Denmark – Røde Fane: Mass Arrests in Demonstration against the Genocide in Palestine in Front of Terma
We hereby share an unofficial translation of an article published by Røde Fane of Denmark on 15 August.
A total of 141 people have been detained by the police, and 47 people have been charged in connection with a demonstration against Danish complicity in Israel’s genocide.
On Monday morning, August 10, a demonstration gathered in the central Jutland town of Lystrup, in front of the weapons components manufacturer Terma. The demonstrators were protesting the company’s involvement in the Danish production and sale of weapons components and systems used by the apartheid State of Israel in its systematic genocide against the Palestinian people.
Among other things, Terma produces weapon components in the form of software and electronics for the notorious F-35 fighter jets, which Israel has used directly in connection with the genocide in Gaza. These aircraft are used to wreak mass destruction in order to defeat the Palestinian national liberation struggle, and to realize their perverse dreams of a “Greater Israel.” The UN has estimated that Israel has murdered more than 80,000 civilians in Gaza, 30 % of whom are children. These are figures acknowledged by the UN itself, and the official death toll is estimated to be even higher.
The demonstration began at 5 a.m., while the police attempted to remove the demonstrators from the road and have them demonstrate elsewhere.
During the demonstration, paint was poured over the company’s sign, among other things, which the police used – citing, among other things, the allegations of disrupting traffic and ignoring police orders – used as grounds to carry out a mass arrest of 141 people, more than 40 of whom were taken to the police station in Aarhus, where they were detained for an extended period. As of this writing, all but two people have been released.
When what is right becomes wrong, resistance becomes a duty – it is right to rebel!
Mainstream media and politicians have been quick to condemn the demonstration and, in particular, the actions carried out during it. Terms like “vandalism” and accusations of making Terma employees and residents of the small town north of Aarhus “feel unsafe” have been used extensively in defense of the police’s actions.
“Why can’t the demonstrators take the legal route?” some ask. The law is made for those who have the money and power – and Terma has both. The legal route has already been taken: a citizens’ initiative to stop arms sales to Israel had gathered more than 50,000 signatures, but was summarily rejected in the first reading by a majority in the Parliament consisting of the Social Democrats, SF, the Left Party, the Moderates, LA, the Democrats of Denmark, the Conservatives, and the Danish People’s Party – which amounts to virtually the entire Danish Parliament.
Despite more than 150 demonstrations in Copenhagen alone since the start of Israel’s intensified genocide against the people of Gaza and the West Bank, politicians have turned a blind eye. When more than 60,000 people took to the streets in Copenhagen to protest the genocide, the media remained silent. On the contrary, since the 7th of October, there has been a systematic campaign to criminalize those who support the Palestinian struggle for liberation.
When nothing changes and the law continues to protect those who make billions off the deaths of others, solidarity with the oppressed becomes a duty. Those who shed tears for the poor Terma employees, who were startled to find people had gathered to condemn the company’s war profits, do not extend the same hand to the people of Gaza and thus expose themselves as hypocrites.
Despite the many arrests, the escalation has shown that the Palestinian solidarity movement is more than viable and that it is intensifying the struggle. Imperialism will always seek to make anything that harms its interests illegal or attempt to criminalize it, but just because something is legal under the bourgeois State does not mean it is just. That is why it is right to rebel. The editorial board calls for solidarity with everyone who participated in the demonstration and support for the comrades who remain in police custody.
