Young and angry: The Danes taking a stand for Palestine

By Ebad Ahmed

PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AA) - For the second straight year, Denmark was the second-happiest nation in the world, behind just Finland.

By the looks of it, Danes are content with how things are in the country, with issues of public concern largely restricted to climate change, gender, and the occasional debate over defense spending in the light of the Russia-Ukraine war.

But there is a discontented part of the population, small in number but with voices loud enough not to be ignored.

They keep taking to the streets for protests, disrupting events with top officials such as Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, spraying graffiti on public and private properties, and blocking the gates of multimillion-dollar businesses – all for Palestine.

They are the angry and young anti-war Danes who firmly condemn Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza and Denmark’s policy on it, particularly the fact that the government has continued to allow exports of weapons being used to kill thousands of Palestinians.

These young men and women have organized themselves as an action group under the Palestine Solidarity Network, a larger pro-Palestine umbrella movement.

The main focus of their protests has been the weapons going to Israel from Danish companies, which is why they continue to block the entrances of their facilities across the country.

Since the group came together last October, they have set up blockades outside the offices of Terma, a Danish weapons and aerospace manufacturer, in Copenhagen, Soborg, Lystrup and Aarhus.

“Terma produces and sells more than 80 essential mission-critical parts for F-35 fighter jets that the Israel Occupation Forces are using for the bombardment of Gaza,” Camila Nicholson, a spokesperson for the group, told Anadolu, using a pseudonym for safety reasons.

According to Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, there are a total of 15 Danish companies supplying F-35 components to Israel.

“We have blocked Terma (facilities) 10 times in Copenhagen. Earlier this month, 100 people went across the country to shut down Terma production facilities in Aarhus, where over 700 employees were denied entrance,” said the spokesperson.

She stressed that their goal is to “revert a practice change that was made in 2016 which made it possible for Danish companies and weapon manufacturers to export arms directly to Israel.”

“We want to go back to the place where Denmark is no longer enabling and contributing to Israel’s war crimes,” she said.

- NGOs take Denmark to court

On Wednesday, four human rights organizations filed a lawsuit against Denmark for not complying with legal obligations by allowing arms exports to Israel.

The case against the Foreign Ministry and Danish National Police was filed by Amnesty International Denmark, Oxfam Denmark, Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke and the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq.

“The relevant authorities have today received the summons from the four organizations that have joined forces to stop Danish arms exports to Israel in order to protect civilians in Gaza and ensure that Denmark does not contribute to crimes against civilians and live up to its international obligations,” it said.

Denmark is a signatory to both the UN Arms Trade Treaty and the EU Common Rules for Arms Exports, which oblige the country to ensure that exports of weapons and military equipment from Danish companies do not risk contributing to violations of international law.

Nicholson said these developments prove that their pressure on companies “complicit in Israel’s war crimes in Gaza is working.”

- ‘We are being targeted’

While they have succeeded in increasing pressure on the government and companies, the pro-Palestine action group’s journey has been far from smooth, facing violent crackdowns, particularly in the city of Aarhus.

“The police in Aarhus is not properly prepared for this type of activism, and they rarely allow civil disobedience against imperialism,” Nicholson said.

“Add to that, Aarhus police is known by locals for being overtly racist and more violent to protesters fighting for Black and brown people’s rights. We’ve come across extremely incompetent police work because of it. We have activists that have been choked, grabbed in painful locks, bitten by attack dogs, and grabbed by their carotid arteries by police.”

She claimed that protesters have also suffered “broken ankles and elbows from violent arrests that often lead to no or dropped charges.”

“The police also show up with secret intelligence service at our doorsteps and intimidate us. We are being targeted,” she asserted.

Authorities in Aarhus, however, have denied the accusations, maintaining that their actions have been in line with rules set out to maintain public order.

- Changes on a societal level

Lena Hunter, a journalist and editor of the weekly newspaper Copenhagen Post, believes that awareness among Danish society has increased because of the protests against Israel’s war on Gaza.

While there has always been strong anti-war sentiment among Danes, the increased visibility of the Israel-Palestine conflict in Danish media since October has generated a more nuanced public discussion about the rights of Palestinians and Jews, and the complexity of statehood and foreign intervention, she told Anadolu.

“Organizations and individuals from across all sectors of business, culture, politics, and academia are responding to pressure from the Danish people, consumers and stakeholders to voice condemnation of Israel’s actions,” she said.

Denmark also recently announced resuming funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), a decision that drew backlash from Israel.

However, the overall political climate in the country is not particularly welcoming of pro-Palestine voices.

A political party – Danmarksdemokraterne – even put forward a proposal calling for foreigners applying for citizenship to be required to recognize Israel as a state.

According to Hunter, there has been reluctance or discomfort around condemning Israel in the past, stemming particularly from “a tension between feeling that Jewish people were owed reparations after the Holocaust and acknowledging that Israel is a transparently destructive colonialist state.”

However, since October, Danes have been horrified by the images of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, and settler violence elsewhere in Palestine, she said.

“In general, I now encounter more people who identify with the term pro-Palestinian, and almost none who would call themselves pro-Israel or indifferent,” she said.

“Now, the political talk from all parties is acutely focused on the necessity for an immediate cease-fire, and the policy stance is the same. There is no divided opinion.”