Finnish students call on universities to cut ties with Israel

By Ilayda Cakirtekin

ISTANBUL (AA) – Finland’s Students for Palestine movement held demonstrations calling on universities to cut their ties with Israel, broadcaster Yle reported.

Students in the capital Helsinki and other cities gathered on campuses Wednesday urging administrations to commit to an academic boycott of Israel and halt financial ties with Israeli universities.

A petition released by the movement urged the University of Helsinki to cut all ties with Israeli institutions, including its participation in 15 EU-funded Horizon Europe research projects.

Students said ending research cooperation would show that Finnish universities will not tolerate human rights violations.

Officials from the University of Tampere and the University of Eastern Finland told Yle that they do not have active links to Israeli universities.

Later Wednesday, five Palestinians were killed and others injured in Israeli strikes in the southern Gaza Strip, in what Palestinian authorities said was a further violation of an October ceasefire agreement.

Phase one of the ceasefire deal includes the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and envisions the rebuilding of Gaza and the establishment of a new governing mechanism without Hamas.

Since October 2023, Israel has killed more than 70,000 people, most of them women and children, and injured nearly 171,000 others in attacks in Gaza.