I take up this subject in my column with some skepticism

Why should a five-year-old meeting between unofficial Norwegians and Hamas be news now? That is the question Marte Heian-Engdal raises as she addresses the controversy in her weekly column, writing that she approaches the subject with some skepticism.

The issue resurfaced after The Times of Israel published an article based on minutes from a 2021 meeting. The document reportedly said that Heian-Engdal, then deputy director of the Norwegian Centre for Conflict Resolution, or Noref, had met representatives of Hamas.

The report was based on Hamas meeting minutes that the Israeli military, known as the IDF, reportedly found in the ruins of Gaza. The material later reached NGO Monitor, an activist organization whose main purpose, according to the article, is to criticize organizations working on the ground in Israel and Palestine.

Heian-Engdal writes that she initially thought little of the matter. A meeting involving unofficial Norwegians and Hamas, held five years earlier, did not seem to her to have obvious news value. But, she adds, the internet is a vast place with many unusual corners.