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PRO-PALESTINE CAMPUSES

Denmark university to divest companies in the West Bank amid student protests

Denmark university to divest companies in the West Bank amid student protests

A participant displays a banner reading 'Boycott Israel' during a demonstration under the motto 'Everyone on the street for a free Palestine' at Forum in Copenhagen, Denmark, on May 5, 2024. (Credit: Ólafur Steinar Rye Gestsson/AFP)

COPENHAGEN — The University of Copenhagen said on Tuesday it would halt investment in companies that do business in the occupied West Bank amid student protests pressuring the campus to cut financial and institutional ties with Israel.

Hundreds of students began campus protests in early May to express their opposition to Israel's operations in Gaza that were triggered by the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. The students have demanded that the university cut academic ties with Israel and divest from companies operating in occupied Palestinian territories.

The university will, as of May 29, divest its holdings worth a total of about 1 million Danish crowns ($145,810) in Airbnb, Booking.com and eDreams, it said in a post on social media platform X.

The university said it would work with fund managers to manage its investments and ensure they comply with a United Nations list of companies involved in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

The University of Copenhagen has a yearly revenue of over 10 billion crowns, some of which is invested in bonds and equities.

Israel captured, annexed and illegally occupied territories in the West Bank, east Jerusalem following a 1967 war with neighboring Arab states.

COPENHAGEN — The University of
Copenhagen said on Tuesday it would halt investment in companies
that do business in the occupied West Bank amid student protests
pressuring the campus to cut financial and institutional ties
with Israel.
Hundreds of students began campus protests in early May to
express their opposition to Israel's operations in Gaza that
were...