Israels Venner på Stortinget

Israels Venner på Stortinget (Friends of Israel) is a pro-Israel caucus group consisting of members of the Norwegian Parliament (the Storting). In 1974 the group constituted a majority in the Storting for the first time, with 86 members among the 150 parliament members. All political parties except for SV were represented. In 1981 the group had 100 members, but this number declined following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982.

In the current parliamentary period the group has 26 members from three political parties; 16 from the Progress Party (FrP), 9 from the Christian Democratic Party (KrF) and one from the Conservative Party (H). In comparison, the number of seats in parliament for each party is 38 from the Progress Party, 11 from the Christian Democratic Party and 23 from the Conservative Party. The group is currently chaired by Ingebrigt S. Sørfonn of the Christian Democratic Party.

The current members are:

Torbjørn Andersen (FrP) Anders Anundsen (FrP) Åse Gunhild Woie Duesund (KrF) Laila Dåvøy (KrF) Jan Arild Ellingsen (FrP) Jan Henrik Fredriksen (FrP) Carl I. Hagen (FrP) Line Henriette Holten Hjemdal (KrF) Kari Lise Holmberg (H) Solveig Horne (FrP) Morten Høglund (FrP) Dagfinn Høybråten (KrF) Ulf Erik Knudsen (FrP)

Ulf Leirstein (FrP) Ola T. Lånke (KrF) May-Helen Molvær Grimstad (KrF) Jan Martin Sahl (KrF) Ketil Solvik-Olsen (FrP) Arne Sortevik (FrP) Åge Starheim (FrP) Kenneth Svendsen (FrP) Hans Olav Syversen (KrF) Ingebrigt S. Sørfonn (KrF) Christian Tybring-Gjedde (FrP) Øyvind Vaksdal (FrP) Per Ove Width (FrP)

In late 2007, an initiative was taken to form a similar parliamentary group in support of Palestine.

References

• Myrland, Conrad "Israels venner på Stortinget 2005-2009". Med Israel for fred. Retrieved on 2006-07-14.
• "«Israels Venner»". Dagbladet. Retrieved on 2006-07-14.