Norwegian exams....

We've seen several reports this year about anti-Israel attitudes in Norway. Here's another case...

Israel's embassy in Oslo expressed "surprise and shock" over the decision to include a poem about a Palestinian youth killed by Israeli soldiers in Norway's national junior high school final exams.
ADVERTISEMENT
click here

"The embassy is extremely upset over the decision to include a one-sided political poem in the background material provided for the Norwegian exam this year," the mission said in a statement.

"We call on the government to distance itself from this and to take the necessary measures to ensure a balanced approach," the statement added.

The poem written by Norwegian author Lillian Schmidt called "Nida al-Azzais - a Palestinian pupil" describes a 14-year-old girl killed in 2002 by Israel soldiers in a refugee camp in Bethlehem.

"... Nida, shot by Israeli soldiers, finally made me stop and see the violence. To take a stand. But how does that help her?" it concludes.

The poem figures among a number of texts on conflicts and misunderstandings, which Norway's senior junior high school students were expected to write about in their final exams.

"This comes dangerously close to controlling what young, easily influenced people should think about the Middle East conflict. The Embassy takes this very seriously," the mission said.