Students began a pro-Palestinian demonstration on the University of Helsinki campus on Monday.
The demonstration is organised by a group called Students for Palestine, which is demanding that the university cut ties with Israeli universities. The protesters argue that the university should terminate all exchange student agreements and research cooperation with Israeli educational institutions.
Vilja Hermansson, a member of the group, said the demonstration will continue until the university agrees to cut off academic ties with Israeli universities.
"Cooperation with Israeli universities clearly violates the University of Helsinki's own ethical principles, because these universities are complicit in genocide and apartheid and violate international human rights," Hermansson told an Yle reporter at the scene.
The protesters arrived with overnight equipment and tents.
According to the demonstrators, Israeli universities are involved in the violence taking place in Gaza to a significant degree. They allege that Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have been involved in developing weapon technologies used in Gaza and train military personnel in cooperation with the Israeli Defence Forces, for example.
"We demand that the university ends its cooperation through which it finances Israeli universities. The University of Helsinki take part in 13 EU-funded projects in cooperation with Israeli universities," said Hermansson.
Global wave of protests
According to the group, the boycott demands focus on institutions, not individual Israeli researchers. They assert that Finnish institutes of higher education should act in the same way as those in neighbouring Norway, where five universities cut ties with Israel in February.
"In February, five Norwegian universities began to boycott Israel, and Finnish universities must do the same. We do not accept apartheid, we do not accept genocide," Hermansson said earlier in a press release.
The Students for Palestine group said that it has demanded that the University of Helsinki begin an academic boycott of Israel since November.
Similar protests have been seen on university campuses across Europe and the United States, where they are described as the largest such demonstrations since the Iraq War of 2003.