in the General Assembly to admit Israel to the UN. Both countries established diplomatic relations later that year. Israel has an embassy in Oslo, which serves Norway and Iceland. Norway has an embassy in Tel Aviv and two honorary consulates, one in Eilat and the other in Haifa. As at January 2009, 553 Israeli citizens lived in Norway and 260 Norwegians lived in Israel. Norway provided the facilities in 1993 to Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation that culminated in the Oslo Accords. In March 2007, the Norwegian government recognized the Hamas-led 2007 Palestinian unity government, and restoring full political and economic ties, but calling on the Palestinian authorities to renounce violence and recognize Israel’s right to exist. The unity government failed to get international support because it did not meet the conditions set by the Quartet. Israel rejected the new Palestinian government and said it will not deal with it unless it recognised Israel, which it refused to do. In 2010, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry said "Norway considers the Israeli presence in East Jerusalem to be in violation of international law, as does the entire international community."
Country comparison
Political relations
In 1981, a group of labour union members founded the organization Friends of Israel in the Norwegian Labour Movement. The purpose was to strengthen relations between Norwegian and Israeli labor movement in an informal and personal way. This was done by sending delegations to Israel, and by receiving visitors from Israel. Israel's ambassador to Oslo was an Israeli Druze poet and university lecturer, Naim Araidi. His deputy was George Deek, a Christian Arab from Jaffa. George Deek became chargé d'affaires at the embassy till the new ambassador Rafael Schultz started his mission in the summer of 2014. The leader of the third largest political party in Norway, Siv Jensen is a staunch supporter of Israel, and claim to "not afraid to defend Israel's right to defend itself." She visited the Israeli city ofSderot in the summer of 2008, and experienced the landing of a rocket from Hamasfirst hand, and said that she and others had to "run for the air-raid shelter". She strongly opposed the Norwegian government's decision to recognise Hamas as she holds that "you don't negotiate with terrorists, you just don't." In January 2009, she appeared at a demonstration called "Let Israel live" in Oslo. The Norwegian Police Security Service feared that Jensen might be the target of an attack although Jensen herself was not concerned. While political scientists had speculated that the Progress Party would lose more voters than they would gain by this strong support for Israel, polls showed a slight increase in support for the party.
