Foreign Affairs

Greta Thunberg Nabbed By Cops During Anti-Israel Protest

Screenshot/YouTube/Greta Thunberg

Climate change activist Greta Thunberg was arrested by Danish Police in Copenhagen, Denmark, during a pro-Palestine protest, The Guardian reported Wednesday.

Thunberg and five others associated with Students Against The Occupation, were arrested during a 20-student protest that blocked the entrance to a building at the University of Copenhagen, demanding an “academic boycott” of Israel by the university, according to the Guardian. Thunberg has recently been an outspoken critic of Israel, calling the war a “genocide,” in a 2023 op-ed in the Guardian and saying she wanted to “crush Zionism” in a 2023 protest.

The Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing over 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages into the Gaza Strip. The war ignited protests that swarmed university campuses across the U.S., some of which turned violent, with some advocating for Israel’s dissolution as a state.

“This morning Students Against the Occupation entered an administrative building of [The University of Copenhagen], that also houses the rector’s office, to demand an institutional academic boycott of israeli universities! We were joined by [Thunberg], who was quickly arrested along with students,” Students Against The Occupation said on Instagram Wednesday. “Danish media is only covering her arrest at the university and giving no attention to why we were occupying the university in the first place. OUR UNIVERSITY CAN NO LONGER BE COMPLICIT! ACADEMIC BOYCOTT NOW!”

 

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Danish Police told the Daily Caller News Foundation that “six people have been charged with breach of domestic peace and is [sic] released again.” It declined to officially reveal the identities of anyone arrested, including Thunberg.

Thunberg was arrested in July 2023 during a climate protest outside the oil port of Malmö, Sweden. Swedish authorities found her guilty of disobeying police and fined her 1,500 Swedish Kronor ($144 U.S. dollars).

Students Against The Occupation also organized a hunger strike in June, as well as an encampment at the university in May, according to the group’s Instagram.

“While the situation in Palestine only gets worse, The University of Copenhagen continues cooperation with academic institutions in Israel,” Students Against The Occupation said in a press release. “We do not have three more years to wait for UCPH’s management to do [the] only right thing. We are forced to act. We are occupying Museumsbygningen in the central administration with one demand: ACADEMIC BOYCOTT NOW! [sic].”

The Greta Thunberg Foundation and the Students Against The Occupation did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/YouTube/Greta Thunberg)