FINGERNAILS & STONES – 16.10.2023

Inna Rogatchi (C). Solitude Song I. Hatikvah in White and Blue project. 2023.

One hears a lot of stories these days. Sometimes, they get polarised in one’s head. And one’s world. On Sunday October 15th, 2023, there has been a very decent and good gathering in the Finnish capital, in front of the Finnish parliament ( which still be a dead-silent as an institution, except one small press-release which had to do with Finnish members of the Council of Europe), with about thousand people came to express their solidarity with Israel. As they were leaving the event, those people who were exiting from one of two entrances, were met by stones. Just like during a riot in Eastern Jerusalem or any other place of terrorist attacks, big and small,  in Israel. But in Helsinki? 

 My friend who was there said that there were four or five young men who attacked people and threw stones at them  just next to the Finnish parliament. ‘And the police?”- asked another friend. – ‘Police were at the event, but they were not dispatched at the both entrances, so the one where the attackers were waiting for people to leave the event, was not covered. Police told us not to use that unguarded entrance. But there were very good volunteer guards who took care of everything”, my friend went on. Moreover, the police said that the event was peaceful. Yes, it was, during the demonstration. But after it ended, we were met with stones, and not by one person, but by several of them who were prepared and waiting for us. Police’s lulled ‘all was peaceful’ statement is typical for Finland though”, – concludes my friend.  Never before anything like that happened here in Finland. Was it reported just anywhere? Nope. 

Being under the impression  of the story about the stones thrown in the middle of Finnish capital on peaceful demonstration, I am hearing another story, in which a very experienced forensic doctor, Nurit Bublil, the head of the forensic DNA lab in Israel speaks about their gruesome finding. Everyone can hear it for him or herself, too. It is on X ( Twitter) released by the Israeli Foreign Ministry. It is just a few minutes. There you can hear about the Israeli forensic doctors’ findings in their non-stop hideous marathon to identify the victims of the similar types which are throwing stones at people now in Europe, as well. The Israeli forensic specialists are working for ten days now in the rhythms of starting their work at the labs at 7 am and finishing by midnight, coming home by 2 AM, doctor Bublil tells us remarkably trying to be calm. “We need to give our people names to bury them’. These are our doctors’ main tasks these days. 

Novices are not taken to the teams of the Israeli forensic doctors sorting out the findings of the October  7th Massacre. Only very experienced doctors who saw everything. Everything but this, several of them have told us independently. Doctor Bublil tells trying to keep calm, what she finds in the hundreds of samples reaching her lab. “One package was unusually heavy, and we all thought what could it be? We opened. It was a cook-book. Very popular in Israel, which is in so many kitchens, mine included. We all are using this cook-book here. The book was soaked in blood. And I thought: “It could be any of us”. This great doctor also told about other findings. “I opened a small envelope, and there were small nails. Painted in such a nice rosy colour. And another one, in white. Nails only. Nothing else. Nothing”. 

Those nails – and those stones. Those stones – and these nails.  What else is needed to prove the evil of terrorism?