Greta Thunberg arrested in Copenhagen

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg was arrested during a pro-Palestinian protest in the Danish capital Copenhagen. Photos from the newspapers Politiken and Ekstra Bladet as well as a video posted by the organizers of the action on Instagram show the 21-year-old being led away by police officers in front of a university building. She was wearing a Palestinian scarf around her neck. “You are not alone!” her fellow activists repeatedly shouted to her.

Copenhagen police reported the arrest of six demonstrators, without confirming or denying that Thunberg was among them. The arrested people are accused of trespassing, the police wrote on the online platform X.

Thunberg herself shared videos of the protest in front of an administrative building of the University of Copenhagen (KU) in her Instagram story. She wrote that the protest was because the university had not responded to demands, including an institutional academic boycott. By this she meant that the KU must stop all cooperation with foreign universities due to the Gaza war.

The university has been urged to do this for some time by the group Studerende mod Besættelsen (Students Against the Occupation), which organized the protest. The university’s administrative and museum buildings are located in the city center of Copenhagen, in the immediate vicinity of the city’s Great Synagogue.

Greta Thunberg became world famous through her “school strike for the climate”. Her first protest action gave rise to the international climate movement Fridays for Future. Since the beginning of the Gaza war in October 2023, the Swede has used her reach on social networks, but also repeatedly, to draw attention to the devastating situation of the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip.

Thunberg has been arrested several times at demonstrations in various countries, primarily at climate protests. In May, on the sidelines of the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö, southern Sweden, she was also taken away by police at a rally against Israel’s participation.