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Tuomas Toivonen
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Wed, 19 Jul 2006
On Monday I went with a friend to a demonstration in the center of Helsinki organized by an "anti-war network" (pictures). What I wanted to do was show my support for Lebanon, but I should have known: instead of acknowledging the complexity of the situation in Lebanon the demonstration was an uncritical display of anti-Israeli fervor.
Please, Lebanon is not Palestine. Despite the many similarities between the ongoing crises in Gaza and Lebanon, serious confusion results whenever they are lumped together in a mess of anti-Isreali sentiment. Marching with indignation to the Isreali embassy in Helsinki the demonstration seemingly managed to absolve Hezbollah of any responsibility. Instead we were treated to a speech by a representative of the Palestinian authorities treating us to claims such as Israel being the sole remaining occupying power in the world and the legitimacy of "resistance" against Israel.
Admitted there was one small banner stating the obvious "Hezbollah != Lebanon". Whenever the marching crowd was chanting "Olmert is a killer, Bush is a killer" my friend and I tried timidly to follow with "Nasrallah is a killer". Ditto with "Hezbollah is terrorist" to "Israel is terrorist, America is terrorist". We managed to draw glances from several of our fellow marchers, but whether they approved or not, I don't know.
If only Hezbollah would have an embassy, I'd be there demonstrating daily. But that's wishful thinking; Hezbollah simply executes their own foreign policy on the expense of Lebanon as a whole. Simply the worst piece of utter bs during this campaign has been the Hezbollah appeal for Lebanese patriotism, the claim to be working in the interests of the Lebanese people.
After the demonstration we headed out to support Lebanon by buying four bottles of 2003 Chateau Ksara. Earlier that day my mother had raided the local store and emptied the shelves of Ksara with a purchase of nine bottles. As of today, they still hadn't restocked.
Everybody in the Alko service area (i.e. Finland), do something little and buy a bottle or two of Ksara or Musar. We need to empty the central storage facilities of Alko of all Lebanese wines. Once the Isreali blockade clears we want Alko to have new order out. Also, let me know if there are other Lebanese products available here.
Addendum: Last week Umayya Abu-Hanna and small group of people organized a rather more subdued, but in my opinion more appropriate demonstration. White flowers were laid in front of the Israeli embassy.
Update: Over at The Lebanese Bloggers a similar experience at a rally is described: if one condemns Hezbollah, people seem to assume that as an implicit an approval of Israeli actions.
Update, 2006-07-26: Another rally was held in Helsinki last Monday (pictures). I didn't attend, but according to reports in local media the crowd marched to the embassy again and burned a homemade Israeli flag. I don't really approve. Wholehearted demonization of Isreal and mixing up the Lebanese and Palestinian issues is not productive and most of all absolves Hezbollah.