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“Academic boycott now!” – Greta Thunberg among students arrested at Danish university protest

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“Academic boycott now!” – Greta Thunberg among students arrested at Danish university protest

Activist Greta Thunberg arrested during pro-Palestinian demonstration in Copenhagen. (Project: Palestine Chronicle)

By Palestine Chronicle Staff

“We demand that KU cancel research collaborations and exchange agreements with Israeli academic institutions and publicly criticize their involvement in the occupation of Palestine by the State of Israel.”

Activist Greta Thunberg was arrested along with student protesters on Wednesday at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark during a pro-Palestinian demonstration.

“Students Against the Occupation and I are in the administration building of the University of Copenhagen,” Thunberg wrote in a video shared on her Instagram account.

According to reports, protesters blocked the entrance to the building and three people entered.

“The police were called and they violently entered the building with a battering ram armed with assault rifles. They are currently evicting everyone,” Thunberg added.

She wrote: “We are here because dialogue, camping, demonstrations and other methods used after a three-year campaign have NOT resulted in the university meeting its demands, including an academic boycott.”

Thunberg said the students “were arrested and are being taken to the police station right now.”

Next video he showed Thunberg, with a kaffiyeh around her neck, was handcuffed and placed in a police car.

Boycott of Russian universities

In a press statement, Students Against the Occupation said: “While the situation in Palestine worsens, the University of Copenhagen continues to cooperate with Israeli universities, contributing knowledge that is used to commit genocide.”

It continued: “That is why we are occupying the Museumsbygning of the University of Copenhagen in Fue Plads, where the Rector’s office is located. We will not leave this place until the University of Copenhagen ends its cooperation with Israeli universities.”

The statement indicated that Danish universities “will have to boycott” Israeli universities, “similarly to how Russian universities were boycotted in 2022.”

“We demand that KU (Københavns Universitet – PC) cancel research cooperation and exchange agreements with Israeli academic institutions and publicly criticize their involvement in the occupation of Palestine by the State of Israel,” the statement reads.

It also demanded that KU “protect academic freedom by refusing to cooperate with universities that are used as political tools.”

“Immediate academic boycott!” students called.

According to Danish media, about 20 protesters gathered at the university and six of them were arrested.

With the start of the new academic year, we can expect a resumption of student protests against Israel’s ongoing genocidal war in the Gaza Strip.

Columbia University

On Tuesday, two students participating in a pro-Palestinian demonstration at Columbia University in New York were arrested.

Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine broadcast live about part X of the protests, stating that New York Police officers were “extremely aggressive towards students, pushing protesters towards the barricades.”

A group of students have stressed that as long as their university remains complicit in the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip, “there can be no question of normal conduct in times of genocide.”

“As we begin a new semester, students in Gaza have no universities to return to. Instead of listening to students, Columbia University is doubling down on its efforts. We will not stop and we will not rest until Columbia is free from apartheid and genocide. This is just the beginning,” the student movement said.

Over the past few months, there have been numerous protests and student camps on university campuses in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere, and the death toll in the Gaza Strip has steadily risen.

Before the start of the new academic year, Columbia University President Minouche Shafik has resigned after months of criticism for her response to campus protests.

Earlier this year, Columbia became the center of protests in which students set up camps demanding an end to Israel’s genocide and the university’s ties to the occupying power. The protests resulted in brutal arrests by police, with Shafik’s approval.

Hamas Call

Last month, senior Hamas official Khaled Meshaal called on university students around the world to resume protests against Israel’s ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.

“I call on student leaders in our Arab and Islamic countries, as well as in the East and the West, to renew the student movement to the fullest extent in order to stop this criminal aggression,” Meshaal said in a video address broadcast at the conference in Istanbul.

‘A period of turmoil’ as Columbia’s president resigns after Gaza protests

According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, the Israeli-led genocide in the Gaza Strip, which has been ongoing since October 7, has left 40,861 Palestinians dead and 94,398 injured.

Additionally, at least 11,000 people are missing, presumed dead in the rubble of their homes across the Strip.

Palestinian and international organizations say most of those killed and injured are women and children.

(Chronicle of Palestine)