Environmental activist Greta Thunberg has been arrested today at a protest against the Gaza war in Denmark, a spokesperson for the student group organising the demonstration said.
A total of six people were arrested at the University of Copenhagen after around 20 people blocked the entrance to a building and three entered it, a police spokesperson told news agency Reuters.
Images published by local daily Ekstra Bladet showed Ms Thunberg wearing a black-and-white keffiyeh shawl around her shoulders and being escorted out of the campus by the police.
Meanwhile, Ms Thunberg shared visuals on Instagram of police entering a building where the group ‘Students against the Occupation’ was staging a protest. The group wrote on Instagram that the protestors entered the university’s rector’s office to demand an institutional boycott of Israeli universities.
“While the situation in Palestine worsens, the University of Copenhagen continues its collaboration with Israeli universities and thereby 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 the 21-year-old climate activist was among those detained.
Students around the US and Europe have set up encampments at universities to protest against Israel’s military operation in Gaza and occupation of Palestinian territories.
Israel’s Gaza siege began after Palestinian group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack in southern Israel on October 7 last year. According to Gaza’s ministry of health, more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed and thousands more have been displaced.
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, around half of healthcare facilities, 80 percent of commercial buildings, 85 percent of school buildings and 65 percent of road networks.