Norway parliament to consider proposal for national terror list naming Hamas, IRGC - exclusive

Norway's parliament is set to consider a proposal tomorrow calling for the country to establish its own terror blacklist, explicitly naming Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as groups that should be designated.

Norway does not currently maintain its own national terrorist organization list and instead relies on the United Nations sanctions framework. Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the IRGC are not on the relevant UN list.

Norway’s Christian Democratic Party (KrF) is looking to change this.

KrF Whip Joel Ystebø told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that his party is proposing that Norway create an independent designation system.

The motion - which the Post has seen - says that the Storting, Norway’s parliament, should instruct the government to bring forward legislation establishing a Norwegian list of terrorist organizations. Specifically, organizations "involved in preparing, promoting or glorifying terrorism, and makes it a criminal offense to engage in activities within such a terrorist organization, cf. the conditions set out in Section 136a of the Penal Code."

The KrF proposal explicitly says the list should include: Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the IRGC.

For clarity, parliament is not voting tomorrow to place Hamas and the IRGC on an operative Norwegian terror list, but instead on whether it should instruct the government to develop and submit a system creating such a list.

If the motion passes, the government would then be obligated to work out the legal and administrative details of such a list.

Creating terror blacklist could protect Norway's security, Jewish community

"We have been working on this for some time," Ystebo told the Post. "The reason why we are putting forward this proposal is because many of our allies have their own lists and we think that would be very good for Norway too, because it is important to take a stand when it comes to terrorism and antisemitism."

"But also, this is not only a foreign policy issue, this is also a domestic issue. It's about our homeland security. What worries me the most right now is seeing how some of these organizations, especially Hamas, have significant influence in other countries, including Norway, particularly concerning young people and radicalized young people in some of these communities."

While Parliament does not have a say over who would control such a designation list - i.e. the police of the Justice Department - Ystebo told the Post it would be "smart" to do this through the Department of Justice because it involves both foreign policy and foreign organizations, as well as homeland security. 

"It's important to put forward this proposal, because in my opinion and in our opinion, the Norwegian government has been very naive when it comes to the influence these organizations have in our own country, despite different reports being very clear that this is an increasing problem. So to us, this is just so important when it comes to our homeland security, and our minorities, especially the Jewish community," Ystebo concluded.

Establishing terror blacklist 'essential for protecting Norwegian society'

On Elpeleg, a Norway-based Israeli activist and the head of the advocacy group StoppNRK, told the Post that his group has been fighting for this motion for a long time, especially following the police report it filed against an NTNU professor who glorified the October 7 massacre. 

"Establishing a Norwegian list of terrorist organizations is essential not only for protecting the Jewish community, but Norwegian society as a whole," Elpeleg told the Post.

He said this is not about targeting Muslims or legitimate political views, but instead about "drawing a clear line against organizations that use terrorism and violence to achieve their goals."

"Norway should join other democratic European nations in formally designating Hamas as a terrorist organization, along with Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the IRGC and other organizations that meet the criteria," he said. "A democracy must be able to defend itself and its citizens."