Palestinian activists fined over one million kroner for protests

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Norway have now accumulated fines exceeding one million kroner for protests linked to the war in Gaza, according to Oslo police, with many activists refusing to pay.

Police prosecutor Håkon Sjøvold of the Oslo Police District confirmed to Dagbladet that the total includes fines from demonstrations outside Ullevål Stadium during Norway’s football match against Israel on 11 October last year. The figure surpasses the 660,000 kroner in fines reported in August 2025 for protests outside the Ministry of Finance, Parliament, and the Central Bank of Norway.

In February this year, Dagbladet reported record fines of up to 28,000 kroner against individual activists. The protests targeted Norway’s sovereign wealth fund investments in companies linked to the war in Gaza, where over 71,000 Palestinians have been killed and large areas destroyed since the conflict began following Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, which killed around 1,200 people.

During the 11 October match—where Norway defeated Israel 5-0—police clashed with demonstrators, arresting 22 protesters and using tear gas. Activist Carina Bull Tessand, who faces court in June over the incident, described the police presence as overwhelming. “There were police everywhere,” she said.

Sjøvold stated that the fines, spanning 2024 to 2026, involve “quite a few people,” with over half still under appeal. Only five of the 21 fined for the Ullevål protests have accepted their penalties. Lawyer Jostein Løken, representing around 15 activists including Tessand, criticised the scale of the fines, arguing that protesters were exercising democratic rights “for a good cause, out of conscience.”

Tessand, a single mother of three, previously received fines for multiple protests, including one where she was convicted for showing a middle finger to police during an August 2025 demonstration. Though the court acknowledged she used her ring finger, it ruled the gesture’s meaning was equivalent. Her cumulative fines, exceeding 40,000 kroner, were partially converted to 17 days of suspended prison with two years’ probation.

“This is a severe restriction on freedom of speech,” Tessand said. “If the ruling stands, I can’t participate in civil disobedience without risking unconditional imprisonment.” She added that she protests “not because I want to, but because I have to.”

Another activist, Eik Eirik Storvik Kristiansen, also rejected his fine, stating: “I refuse to pay for the police’s pepper spray. There is freedom of speech in Norway, and we have the right to demonstrate. The police escalated everything.”