Shells for Civilians

During "Operation Rainbow" (one has to love the Israeli names for military offensives) in Rafah in May, the Israeli military used tanks and gunships to massacre unarmed civilians taking part in a demonstration against the ongoing invasion. The Israeli Defence Forces kills civilians on a practically daily basis, but the scale of the destruction in Rafah led to an immediate negative reaction in Europe. This was seen as a "severe blow to the army's public relations efforts aimed at emphasizing that IDF commanders were using painstaking caution to avoid civilian casualties".

Apart from more hasbara, "explanation", what could possibly be the solution to the problem that some people (whose passive support the Israeli occupation needs) get upset when live tank shells are fired at civilians? Yes, of course: equipping tanks with shells which are meant to be used against civilians.

The Ten Thousand

One efficient method of reducing state-directed violence is to have international human rights monitors present. In the case of the territories occupied by Israel, deployment of such monitors by the United Nations has been blocked by the United States, last in March 2001. (For the vetoed resolution and the extensive list of other US vetos on Israel, see the Global Policy Forum.)

In the absence of action at the UN level, individual activists, most notably the International Solidarity Movement, have done important work as human rights observers on the ground, in addition to taking direct non-violent action. Now there is a new suggestion, the P10K. The idea is to get 10 000 international volunteers to stay in the Occupied Territories indefinitely. They would be a major brake on Israeli state terrorism, but there is an added twist: in exchange for the ten thousand coming to protect Palestinians, Palestinian armed groups would unilaterally end attacks inside Israel.

I hope the ceasefire would also include attacks on non-combatants in the Occupied Territories. It would be best for everyone if the Palestinian armed groups stopped all attacks on civilians immediately and unconditionally, international observers or not. They are immoral and illegal, and also counterproductive to the Palestinian cause. However, it may be that something like P10K is needed to bring about a unilateral end to Palestinian terrorism; a mutual end to terror will come about only via pressure on Israel.

I have much respect the ISM, but I am not sure about the seriousness P10K effort - the style of the main organiser is not very reassuring. And there are major obstacles to be overcome. The obvious issues are getting 10 000 internationals committed to staying and the Palestinian armed groups committed to the ceasefire (thus far the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade has agreed). Beyond that, if the Israeli government fears that the plan might work, it may deploy same methods as in the past to break Palestinian ceasefires and intimidate internationals: increased violence, including assassination of leaders for the Palestinians, arrests, deportations and gunfire for the internationals. Still, an ambitious and courageous plan.

Against the Wall

Following the landmark ruling by the International Court of Justice on July 9 condemning Israel's apartheid wall in the clearest of terms, the Non-Aligned Movement (with 115 members, it's the biggest political grouping outside of the UN) has called on the Security Council to adopt a clear resolution against the wall, UN member states to block products from the Israeli settlements from their markets and to impose sanctions against "companies and entities" involved in illegal activites in the Occupied Territories.

(Note added: in fact, the call for boycott was to members of the NAM, not the UN. See the declaration for details.)

It remains to be seen what the Non-Aligned Movement will actually do, but we may be close to the breaking point when Israel becomes a pariah among nations like apartheid South Africa. Even the Israeli Attorney General has warned that the ICJ ruling may lead to sanctions. These would be long overdue, for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will in end in one of two ways. Either international and internal pressure will lead to peaceful dismantling of the occupation, an end to Israeli apartheid and the beginning of a difficult reconciliation, as in South Africa; or the absence of such pressure will make it possible for the Israeli government to deploy enough violence to crush Palestinian aspirations to freedom.

The Non-Aligned Movement speaks for more than half the world's nations, so its stand is heartening. Sadly, however, it's not the voices of half the world but the actions of the US and the EU that count. Without the diplomatic, economic, military and propaganda support of the United States it would be impossible for Israel to continue the occupation. The European Union is less complicit, but as Israel's largest trading partner it could apply considerable pressure if it wanted to. Apart from actual sanctions, the absolute minimum the EU should do is to suspend the preferred status of Israel as an Associated State (in fact, the Associated State agreement is subject to human rights conditions), refuse to import products from the settlements and impose a total arms embargo. Thus far, the EU has been content with empty condemnations.

