More than 10,000 people took part in an anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian demonstration in Copenhagen on Sunday, calling for an end to the war in Gaza, a halt to arms sales to Israel, and for Denmark to recognize the state of Palestine.
Some 100 organizations, including leading human rights groups Oxfam, Greenpeace, and Amnesty, took part in the march, as well as unions, political parties, artists’ collectives, and activists, including Greta Thunberg, who was recently deported from Israel, after trying to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza with a boat carrying humanitarian aid.
Police did not provide an estimate of the number of demonstrators.
Gathering under sunny skies outside the Danish parliament, the demonstrators — many of them families with young children — waved flags and carried banners, chanting “Stop Arms Sales,” “Free Free Palestine,” and “Denmark Says No to Genocide.”
One large banner called for “Intifada revolution,” a reference to two violent uprisings against Israel. Another bore a caricature of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made to look like Adolf Hitler and performing a Nazi salute, alongside the word “Nazionist.”
“Those who are in power are not stopping the genocide, so it’s even more important to go out and protest and show all the leaders that we do not agree with this,” 43-year-old demonstrator Michelle Appelros told AFP.
Israel has adamantly rejected the accusation that it is committing genocide in Gaza, saying it makes efforts to avoid civilian casualties, while Hamas embeds in noncombatant populations.
Denmark is a traditional supporter of Israel, but has said it wants to use its current presidency of the European Union to increase pressure on the Israeli government to end the war in Gaza, which Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a recent interview had gone “too far.”
She also said that Netanyahu has become a “problem,” and likened Israel to Russia, which has been widely sanctioned for its invasion of Ukraine.
Frederiksen added in that interview that she wanted to consider “political pressure, sanctions, whether against settlers, ministers, or even Israel as a whole,” referring to trade or research sanctions.
“We are not ruling anything out in advance. Just as with Russia, we are designing the sanctions to target where we believe they will have the greatest effect,” Frederiksen added.
But Denmark has said it has no plans to recognize a Palestinian state in the near future. Several Western countries have announced or floated plans to recognize the state of Palestine in September at the United Nations.
The demonstration took place the same day as another set of anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian protests in Australia, another country that has entered a diplomatic spat with Netanyahu’s government.