Norway: Planned Palestine Demonstrations on October 7 Hounded by Bourgeois Media
Featured image: Demonstration in Norway in support of the Palestinian resistance struggle. Source: Tjen Folket Media.
On October 7, several demonstrations are planned in Norway in support of the Palestinian resistance struggle. One demonstration will take place at 17:00 Jernbanetorget in Oslo, and another will take place at 17:00 at the Blue Rock in Bergen. These demonstrations have been organized on October 7 every year since 2024, the difference this year, Tjen Folket Media (TFM) reports, is a massive hounding campaign from the bourgeois media.
TFM reports that the media campaign seemingly originated from the media platform Filter Nyheter as well as pro-israeli social media accounts, but was picked up by bigger bourgeois newspapers such as Dagbladet, Nettavisen, TV2 and Aftenposten, even the “leftist” newspapers Klassekampen and Dagsavisen joined in, including several others. Even internationally, the planned demonstrations were covered, including the Jerusalem Post.
The demonstration in question is organized by the Solidarity Network in Oslo and several organizations will participate, including FOR, Rød Ungdom, Kampkomiteen, Ungkommunistene, Revolusjonært Kommunistisk Forbundand several Lebanese, Palestinian and African organizations, under the slogan “Support the Palestinian resistance struggle!”
While the pressure directed at the participating organizations of the upcoming demonstration has led some to pull out of the mobilization – and some of the participants to even attack the demonstration in the bourgeois press – other organizations who have faced a lot of pressure have remained steadfast, upholding their position that the slogan of the demonstration is just.
A bourgeois politician from the Right Party (H), Mahmoud Farahmand (also known as “Lieutenant Satan” – a nickname earned by fellow soldiers during his service in Afghanistan), has criticized a poster of Palestinians celebrating on a burned tank, criticizing the silence of the Red Party on the participation of the Red Youth. TFM writes that “someone with so much ‘hands-on’ experience as an occupier should be able to identify at least a tank as a legitimate military target, and not as ‘terrorism.’”
In response to the hounding campaign of the bourgeois press, the Solidarity Network has issued a press statement, which we share an unofficial translation of below:
Press Statement: Why Are We Demonstrating on October 7?
We at the Solidarity Network are completely baffled by those who question this year’s demonstration on October 7. There have been demonstrations on October 7 in all major Norwegian cities ever since 2024. The fact that Israel’s narratives about October 7 have apparently become so widely accepted in the Norwegian public sphere that our lawful and properly notified demonstration is portrayed as controversial is just one more good reason to demonstrate on this very day.
Supporting the Palestinian people’s resistance struggle has been raised as a welcome slogan in several Norwegian cities in recent years, including on major days of popular struggle such as March 8 and May 1 All over the world, people show solidarity with Palestine by raising this slogan.
Under international law, an occupied people has the right to resist by all means, including military ones. This is confirmed by UN Resolutions 26/49 from 1970 and 37/43 from 1982. Reading the Norwegian press coverage, it seems as though no journalists are aware of this. It is deeply shocking that Norwegian authorities and politicians are backing the actions of the US and Israel under the guise of “Israel’s right to self-defense,” which in reality is the worst and most well-documented crime against humanity of our time.
The Solidarity Network maintains that the Palestinian people themselves have the right to choose whom they wish to support politically. This is rooted in the right to self-determination, as enshrined in Article 1, paragraph 1, of the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. We are not alone in defending this right in a historical and international context, neither among supporters of Palestine nor among others who are fighting against imperialist and colonial oppression.
On October 7, 2023, the myth of Israel as an unshakable power was severely undermined. Many different Palestinian resistance organizations took part in the counterattack. Equating the resistance movement with Hamas, reducing it to Israel’s “conflict with Islamists,” or portraying October 7 as a “terrorist attack” and mass murder of civilians are attempts to legitimize the occupation and genocide. Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are the strongest proponents of this propaganda, which Norwegian politicians and the media have also embraced.
The Solidarity Network refuses to accept the normalization of the Israeli government’s long-standing and systematic atrocities, while the Palestinian resistance is condemned. Demonstrating on October 7 is a necessary response to Israel’s supporters and others who deny or question the Palestinians’ right to resistance. Despite all attempts at condemnation, bans, and persecution, we are therefore demonstrating alongside millions of people around the world on this day.
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!