An Occult Mastermind

I learn from Nature that some religious writings of Isaac Newton have now been published for the first time by the Newton Project. Though it has been known that Newton, who along with Galileo Galilei is the father of the natural sciences, was interested in alchemy and the occult, the extent of his studies comes as a surprise. Far from pursuing such things only in his spare time, beliefs such as the Pope being the Antichrist seem to have been an important part of his thinking. Occult studies and works of "religious fervor" are not only related to his work in physics and mathematics, but in fact constitute the majority of Newton's writings. Darn, he'd make a good fictional character.

The Lost Childhood

I've just finished Marja-Leena Mikkola's book "Menetetty lapsuus" (The Lost Childhood), which deals with the concentration camps established by Finland in Eastern Karelia in 1941-1944 when the territories where under Finnish military occupation. The book focuses on interviews with child victims (adults being mostly dead by now), interspersed with more impersonal historical background.

For those not familiar with the Sequel War of 1941-1944 and the Finnish occupation (this would include the majority of people outside Finland, and the majority of people in Finland), a brief outline:

The Finnish government had agreed to take part in Operation Barbarossa, the German government's genocidal campaign against the Soviet Union. The Finnish aim was to recapture the territory annexed by the Soviet Union after the Winter War, the unprovoked assault on Finland in 1939-1940, as well as capture territory which had never been part of Finland, to build a Greater Finland. In order to ensure the racial purity of the conquered territories, the native population deemed to belong to the "Russian race", as well as some members of the "Finnish tribe" ("suomenheimoiset", "heimosukulaiset") was interned in concentration camps, to await being "transferred East"; members of the "Finnish tribe" were to be transferred in to replace them.

The camps shared many well-known features of the regular German concentration camps (the death camps are a different category altogether). Famine, disease, child slave labour, torturing children, children watching their parents tortured, such things. However, it seems that there was less of the arbitrary brutality and murders that are considered characteristic of the German camps.

The inmates had colour coding according to race: red strips for Russians, green strips for those of the "Finnish tribe". The Finnish occupiers even had blood tests, measurements of skulls and such to establish the racial purity of the population of the occupied territories - by modern standards bizarre, by the standards of the day pretty mainstream.

Apart from their obvious German and Soviet counterparts, the context into which I read the occupation and the camps are the British concentration camps in Kenya in the 1950s and the ethnic cleansing of Palestine which started with a bang in 1948 and continues slowly today. The camps and the ethnic cleansing are nothing extraordinary in history, but having the torturers bear Finnish names, the planners rename local streets according to heroes of the Kalevala and the leaders implement delusional Finnish racial supremacy theories strikes a very personal chord. This is particularly true as I had not heard of the camps before, and had not known that the nationalist-racist ideology was so pervasive.

Indeed, I remember learning in school that the Sequel War was a defensive one, and that Finland only attacked the Soviet Union because it was attacked first. The observation by the French philosopher Ernest Renan that "a nation is a group of people united by their mistaken view about the past and a hatred of their neighbours" seems particularly apt about the whole business.

While the German state has recognised its responsibility for people used as slave labour in the concentration camps and paid reparations, I don't think the issue has even been discussed in Finland. Where are the Finnish movies, novels, comics? The association of the child victims of Finnish concentration camps has written to the then-president Ahtisaari and the current president Halonen about the matter. They have not even received a reply. From Ahtisaari this is to be expected, perfectly in line with his ever more appalling public pronouncements in favour of war crimes by the side he identifies with. It remains to be seen whether the victims hear from Halonen, and if so, what they will be told.

Oh, and if you go looking for "Menetetty lapsuus" in the Academic Bookstore in Helsinki, don't bother with the "Finnish History" section. It's under "Biographies".