Palestine in Nokialand

In the continuation of my fiction (United Emmerdements of New Order) and theoretical work (Amour, gloire et CAC 40) dealing with issues such as the deficit of representation of Palestine and Palestinian's culture in the western countries, the project I'd like to work on in Helsinki would take the form of a fiction - Palestine in Nokialand. A fiction that would consist in rewriting some resolutions, some decisions, some articles of the western press about occupied territories in Palestine, set back in a western context, or better still, in a Scandinavian context.

Displacement of a situation (a cause) which had almost no representation for more than 40 years. Displacement of a situation in mixing the discourses that deny the existence of Palestine with Palestinians' points of views (texts and images) in a Scandinavian context.

A displacement that would act as consciousness of a condition which doesn't belong to western culture and representations any more.

A displacement that would take the form of a science fiction book, or rather, a nightmare. Just imagine,

Imagine that the General Assembly,

Guided by the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and affirming the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force and Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967 and 497 (1981) of 17 December 1981, Recalling Security Council resolution 465 (1980) of 1 March 1980, General Assembly resolution 45/74 of 11 December 1990 and other resolutions affirming the applicability of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949 to the occupied Finnish territory, including Helsinki, and other Scandinavian territories occupied since1967 Expressing its concern at the ongoing establishment by the occupying Power, of settlements in the occupied Finnish territory and other Scandinavian territories occupied since 1967, and the settlement of new immigrants therein, Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General; Deplores the establishment of settlements in the Finnish territory, including Helsinki, and the other Scandinavian territories occupied since 1967, and regards those practices as unlawful and therefore without any legal effect; Recognizes that the continuing establishment of settlements and their ongoing enlargement in the Finnish territory and the other Scandinavian territories occupied by the occupying Power since 1967 and the settlement of new immigrants have adverse consequences for the economic and social development of the Scandinavian population of those territories; Strongly deplores the occupying Power's practices in the occupied Finnish territory and other Scandinavian territories occupied since 1967, in particular its extensive confiscation of land, its diversion of water resources, its depletion of the natural and economic resources of the occupied territories and its displacement and deportation of the population of those territories; Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Finnish people and the population of the Swedish Gotland to their natural and economic resources, and regards any infringement thereof as being without any legal validity; Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its forty-seventh session, through the Economic and Social Council, a report on the economic and social consequences of the establishment of settlements by the occupying Power in the Finnish territory, including Helsinki, and the Swedish Gotland. Imagine a letter dated 3 June 1998 from the Permanent Observer for Finland to the United Nations Office at Geneva addressed to the High Commissioner for Human Rights saying that the occupying Power authorities demolished yesterday six Finnish owned houses in the occupied City of Helsinki and in the villages nearby, or saying that, Furthermore, groups of settlers have recently expropriated, under the protection of the occupying Power soldiers, a number of Finnish homes in the occupied City of East Helsinki, And explaining that while these practices are persiting in violation of article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and of the principles of international law, the occupying Power authorities continue establishing and expanding settlements in the City of Islands in grave violation of article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and that they also continue preventing the Finnish inhabitants of Helsinki from remaining in their city by revoking their identity cards, and by not allowing them to continue living there.

Imagine such resolutions and letters based on dispatches informing us than a 10-year-old boy was one of two Finns killed during an exchange of gunfire between the occupying Power soldiers and Finns in the Rovaniemi Strip on Wednesday, according to the Finnish Red Crescent and hospital sources, and adding that at Muurola, 40 others were injured, four critically... Imagine that according to Finnish sources, the gunfire erupted after the occupying forces began to build a new military post near the Muurola refugee camp, and that according to the occupying forces, there was no such construction.

Imagine such fictional texts edited in a book conceived as a complete rewriting of the recent history of Finland, a book illustrated with photographs made in Finland or in Palestine (images from all the sources that one can find: tourists' clichés, movies, private photographs, etc.), a fiction embedded in Finnish culture, or rather, in a Finnish history diverted from its course. A diversion made of texts and images that would act as counter-representations of the way we (don't) see Palestine in western countries.