Greta arrested at pro-Palestinian demo in Denmark

COPENHAGEN: Climate activist Greta Thunberg and several others were arrested on Wednesday after occupying a University of Copenhagen building to call for an academic boycott of Israeli universities, Danish media reported.

Images on the daily Ekstra Bladet website showed the 21-year-old activist, wearing a black-and-white keffiyeh shawl draped over her shoulders, being escorted out of a campus building by police.

Thunberg herself shared images on Instagram of riot police entering a building where the group “Students against the Occupation” were staging a protest. “I can’t confirm the names of those arrested, but six people have been arrested in connection with the demonstration,” a Copenhagen police spokesman told AFP.

Three of them “are suspected of forcing their way into the building and blocking the entrance”, he said. The six were released several hours later, the spokesman told AFP, and video footage published by Ekstra Bladet showed Thunberg walking out of the police station.

Students against the Occupation said in an Instagram statement that “while the situation in Palestine only gets worse, the University of Copenhagen continues cooperation with academic institutions in Israel”. “We are occupying” the university’s “central administration with one demand: academic boycott now.”

Pro-Palestinian protesters have set up encampments at universities around the United States and Europe since last spring to protest against Israel’s bombardment of Gaza and occupation of Palestinian territories.