Jewish media reported that the Israeli Foreign Ministry had rejected a request by Norwegian Foreign Minister Enek Heitfeld to meet with Prime Minister Yair Lapid during her upcoming visit to Israel and Palestine.
The Ynet website stated that “the reason for the cancellation of the meeting is due to the tension between Israel and Norway following the latter’s decision to label the products of the settlements.”
Whereas, a few days ago, Aliza Ben-Nun, Deputy Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, met with the Norwegian Ambassador to Israel, Karen Rieder S., who, in turn, conveyed to her the request of the Norwegian Foreign Minister to meet with the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid.
Ynet stated that during the meeting between the two parties, Ben-Nun “considered the negative steps taken by Norway against Israel and made it clear that due to the election, a meeting with Lapid was not possible.” June that it would label food coming from settlements in the West Bank, and Israel held diplomatic talks with Norway to dissuade it from making the decision, but to no avail.
It is worth noting that the position of the Norwegian government is that only lands under Israeli control before the date of June 4, 1967 belong to Israel and its lands, since it (Norway) considers that the settlements are located on occupied lands and this is contrary to international law .
And Ynet quoted an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying “Norway has a special status because of the Oslo Accords, but now, after the decision (of the settlements), it will damage its reputation.”
Source: “i24”