FINLAND – Academic Scraps ‘Jew-Hating’ Posts From Facebook After Called out by Pro-Israel Blogger

Prof. Kinnunen: “Definition of antisemitic: Anyone, who opposes genocide & fascism, killing of children, women, unarmed.”

THE ALGEMEINER

A Finnish academic deleted numerous posts from his Facebook page on Wednesday, after a pro-Israel blogger publicized what he called their “outright Jew hatred,” The Algemeiner has learned.

Paavo Kinnunen, professor of biomedical engineering and computational science at Aalto University in Helsinki, removed the content a day after IsraellyCool published an entry containing numerous screenshots from Kinnunen’s page, which came to its attention when the professor posted the following message on the blog:

“Israel is the most fascist ‘nation’ in today’s world, racist, ultrareligious wackos leading it to oblivion. Hitler would be proud of seeing how his ideology was adopted by the zionists…[its] achievements … far exceed everything [Nazi doctor] Mengele succeeded in inventing as means to kill and torture.”

The blogger then went to Kinnunen’s Facebook page and found “more of the same, including support of terrorism.”

There were multiple posts supporting and celebrating the violence perpetrated by Hamas and Hezbollah against Israel. There were dozens of anti-Israel posts, including, the blogger observed, “belief in blood libels and conspiracy theories.”

One post, for example, claimed that Sweden’s Jews have nothing to fear from Muslims but only from “Mossad jihadists” committing a terror attack and making it look as if it was done by Islamists. Another post suggested that the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States were organized by Jews, allegedly absent from the Twin Towers on that day.

Kinnunen’s posts frequently accused Israelis of harvesting the organs of Palestinians. In one, he charts the dollar amounts that different organs earn for Israel over images of what appear to be one or two dead Palestinians with long scars on their bodies; in another he posted a report called “Israel Caught Harvesting Palestinian Organs Again” below his comment, “Lucrative ziobusiness …”

Many posts equated Israel and Zionists with Nazis, and characterized Israelis and Jews as having a penchant for blood and violence. “When genocide is on the agenda,” Kunnunen wrote in one, “it is important to kill children … incl. toddlers, pregnant women …”

Others were what the blogger deemed openly antisemitic:

“Jews certainly are special, more special than any other group of people. They have established the most racist religion, involving lineage to their God, giving them the promise of land, slaves, property, license to kill all non-Jews. Following these religious items described in their Talmud, which we Goyims are banned from reading, these God chosen wackos have established, by treacherous deception, the most ultrafascist “society” in today’s world …”

Similar claims about the Jewish Talmud occurred frequently, including that it makes “all property of non-Jewish belongs to Jewish,” and that it permits Jews “to kill all non-Jewish.”

Kinnunen apparently does not see himself as antisemitic, according to the blogger, but merely anti-Zionist. In one post, Kinnunen showed a photo of two young boys wearing yarmulkes pointing pistols at the head of a terrified boy wearing an Arab keffiyeh, above which he wrote: “This is ISRAEL, if you do not like what you see you are antisemitic.”

In another post, Kinnunen wrote: “Definition of antisemitic: Anyone, who opposes genocide & fascism, killing of children, women, unarmed.”

This spurred IsraellyCool to publish an entry Tuesday, entitled: “Anti-Zionist-Not-Antisemite Of The Day: Paavo Kinnunen of Aalto University, Finland.”

When The Algemeiner visited Kinnunen’s Facebook page on Thursday, it discovered that many of the posts publicized by the blogger had disappeared.

A fellow Aalto faculty member told The Algemeiner that Kinnunen’s views are his own and do not represent his department or the university. He further directed The Algemeiner to this clause in the university’s code of conduct:

“Each member of the Aalto University community has a right to be treated with respect regardless of their gender, gender identity or expression thereof, age, ethnic or national origin, nationality, language, religion, beliefs, opinion, political or trade union engagement, family relations, health, disability, sexual orientation, or other personal characteristics.”

Whether Kinnunen’s writings violate this clause would depend, the colleague suggested, on (a) whether these opinions make their way into Kinnunen’s classroom and professional work, and (b) whether there are any Jewish students or faculty members at Aalto. The colleague could not answer these questions, stating both that he had previously been unaware of Kinnunen’s views, and that he was “unaware of the religious backgrounds of the members of the faculty or the students, as this kind of information is not registered and does not play any role in processes where staff and students are selected.”

According to the European Jewish Congress, there are only approximately 1,400 Jews in all of Finland, most in Helsinki near Aalto University.

The Algemeiner reached out to Kinnunen and to the Aalto University president’s office for comments, but none had been received as of press time.