Palestine activists set up a tent camp near the parliament building on Friday – and demanded that the government impose sanctions on Israel.
The camp was dismantled by the police during the afternoon.
About ten tents were pitched by students and Palestine activists at Strömparterren, a stone's throw from the parliament building in central Stockholm.
In the afternoon, the police intervened and began removing demonstrators from the site. All the tents were taken down after the activists failed to comply with the police's request to leave the area.
The activists had previously demanded that Swedish universities sever ties with Israeli institutions and companies that they believe are complicit in the war in Gaza.
Now they are directing their demands at Education Minister Mats Persson (L) and are calling, among other things, for a complete arms embargo against Israel. They also want to see greater autonomy for universities to decide for themselves who they want to cooperate with and who not.
To demand that one should discontinue various types of collaborations that would harm researchers in Sweden, I think that's wrong, responds Mats Persson.
"Threatening academic freedom"
The activists are seizing on Persson's previous statement that it is the government that sets foreign policy, and that demands should therefore be directed at him and the government, not the universities.
It's not Mats Persson's business to decide whether our universities should or should not cooperate with institutions that are complicit in genocide, says Ayla, a spokesperson for the students.
Mats Persson:
I think it's very serious that one wants to control individual researchers and forbid them from collaborating with colleagues in other countries, for example Israel, and I think that ultimately it's a threat to academic freedom.
Universities are free
He emphasizes that universities are free and can decide for themselves about their collaborations.
The government handles foreign policy and universities should focus on research and education.
In the morning, the police removed demonstrators who had set up a tent camp at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. 13 people were arrested and taken to the police station. Those arrested were released during the afternoon and evening after being identified.
In total, 17 people are suspected of disobedience to the authorities for failing to leave the site when ordered to do so by the police.
