For the second month in a row University of Helsinki students set up their tents in support of Palestine

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Students at the Finnish University of Helsinki continue to demonstrate in support of Palestine despite the suspension of student exchange agreements with Israeli universities.

In a speech delivered by student Vilija Hermansson, she emphasized that cooperation with Israeli universities harms the reputation of the University of Helsinki.

The students continue their demonstrations for the second month by setting up their tents in front of the university building.

Last Wednesday, the University of Helsinki announced the suspension of student exchange agreements with Israeli universities, but maintained “research cooperation” with them.

The university said, in a statement: “Student exchange agreements with universities in Israel have been suspended due to civilian casualties and the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza.”

On April 18, 2024, students and academics who rejected the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip began a sit-in on the campus of Columbia University in New York, demanding that its administration stop its academic cooperation with Israeli universities and withdraw its investments from companies that support the occupation of Palestinian territories.

With the intervention of the police and the arrest of dozens of protesters, the protests expanded to other universities, and spread to countries such as France, Britain, Germany, Canada and India, all of which witnessed demonstrations in support of their American counterparts, and demands to stop the Gaza war and boycott companies that supply weapons to Israel.

The Israeli war on Gaza left more than 118,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and about 10,000 missing amid massive destruction and famine that claimed the lives of children and the elderly.

Israel continues the war, ignoring a UN resolution demanding that it stop it immediately, and orders from the Court of Justice to take measures to prevent “genocide” and “improve the humanitarian situation,” and ignore the International Criminal Court’s intention to issue arrest warrants against its Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and its Defense Minister, Yoav Galant.