In Iceland, mother’s milk has been rich in anti-Semitism

Over the centuries, there has been much anti-Semitism in Iceland. In the context of modern Israel, it is difficult to find examples of Iceland playing a positive role.

One recent development is a petition circulating Iceland to pull out of next year’s Eurovision contest in Israel. It has 11,000 signatories — significant, in a country of 350,000.

Vilhjalmur Örn Vilhjálmsson, an expert on Icelandic Jewish history, describes anti-Semitism in Iceland over the centuries. In 1938, a German Jewish refugee was deported to Denmark, with Icelandic authorities offering to cover all costs for his expulsion to Nazi Germany if Denmark refused him entry. Decades after the war, similar cases came to light.

Icelandic SS officers fought for Nazi Germany, and others served in concentration camps. After the war, Vilhjálmsson said, former members of Iceland’s Nazi party quickly “attained high positions in society.”

Estonian Nazi war criminal Evald Mikson found refuge in Iceland. When, at the end of the 1980s, Nazi hunter Ephraim Zuroff tried to bring him to trial for the murder of Jews in Estonia, Iceland resisted, leading to attacks on Israel by its media. Its government took more than 10 years after Zuroff’s initial appeals to investigate Mikson’s war crimes. Only after Mikson’s death did a commission find evidence of his guilt.

In 2004, Iceland offered asylum to Bobby Fischer, the former chess champion who said that he hoped the U.S. would “close down all the synagogues, arrest all the Jews, [and] execute hundreds of thousands of Jewish ringleaders.” In 2004, he was arrested in Japan for using a revoked U.S. passport. Fischer fought extradition and was granted Icelandic citizenship by an act of parliament. He lived there until his death in 2008.

There are isolated examples of positivity. In 1947, Iceland’s representative at the UN, Thor Thors, was the rapporteur for the Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) that recommended partitioning the British Mandate into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. Abba Eban reported that Thors was “magnificent” in introducing the recommendation to the General Assembly where the vote was taken.

But since then, media mentions of Iceland and Israel signal negative news. In 2011, its parliament was the first in Western Europe to recognize a Palestinian state, under foreign minister Össur Skarphéðinsson, who has been sharply critical of Israel. MP Birgitta Jónsdóttir was the first parliamentarian of any country to visit participants of the Gaza flotilla.

In 2015, Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik, decided to boycott Israeli products. City council members said the boycott was a symbolic act of support for Palestinian statehood. The Icelandic Foreign Ministry said the city council’s decision did not reflect the country’s policy.

The latest indignity was this year’s proposal to ban circumcision, which would have made Iceland the first country in Europe to do so. The bill attracted much negative international attention — Reinhard Marx, the cardinal of Munich and Chairman of the Commission of the Bishops Conferences of the European Community, denounced it as an attack on religious freedom. The bishop of the National Church of Iceland said the ban could criminalize Judaism and Islam.

Every year before Easter, hymns full of hatred for the Jews are broadcast on Iceland’s public radio station. These were written in the 17th century, years before Jews arrived in Iceland, by the priest and poet Hallgrímur Pétursson. One hymn, entitled “The Demand for Crucifixion,” reads: “The Jewish leaders all decide that Jesus must be crucified. The Prince of Life their prey must be. The murderer set at liberty.” The Wiesenthal Center protested this practice, but to no avail.

Recently, a Chabad emissary arrived in Reykjavik and established a Chabad House, the first permanent Jewish institution in Iceland’s history. The highest estimate of Jews in the country is 250 — a tiny presence. One can only hope that the new emissary will not be subjected to abuse.

Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld is a Senior Research Associate at the BESA Center.