COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Swedish police on Friday arrested 19 pro-Palestinian activists who barricaded themselves inside the country’s main technical teaching and research university.
After two hours, police executed the masked activists from the third floor of a Royal Institute of Technology building in Stockholm. According to the police, they are likely to be prosecuted for trespassing and disobedience to the police.
International pressure has increased on Israel to limit civilian bloodshed in the war against Hamas in Gaza.
Around noon, the 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 their windows. People supporting the activists and a large contingent of law enforcement personnel, including officers with dogs and mounted police, quickly gathered outside KTH, which is located north of central Stockholm.
On Instagram, the activists said they occupied the building to pressure KTH to stop cooperating with Israeli universities.
The school describes itself as Sweden’s largest institution for technical education and research and is a leading technical university internationally.
Last week, a handful of pro-Palestinian activists were briefly detained in connection with an unauthorized demonstration outside KTH.
In the Danish capital, activists who had set up tents on the University of Copenhagen campus tore them down and some moved to City Hall Square on Wednesday where they set up a tent camp, demanding that Denmark boycott Israeli arms sales.
