The University of Helsinki does not consider the expression of opinion permissible, just as it has not considered a similar opportunity in the past.
Police has removed the demonstrators who support Palestine from the main building of the University of Helsinki, the police command center tells HS. The university had asked the police to remove people from the building before eight on Wednesday evening, when the building was about to be closed.
One person was arrested on suspicion of violating public peace, the police say. He had been given several orders to leave, which he had refused to comply with.
The police also asked for help from the rescue service when one person had climbed up the farm’s structures. However, he finally agreed to come down himself.
The protesters have moved to Porthania to continue their demonstration. It is also scheduled to close at eight, so the police have been following the participants.
Helsinki a demonstration for Palestine was organized at the university’s main building on Wednesday. The University of Helsinki does not consider the expression of opinion permissible, just as it has not considered a similar opportunity in the past.
The university has requested official assistance from the police for the occasion, said the director of administrative services Antti Savolainen on Wednesday afternoon.
“Our starting point is that this type of event cannot be organized without permission and we have to secure the normal operation of the university, which this event will disrupt,” Savolainen said.
The demonstration started at three o’clock. On the old side of the university’s main building occupied by the demonstrators, speeches were made, slogans were shouted and music was played.
The police have been protecting and monitoring the demonstration with the strength of a few patrols. According to the police, a maximum of 120 people were present at the demonstration. After six, there were only about 50 people there.
The protesters hung their slogans on the university, which were also shouted by the crowd.
An expression of opinion organizer Students for Palestine considers the university’s policy of banning the event inconsistent. A university student who participated in the demonstration and movement Havu Laakson thinks it is double moralistic that the university organized expressions supporting Ukraine, but not Palestine.
“The situation in Ukraine and Gaza is otherwise not the same, but in that sense it is the same that one state occupies the area and attacks civilians, but the university’s reactions have just been different,” he said at five o’clock.
Laakso says that he participated in the activity because he did not want to watch from the sidelines the bombing of civilians in Gaza. According to the movement, Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, which is also supported by Finland and the University of Helsinki.
Slogans such as “free free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” were shouted at the demonstration.
Many Jewish representatives interpret the phrase “from the river to the sea” as anti-Semitic and incites violence. However, it has been shouted at several demonstrations supporting Palestine and opposing Israel’s actions.
According to Laakso, labeling the cry as anti-Semitic is used as a weapon against those who support the Palestinians.
“The cry means that the entire Palestinian territory should be free, i.e. no occupation and no colonialist state, but the territory should be free for everyone living there. The cry is against Israel as an occupying state, but not against Jews as people,” Laakso explains his view of the sentence.
Havu Laakso participated in a demonstration against the Palestinian genocide at the university. In his pamphlet, he accused the university of supporting genocide.
At the university the National Defense Course Association’s presidential election panel also started at 6 p.m., and changes were made in the space selection and order of arrival due to the expression of opinion, the director of administrative services Savolainen said.
However, the demonstration was not planned to target the presidential candidates.
The demonstrators didn’t even know when planning the demonstration that the presidential election panel would be at the same time, says Laakso. The simultaneous event was not visible in the demonstration before the start of the panel.
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