ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the emergence, from around 1960, of a new generation within the Norwegian Left. Mostly belonging to the oppositional circle around the newspaper Orientering, and to the new Socialist People's Party (SF), members of this generation were not similarly devoted to the idea of civilisation as older social democrats were. They supported anti-colonial struggles and were eager to listen to the perspectives of colonised peoples. This translated into attitudes about Israel that differed from the idealising philo-Zionism that was hegemonic within the Norwegian labour movement. However, while members of this new generation became sceptical about Israel and about established notions of ‘civilisation’, they did not denounce either in the radical fashion that leftists in the later 1960s would. The emergence of scepticism among members of a younger generation also did nothing to dissuade older social democratic philo-Zionists from vigorously supporting Israel. This was evident not least in their mobilisation on behalf of Israel around the time of the Six-Day War.
