Gaza conflict taken up in Finnish history classes

Veteran teacher Olli Rajaharju, 61, has a challenging task. He is teaching a lesson on the situation in the Middle East at the Porkkala upper secondary school in Kirkkonummi on Monday. Much information needs to be packed into the hour and a half.
Taking part in the historical review are six pupils who plan to write on history in the matriculation examinations in the spring.

But now let’s go to the present day. Israel has attacked Gaza.
“Why?” Rajaharju asks.
“Hamas has been firing rockets into Israel”, comes the answer.

Rajaharju goes through Israel’s goals: the firing of rockets needs to end, and the tunnels, through which weapons are smuggled from Egypt, need to be destroyed.
“Probably the aim is to inflict a powerful blow on Hamas.”

In addition, Rajaharju puts forward reasons why Israel chose this particular moment to attack. The government is trying to boost its support before the February elections, as polls have indicated that the opposition enjoys much support.
It appears that the tough measures really have enhanced support for the government coalition.

The reputation of the Israeli Defence Forces suffered a blow a couple of years ago when Israel attacked Hezbollah in Lebanon. Now Israel wants to upgrade its military reputation especially in the eyes of Iran, whose president Mahmud Ahmadinejad has threatened to destroy Israel.
If the new President of the United States starts negotiations to resolve the disputes between Israel and the Palestinians, Israel wants to be in as good a starting position as possible, Rajaharju explains.

Six pupils listen in silence, and give correct answers to the occasional questions that the teacher puts to them.

The core of the Palestinian question is the fact that the Palestinians and the Jews lay claim to the same land. The pupils learn that the root of the conflict can be seen to go back to the second millennium BC, when Semitic tribes moved, possibly from the area of Babylon, to the strip of land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.

Under the Roman Empire, the Jews revolted. Rome punished them severely, and the Jews dispersed around the world.

Much later, the Jews began to return to the area. In the 1890s the Zionist movement emerged, setting as its aim the establishment of a Jewish state. Finally such a state emerged, when the United Nations decided in 1947 to divide Palestine between the Arabs and the Jews.

The Arab neighbours did not accept Israel, and a series of wars broke out. Israel expanded its territory, and Palestinians ended up settling in miserable camps in neighbouring countries. The Arab neighbours kept the refugees in the camps so that they would not integrate with the rest of the population. If that would have happened, their demands for a country of their own might have faded away.

Rajaharju goes through the disputes between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as action taken on behalf of peace, and, among other things, the role of the United States. There are so many impediments to peace, that it does not seem very likely, Rajaharju says.
“Big concessions would be needed on both sides.”

The pupils say that they follow Mideast events in the media. “The news brings on a hopeless feeling. No solution is in sight in the near future, and there are conflicts coming all the time”, says Max Talvinko.

The pupils say that they rarely discuss the events of the Middle East with their friends, but to some extent, they discuss it with their families.

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