Denmark university to halt investment in companies in West Bank amid student protests

By Isabelle Yr Carlsson

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – 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 deadly attacks by Hamas militants in Israel on Oct. 7. The students have demanded that the university cuts academic ties with Israel and divests 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 territories in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip after winning a 1967 war with neighboring Arab states.

($1 = 6.8582 Danish crowns)

(Reporting by Isabelle Yr Carlsson; Editing by Bernadette Baum)