I'm NOT trying to compare tragedies or rank suffering, just asking: why do you think Finnish people or Uni students mobilize more around one than the other?
There have been big, visible rallies in Finland about Palestine/Gaza. But when there have been gatherings about Iran (e.g., in Helsinki or Tampere), it seems like most participants are Iranians living in Finland, with relatively few non-Iranian joining.
Given recent reporting suggesting the Iran crackdown death toll could be extremely high (Thirty thousands according to Time magazie https://time.com/7357635/more-than-30000-killed-in-iran-say-senior-officials/), why do you think the public response looks so different here?
Is it about media coverage, existing activist networks, perceived Finnish influence, difficulty verifying information from Iran, or just crisis fatigue? Or does it reflect some kind of selective compassion?
(Please keep it civil, and let's be respectful to all innocent people who lost their lives anywhere in the world, I’m genuinely asking.)
I understand why Ukraine gets a different level of attention here: it’s geographically close, historically relevant, and many Finns can imagine Finland facing a similar fate. So, not asking about Ukraine.
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Ok_Explanation_6313
17 comments
1. Too much is happening in the world at once. Attention is divided.
2. They havent figured how to blame americans yet.
Probably because its not popular country to talk about and do we even have our own local reporters there? People nowadays shy just reporting based on other peoples news
Media coverage, I suppose. They’ve been without internet for a couple weeks so theres limited stuff on social media, which i would argue were instrumental in building anger towards israel.
I personally think Finland (and EU) as a whole is facing a lot of crisis at the moment, friendship with US has been shaky lately, overall they are trying to focus on themselves at the moment and also not trying to get new tariffs from US. Also lack of verifiable source of news would also be an issue.
I might be wrong too!
I can only talk for myself personally, but to me they are extremely different in all kinds of ways.
And in my circles there is a big reaction, it is just that there’s not that much point in public protests, because there aren’t close ties for unis or governments to break, the Iranian regime is already under all kinds of sanctions. So apart from the comparison being apples and pears to begin with, there’s isn’t much to demand from the government, or the EU, and unis don’t have to be pressured into breaking ties they don’t have in the first place.
The question really is, why is there minimal public reaction in Finland to practically all other suffering and war in the world except for the Palestinians, and of course whatever is happening in Europe itself. Iran is no different to Sudan or Yemen or Myanmar in this sense.
Civil wars generally attract much less outsider interest and emotion than conflicts between states. A case in point: three years ago Ethiopia had a disastrous civil war, where around 600,000 people perished and millions were displaced. Yet few people were even aware it happened and the media wrote little about it.
Another reason might be, that the Iranian diaspora in Finland is much smaller than in, say, Sweden or Germany.
It’s not in people’s facebook feed.
Nnobody really cares about Iran. They don’t have very much internet presense
Anglo-american media don’t have Iran as the biggest thing in the world.
I don’t think anyone here thinks western pressure does anything. I see it as Irans domestic matter and no amount of actions from European countries will have any effect on what happens there.
USA could do something, but again same issues. Actions of European people won’t make a difference there unless Trump actually asks opinions.
Thirdly, while what is happening there is shocking it isn’t really surprising. Anyone interested should have been expecting something to happen sooner or later. Anyone not interested in the first place would not care.
What is happening to Palestine is 18th century style colonisation, happening in the 21st century.
It isn’t comparable to a despotic regime clamping down on its citizens in a bloody manner like what Iran is doing.
Both are terrible but only one is being openly funded and often even celebrated by the developed world.
Iran is also heavily sanctioned and financially crippled by most of the globe.
Israel isn’t, in fact they are given free money and weapons from the world’s biggest super power and some other nations. Sadly, including mine but on a much smaller scale.
My perception is that Finland has much more to do with Israel vs Iran – a lot more products from Israeli-owned companies get sold here. The government also signed an agreement to buy Israeli weapons, and a lot of people would like to see that cancelled – so there’s more to be achieved in Finland protesting Israel
To me it seems the Finnish media is and was extremely biased.
It’s quite simple really, because one is politically weaponized, while the other is not. The people who are the most vocal politically about Gaza are closely related to the ones who supported the Iranian revolution (and China, and Cambodia etc). Ask any Iranians in Finland what they think about Israel and even Bibi, you might be quite surprised.
With Gaza, there are political tensions with some support for Israel too here. I don’t think there is much support for the Iranian government, thus there isn’t many people to protest against. But yes, selective compassion is apparent as well. I don’t think it’s even possible to invest emotionally in every tragedy around the world.
Multi-billion dollar Qatari media
Because of the small media coverage and because everyone agrees they should stop killing iranians.
With palestine it was the norm to not be on palestinian side and israel spreading propaganda to every direction. Now there is no blatant misinformation to fight against now everyone just agrees like evryone should that the killing should stop.
In protesting now, the only thing is to show solidarity. Everyone in Finland already support the protesters in Iran. The Finnish state has hardly any connections to Iran, there’s no further EU sanctions that can be placed anymore that would have an effect, and the only thing Finland could do is to close the embassy in Tehran.
Protesting for Palestine and against Israel was an urge for the Finnish government and the EU to pressure Israel, and also show that a free Palestine has support within Finland, and that those who show unwavering support towards Israel are in the minority.
The point with protests is usually to achieve some goal or policy change, and with Iran there’s just nothing that can be achieved.