Far away: The relation between Denmark and Israel

In the minds of Danish politicians and the Danish public, the Middle East and Israel were traditionally far away. In the first decades after the founding of the Jewish state, only on rare occasions did the Danish Parliament discuss related issues. However, this changed in the 1970s, due to two developments: Danish membership in the UN, NATO and especially the EEC gradually expanded the horizons of Danish politicians; and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict started to impact Denmark because of an increased number of Palestinian refugees, the oil crisis, and the rise of Palestinian terrorism in Europe. During these years the pro-Israel consensus, which had dominated Danish politics, was challenged from the far-left wing, which began to show solidarity with the Palestinian cause. As the 1968 generation of politicians grew older and rose to power, scepticism towards Israel gradually grew stronger. At the turn of the millennium, this culminated with the Danish Foreign Minister Mogens Lykketoft publicly taking a position against Israel, and the fierce Danish public debate about the newly appointed Israeli Ambassador to Denmark, Carmi Gillon, a former head of the Israeli Security Services (Shin Bet). Following the war against terror and Denmark’s own increasing role in conflicts in the Middle East, Danish–Israeli relations stabilized.