Environmental activist Greta Thunberg was arrested today during a protest against the Gaza war in Denmark, a spokesman for the student group that organised the demonstration said.
A total of six people were arrested after about 20 people blocked the entrance to a building at the University of Copenhagen and three people entered it, a police spokesman told news agency Reuters.
Pictures published by local daily Ekstra Bladet showed Ms Thunberg, wearing a black and white keffiyeh shawl over her shoulders, being led out of the premises by police.
Meanwhile, Ms Thunberg shared photos on Instagram of police breaking into a building where the Students Against the Occupation group was protesting. The group wrote on Instagram that protesters entered the university’s rector’s office to demand an institutional boycott of Israeli universities.
“While the situation in Palestine is getting worse, the University of Copenhagen continues its collaboration with Israeli universities and thus contributes to knowledge that is used to commit genocide. Our university must not contribute to genocide,” Students Against the Occupation said in a statement on Instagram.
Police declined to confirm the identities of those arrested, but Students Against the Occupation told Reuters that those detained included a 21-year-old climate activist.
Students across the US and Europe have set up camps at universities to protest against Israel’s military operation in Gaza and the occupation of the Palestinian territories.
Israel’s Gaza siege began after Palestinian group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack in southern Israel on October 7 last year. More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
According to the latest data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Health Organization and the Palestinian government, Israeli attacks have destroyed more than half of Gaza’s homes, nearly half of health facilities, 80 percent of commercial buildings, 85 percent of school buildings and 65 percent of the road network.
