Norwegian university professor calls Hamas' Oct 7 massacre 'most beautiful thing this century'

A professor at a leading Norwegian university described the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks as “the most beautiful thing that happened this century,” drawing condemnation from Israeli officials and raising questions about the boundaries of academic expression in Norway.

Bassem Hussein, a professor at the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), made the remark during an event in the city of Trondheim organized by a Norwegian group called Socialist Forum.

The topic of the event, according to the alternative Norwegian news outlet Document, was “the situation in the Middle East and its consequences for Europe”.

“Hussein, who is originally from Gaza, believes that 7 October showed that ‘Israeli superiority’ is merely a myth and that Hamas’ terror massacres were ‘a needle in the backside’ of the Israeli ‘dragon,'" Document wrote about his talk, which was delivered in Norwegian and posted on YouTube by the other participant in the debate, Pål Steigan, a former leader of the Maoist Workers’ Communist Party in Norway.

Israel’s interim charge d’affaires in Norway, Eytan Halon, responded to the video on 𝕏, calling it “a shocking glorification of terror.”

“This Hamas supporter cannot continue teaching Norway's students,” Halon wrote.

Shocking glorification of terror by Prof. Bassem Hussein from Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

The 7/10 attack was the "most beautiful thing that happened this century", he said last week.

This Hamas supporter cannot continue teaching Norway's students @NTNU pic.twitter.com/hyWtFHjP9T

— Eytan Halon (@eytanhalon) May 2, 2026

There does not appear to have been any immediate reaction from NTNU.

Hussein has a history of radical anti-Israel and pro-Hamas activism. In January 2025, he led chants at a tribute to Yahya Sinwar. He also previously set up an encampment of tents outside the university where he lectures, demanding that it sever all ties with Israel.

At the time, Document asked NTNU management whether it was acceptable for a professor to be praising Sinwar, and received the following brief response.

“Freedom of expression is strong in Norway, and only the law sets the limit. If a statement is contrary to the law, it is a matter for the police or the judiciary,” Rector Tor Grande responded.

The controversy comes amid strained relations between Israel and Norway. Israel recalled its ambassador to Norway in May 2024 following Norway’s formal recognition of a Palestinian state, and the embassy has operated without an official ambassador since then. Israel has also considered shutting down its embassy in the country.

In August 2025, Norway announced that its sovereign wealth fund would be divesting from Israeli firms and appealed for an opinion by the International Court of Justice in The Hague over Israel’s decision to shut down UNRWA.

Concerns about antisemitism in Norway have also surfaced in recent months. In October last year, Norwegian state broadcaster NRK aired controversial content in an episode of a satirical children’s news show:

“U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson believes reasonable people thank America for bombing ships full of fentanyl – but if you replace fentanyl with Jews, it suddenly doesn’t sound so okay,” the program’s host, Tuva Johannessen, said in what was supposed to be a joke about killing Jews.

“It’s 2025, not 1945 – yet we’re hearing Nazi jokes on state TV again,” Israeli educator On Elpeleg, who lives in Norway, said at the time, arguing that the incident was a symptom of a wider problem with antisemitism in Norwegian society. “It’s unbelievable that this broadcaster, which collaborated with the Nazis and boosted their morale between 1940 and 1945, is still operating like this 80 years later,” Elpeleg warned, referring to the Norwegian pro-Nazi Quisling regime during World War II.