Nearly 10 years after Anders Behring Breivik tried to kill her on the Norwegian island of Utoeya, Astrid Hoem is back there to explain to a group of teenagers how she ran for her life and hid in a beach cove while Breivik murdered others around her.
“He shot a girl next to me, in the back. She told me: ‘Please tell my parents I love them, because I am going to die,’” Hoem, 26, tells the high-school students.
The girl survived.
Photo: Reuters
The students, who are on a three-day workshop on how to solve conflicts and challenge racist attitudes, listen in silence as Hoem recalls her memories: how she did not move for about two hours from under a rock, how she did not call friends in fear the ring would give their positions away to Breivik, how she thought Norway was at war.
Breivik detonated a car bomb outside the prime minister’s office in Oslo, killing eight, before driving to Utoeya and shooting 69 people gathered at a Labour Party youth camp on July 22, 2011.
Survivors, many of whom were teenagers at the time, are determined to confront the far-right ideology which was a catalyst for the attack.
“It is important that we talk about it, because I do not want it to happen again,” Hoem said.
It already has. In New Zealand in March 2019, white supremacist Brenton Tarrant, who said in his manifesto he was inspired by Breivik, gunned down 51 people at two mosques.
Later that year, Norwegian Philip Manshaus killed his Chinese-born adopted sister and tried to shoot worshipers at a mosque.
He cited Tarrant as an inspiration, according to a court psychiatric report.
“Those opinions, those conspiracies, that hate ... is stronger now than it was 10 years ago,” Hoem said.
In April, Labour decided at its party congress that, should it regain power in elections in September, it would set up a commission to investigate the early lives of Breivik and Manshaus to understand and prevent radicalization.
The commission would also probe Norwegians who became Islamist fighters in Syria.
“What can we do to keep young, especially young white males, from turning out so extreme opinions that they feel they can take lives because they disagree with someone? We have to know how to prevent it in school, on the Internet, in our communities,” Hoem said.
Survivors also want to debate publicly some mainstream political attitudes that they say provide the ideological justification for extremist violent actions.
Breivik believed Labour betrayed Norway simply by allowing Muslims to live there as part of what he believed was a worldwide conspiracy to make Islam the dominant religion in Europe rather than Christianity.
Survivors see some mainstream right-wing politicians legitimizing this view by being critical of Muslims and labeling them as a threat to Norwegian society.
Over the past decade, the populist Progress Party has regularly raised its concerns about what it says is “sneaky Islamization” taking place that contradicts Norway’s traditional way of living.
Progress, which has repeatedly condemned the Breivik attacks, denies its views help fuel far-right extremism.
However, Progress Party leader Sylvi Listhaug said it would continue to push for tighter immigration and integration policies.
“Political debate must be allowed. We do not allow ourselves to be intimidated into silence even if attempts are made to put labels on us,” she said.
The new attitude by survivors is a departure from Norway’s response at the time, which emphasized unity and consensus.
In the following months, debate focused on the failures of authorities, such as the delayed response by police to Utoeya, rather than on Breivik’s worldview.
“The 10-year anniversary of July 22 gives a concrete occasion to look back and to try to recalibrate the debate,” said Hallvard Notaker, the author of Labour and July 22.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel
Africa has established the continent’s first space agency to boost Earth observation and data sharing at a time when a more hostile global context is limiting the availability of climate and weather information. The African Space Agency opened its doors last month under the umbrella of the African Union and is headquartered in Cairo. The new organization, which is still being set up and hiring people in key positions, is to coordinate existing national space programs. It aims to improve the continent’s space infrastructure by launching satellites, setting up weather stations and making sure data can be shared across
RSS