The National Theatre of Norway. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is calling on the National Theatre of Norway to denounce a video falsely produced on its behalf by Norwegian actors calling for a boycott of its Israeli counterpart.

“Hypocritically hiding behind the guise of freedom of speech, Norwegian actors have produced a video — using official funding — in which a fake spokesperson for the National Theatre of Norway disgracefully calls for a boycott of Israel’s national theater, HaBima, and the entire state of Israel,” a Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement said.

The video, published online and transcribed in a Sept. 20 article in the Norwegian weekly, Morgenbladet, dramatized an “apology” from the Norwegian National Theatre for cooperating with HaBima on a project called, “Terrorisms.” The actress/spokesperson claimed the theater was unaware of the “powerful role HaBima and other Israeli art institutions play in normalizing the Israeli occupation.”

The actress also apologizes on behalf of the theater for being ignorant of the “colonial conflict based on ethnic cleansing, racism, occupation and apartheid.”

The MFA said the “disinformation clip is reminiscent of the works of the Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, or the Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl.”

“Israel calls on the National Theatre of Norway, in whose name the libelous statements were made, to clearly and immediately repudiate them as well as to take the necessary measures to have the video removed from every site,” Israeli officials said.