Med Israel for Fred (MIFF, “With Israel for Peace” in Norwegian), a non-religious, Norwegian pro-Israel organization, has gained access to a private cell phone image showing the result of an attack at a school barbecue last Monday. A 16-year-old Jewish boy was eating a grilled chicken when a red-hot coin was placed on his neck by fellow students, making very visible burns on the boys neck.
According to Norwegian blogger Conrad Myrland, quoting the Jewish boy’s mother, the attacking students had heated the coin on the grill and pressed it onto the boy’s neck. The red hot coin burned through to the flesh.
On Tuesday afternoon, the boy’s mother said that a teacher had observed the incident and told the culprit “you’re mad.” Yet no representative from the school made contact with the mother afterwards.
This fits into a pattern from the school, the mother said. In March, 2010, she told Norwegian TV channel NRK that school staff failed to intervene in anti-Semitic incidents, applying a policy of avoidance.
“I see this avoidance as a dangerous development among both ethnic Norwegian and immigrant groups,” she told the NRK. “Nobody, neither teachers nor principals, intervene in this matter. There is a refusal to address these issues, it is too sensitive.”
In the 2010 interview, the boy’s mother, who wished to remain anonymous, spoke about “clear anti-Semitic harassment, expressed verbally and physically.”
“They say they are going to kill all the Jews, and use offensive language such as ‘Jewish pigs’ and ‘Jewish Satan,'” she added.
