A Norwegian professor who said Iran-backed Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack against Israel was "the most beautiful thing that has happened in our century" will not face charges, The Jerusalem Post reported Thursday.

Bassam Hussein, a project management professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, made the comments during an April 21 lecture organized by the Socialist Forum.

StoppNRK, a Norwegian anti-antisemitism activist group, then filed a complaint against Hussein with police. But Norwegian police investigator Arild Hansen and prosecutor Sunniva Tronvoll told the group Thursday that the case had been dismissed because "the reported conduct is not considered a criminal offense," the Post reported.

Police informed StoppNRK in a letter viewed by the Post that the decision can be appealed to the next higher prosecuting authority. The deadline for filing an appeal is three weeks.

"It is unbelievable and unacceptable that Norway, a country where nearly half of its Jewish population was murdered during the Holocaust, allows the glorification of the genocidal terrorist organization Hamas," On Elpeleg, the head of StoppNRK, told the Post.

He said StoppNRK will appeal the decision.

"It is becoming increasingly unsafe to be a Jew — or anyone who opposes terrorism — in Norway," he said.

Hussein was born in a refugee camp in Gaza in 1963, Adresseavisen reported. He came under heavy criticism following his remarks.

"It is a glorification of violence and terror that has no place in our society," Ervin Kohn, head of the Jewish Cooperation Council, told NRK. "It is completely unacceptable."

Vikas Thakur, dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the university, told the Post following the incident that it has no responsibility for the event because it was arranged at a venue outside the university campus.

When asked whether NTNU considers Hussein's statements to be glorification of terror, Thakur said, "We understand that the statement may be perceived that way" but that "he spoke as an individual citizen with a background from Gaza, not on behalf of the university."

Tor Grande, the university's rector, expressed similar sentiments.

"It is important to be aware that the statement came at a meeting where Bassam Hussein participated as a private individual," Grande told NRK.

"NTNU was not the organizer, and Hussein did not represent NTNU at this meeting," he added. "The topic of his speech also had no connection to his teaching and research at the university."