– Glorification of mass murder and terror may be perceived as an encouragement or incitement to similar criminal acts against Jews, writes On Elpeleg in the police report against NTNU Professor Bassam Hussein.

The report was submitted to Trøndelag Police District on Tuesday evening.

On Elpeleg is originally from Israel and has been resident in Bergen for more than 30 years. (Photo: Private)

Elpeleg, who is Jewish and lost half his family during the Second World War, reports Hussein for breaches of three sections of the Penal Code:

• Section 185 – Hate speech
• Section 183 – Incitement to commit a criminal act
• Section 108 – Incitement or conspiracy to commit genocide or crimes against humanity

Hussein’s statement during a lecture in Trondheim that the terror attack in Israel in 2023 is “the most beautiful thing that has happened in our century”, according to Elpeleg, promotes “hatred, persecution or contempt against Jews as a group on the basis of religion and ethnic origin”.

NB: Disturbing images. Arab terrorists attack and kill Israeli civilians in the kibbutz area of Mefalsim, near the Gaza border. (Surveillance video/Wikipedia)

Attempted genocide

– To call the massacre of Jewish civilians “the most beautiful thing” in our century is a gross devaluation of the victims’ human dignity and a glorification of terror and attempted genocide.

According to the report, the statement may be seen as a justification of attempted genocide, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment.

Glorification of terror carries a maximum sentence of three years’ imprisonment, according to Elpeleg’s legal assessment.

– Norway has a particular historical and moral responsibility to prevent antisemitism and new attempts at genocide against Jews, precisely because Jews have already experienced genocide on Norwegian soil. Norwegian authorities therefore bear an additional responsibility to prevent such glorification of terror and mass murder from spreading in the public sphere, writes Elpeleg.

In the report he points out that Hussein’s statement was made publicly and refers to the recording which is available on YouTube.

The attack is known as an attempted genocide and the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Its aim was to kill as many Jews as possible in Israel. Approximately 1,300 civilians were killed, several hundred were taken hostage, and many of the victims were tortured and raped.
The statement was made publicly.

– I request an investigation and an assessment of criminal liability. I am willing to give a statement, writes Elpeleg, who styles himself administrator of the Facebook group StoppNRK.

Reputational problem

Tor Grande, rector at NTNU. (Photo: Private)

The Bassam Hussein affair appears to be becoming a reputational problem for NTNU and Rector Tor Grande. Yesterday Eytan Halon, chargé d’affaires at the Israeli embassy in Oslo, wrote a letter to Grande expressing concern for the safety of Jewish students at NTNU.

It was also Halon who commented on the matter on X after Document wrote about it on 1 May, which in turn led The Jerusalem Post to pick it up.

For the time being, the latest entrant is Kjetil Rolness, who sums up the matter on Substack.

– Hussein delivered a well-prepared lecture full of notions that ought to have remained in the sewer, believes Rolness.

– The antisemitism expressed by Hussein is to a considerable extent acceptable among large sections of the left, not merely its outer fringe.

Letter from Eytan Halon, chargé d’affaires at the Israeli embassy in Oslo, to NTNU Rector Tor Grande.

NTNU professor on the October 7 Pogrom: “The most beautiful thing that has happened”