Last week I went to an Anti Gaza demonstration in the center of Copenhagen. I must say I have mixed feelings towards how everything turned out.
The first part was an unannounced demonstration that was to meet up with the main one on the main square of Copenhagen. As always the police stopped the demo, to turn it into an official one so they could walk on the streets. No big deal. People from abroad always seam to find this funny but this is how it works here. In the struggle to always be against the Man, the left wing do a lot of unannounced demonstration and then either get shut down, or convert it into a official on the spot.
The main gathering was good. lights, candles, and some politicians who gave speeches etc. Like in most of the world when our politicians talk about the Middle East they always insert a “But we are a true friends of Israel” in every other sentence. Again and again they feel the need to stress that Denmark is an Ally of Israel. When ever they give negative points to Israel they are very fast to also give negative points to, in this case, Hamas. I am a strong believer in equality, especially when it comes to politics. Each side should be listened to, and weighed. But this was just too much.
There was a lot of Palestinians gather too, and they were cheering at most of the words like “ceasefire“ and “peace“. One thing that made me laugh and made the Palestinians cheer a little less was when one of our Politicians, Margrethe Vestager, following a demand to shut down Israels war on Gaza, that made the growd cheer, said that the Hamas also needed to be Shut down. I think that she for a second forgot who she was speaking to.
It would turn out that the police had to close down the party afterwards. When the last one had spoken and the people who had arranged the demonstration told everyone goodnight, 3 very very large firecrackers were thrown in the middle of a squad of policemen. I was standing about 30 meters from one of them and it gave a very big pressure on my chest. It must have been some serious stuff. After the third the police drove in with police trucks and arrested everyone in the pack of troublemakers. It’s not that it gets me scared, I’m mostly calm when it comes to it. But actually feeling the pressure made me go in instant serious mode. I wouldn’t want one of them exploding near me.
While the troublemakers were down and handcuffed, others were shouting at the police. Telling them that they were no better then the Israeli army in that they were arresting children and being un-democratic. The mixed feeling I have is largely due to the last bit. Why show your anger in this way? When I watch the pictures on Al Jazeera, I too become frustrated and overwhelmed by the feeling of powerlessness. I want to break something, do something. Shout…. I will admit that tears have run down my cheeks after overloading myself with the horror that Israel have brought down upon the Gaza strip in the last weeks. Despite of the will inside of me to manifested my anger, throwing a small bomb at a squad of policemen in the heart of Copenhagen would not even make the top 100 on my list.
I have been thinking about why my pictures from that night were so bad. Why everything was happening in front of me with my camera hanging over my shoulder. I have come to the conclusion that I was too caught up in what was happening. My strong feelings got the better of me and I was unable to take a step back and let the things play out. This is something that I will have to work with. I need to focus despite of the theme.
The picture above is a “train” on arrested troublemakers that made the police shut down the demonstration by throwing large firecrackers at a squad of policemen.
