Dear Finland, We are outraged. نحن غاضبُون

November 23, 2023

We are writing as Black, Brown, migrant, indigenous and anti-racist groups in Finland. United in our shared struggle to decolonize and reclaim spaces that center Palestine every day, not only in times of genocide. United equally under the same sun and moon for justice and liberation, to demand: an immediate end to the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, unrestricted humanitarian access and end to the Finnish complicity and arms trade endorsing Israel’s war crimes and apartheid. Join our call to uphold the rights of the Palestinian people enshrined in international law of, not only “white rights”, but human rights.

As Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor stated on the 2nd of November, Israel has hit Gaza Strip with the equivalent of two nuclear bombs. 

Do you hear this? 

Does Finland and its people understand that we are watching this live in 2023?

This assault on the Palestinian people of Gaza is the 6th major assault since the illegal blockade was imposed in 2007. Israel has, as of the 23rd of November 2023, killed more than 11,000 Palestinians, including more than 4000 children, and injured more than 27,000, while thousands remain under the rubble. This is no doubt a genocide and we refuse to be silent or complicit yesterday, now and tomorrow. Meanwhile Palestinians in the Westbank, and in Israel are facing arbitrary administrative detention, an increase of settler violence and more. This is the worst that has happened to Palestinians since the 1948 Nakba ‘Catastrophe’, in which more than 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced, dispossessed and expelled from their homes.

Countless innocent people will continue to be killed, if we do not stop the roots of violence: oppression.

While we once again witness the massacre of our siblings in Palestine, from our homes in Europe, we are met with extensive disinformation and increasing restrictions on freedom of speech, expression and peaceful assembly, especially aggressive in France and Germany. The repression of our voices is supported and fueled by biased media coverage and a general lack of education on colonialism and our shared histories.

Many of us, currently living in Finland, arrived fleeing wars, poverty and economic devastation imposed on the majority of the world’s population, just as our ancestors before us fled the massacres, enslavement, and famine caused by Western colonialism and imperialism. Finland paid a great price during WW2 and should therefore stand in solidarity with the Global South, but instead chooses to be on the wrong side of history again, by continuing arms trade with the Israeli colonial regime and abstaining from calling for a ceasefire. 

We refuse the ahistorical treatment of the atrocious situation. We refuse to treat our struggles as separate. There is no safety in a world where racism, settler colonialism and genocide are given a carte blanche. There is no wall, be it a wall of apartheid or of fortress Europe, that brings true safety to people on either side. We confront this moment of great threat and grief together with courage, hope and the determination to act. Histories of our communities have taught us that even from the greatest tragedy can emerge a renewed commitment to freedom, justice and human dignity.

As Black, Brown, migrant, indigenous and anti-racist groups we are committed to the struggle towards a political consciousness aware of struggles we have faced and are still facing in the Global South, as well as other struggles exported to us in our homes in Finland and Europe. Our anti-racism movement is an anti-apartheid movement connected to the Black liberation struggle in the US, the South African anti-apartheid struggle, and now the struggle in colonized Palestine. We write to you to make ourselves loud and clear: we will not fail humanity, we will not fail the Palestinians. We call on our peers and allies to join the struggle for the liberation of the Palestinian people, not in the name of charity, but in the name of a shared political vision.

We call on Finnish society to wake up and stop being a bystander to the genocide in Gaza. You are complicit. Finland is complicit, with its silence, and its arms trade with a colonial regime globally recognized as an apartheid state. Let us engage in anti-racist, anti-apartheid and anti-colonial work in all its forms, and hold our government accountable.

As Black, Brown, migrant, indigenous and anti-racist communities, we reiterate our call for immediate ceasefire and unrestricted humanitarian access. We pledge, to ourselves, and the communities we work with, to unite in a common struggle to challenge and dismantle all roots of oppression, and injustice, once and for all, as we stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle for liberation. 

We call on all those residing in Finland to join us in demanding:

1. That the Finnish Government calls for an immediate ceasefire, condemning the genocide.

2. Immediate access to humanitarian aid and the increase of aid to Palestinian civil society. 

3. The allocation of more institutional resources to support the Palestinian community.

4. The immediate lifting of the brutal siege in Gaza.

5. Holding Israel accountable for its war crimes.

We call on the Finnish government for: 

1. Working toward ending Israeli apartheid and settler colonization.

2. Immediate end to the shameful arms trade with Israel

3. End of all commerce with Israel’s illegal settlements

TAKE ACTION

• Contact your representatives, parties and organizations and hold them accountable.

• Sign petitions for ceasefire and the entire Palestinian struggle.

• Participate in protests and direct actions nearby or organize one yourself.

• Endorse the largest Palestinian non-violent movement: the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

• Become a member in Sumud - The Finnish Palestine Network.

• Students, join @studentsforpalestinefinland.

• Students and university employees, join the Walk Out in Solidarity action.

• Most importantly: educate yourself. Find sources for learning, action and amplifying Palestinian voices: @sumud.fi , @palivoicesfin , @mondoweiss , @electronicintifada , @we_are_not_numbers , @palestinechron , @jadaliyya and many others.