Copenhagen, Denmark — Swedish police on Friday detained 19 pro-Palestinian activists who barricaded themselves in the country’s main technical education and research university.
After two hours, police removed the masked activists from the third floor of the Stockholm Royal Institute of Technology building. According to police, they are likely to be prosecuted for trespassing and disobeying police.
International pressure has been mounting on Israel to limit civilian bloodshed in its war against Hamas in Gaza.
Around noon, activists blocked the entrance to a student building at the institute, known by its Swedish acronym KTH, with chairs and tables. Some shouted “Free Palestine” and hung Palestinian flags in the windows. Supporters of the activists and a large contingent of law enforcement officers, including dog officers and mounted police, quickly gathered in front of the KTH, located north of central Stockholm.
On Instagram, activists said they occupied the building to pressure KTH to stop collaborating with Israeli universities.
The school describes itself as Sweden’s largest institution for technical education and research and is a leading international technical university.
Last week, a handful of pro-Palestinian activists were briefly detained in connection with an unauthorized demonstration outside the KTH.
In the Danish capital, activists who had set up tents on a Copenhagen University campus took them down and some moved to Town Hall Square on Wednesday, where they set up camp, demanding that Denmark boycott Israeli arms sales.
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