Sammendrag
The thesis analyzes the emergence of Norwegian New Leftist solidarity with Palestine between 1967 and 1970. I argue that transnational encounters and exchanges between Norwegian New Leftist activists and the Palestinian national movement saw Palestine emerge from obscurity, shaping a distinct conceptualization of Palestine as a nation embroiled in an armed struggle against colonialism and imperialism. Up until the 1967 Six-Day War, the Norwegian Left’s support of Israel had gone unchallenged since 1949. However, the anti-Zionist turn of the New Left in 1967 did not constitute an embrace of the Palestinian national movement and its liberation struggle, given that Palestinians were generally not considered a national group in themselves at the time. Instead, the New Left’s drastic shift from philo- to anti-Zionism spurred a new discussion on Israel’s legitimacy in Norway, at the same time that Palestinian nationalist organization like Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) were becoming increasingly more visible. With this backdrop, Norwegian New Leftist activists “discovered” Palestine through journeys to the Middle East. In their encounters with the Palestinian national movement, the Norwegians interpreted Palestine using references to the ongoing Vietnam War, drawing on global ideas of Third World revolutionism and anti-imperialism. This interpretation was also offered to them by the Palestinians themselves, who presented Palestine as a frontline for the shared anti-imperialist struggle against both US imperialism and Soviet social imperialism. This understanding of Palestine constituted the basis for the Norwegian solidarity movement with Palestine, which was institutionalized with the foundation of Palestinakomiteen in 1970. Even when told from the Norwegian activists’ perspective, the transnational history of this process illuminates the role of the Palestinians themselves in globalizing their struggle, as well as how global intellectual frameworks shaped early conceptualizations of Palestine on the Norwegian New Left. Finally, the emergence of the Norwegian solidarity movement with Palestine also sheds light on how the “Palestinianization” of the Middle East conflict was perceived on the Norwegian New Left.