Every Saturday, a pro-Palestinian demonstration march takes place through central Stockholm. Participation has varied, but it has rarely been more than a few thousand people present.
This Saturday, Nova Wegerif from the Palestine Group in Karlstad, initiator of Saturday's demonstration, estimates that over 30,000 people showed up. She had hoped for a maximum of 10,000.
We saw in the response on social media that many would come, but then you don't know how it will be in reality. When Odenplan began to fill up, we saw that "oh, this is over all expectations." It was not a chance for everyone to get a place, she says to TT.
The police had to call in extra patrols from different parts of Stockholm.
There were significantly more participants than what the organizers had reported to us, but everything went well, says Ola Österling, the police's press spokesperson in Stockholm.
The police have no figure on how many participated, but according to Ola Österling, the figure that the organizer first estimated on Saturday, which was between 20,000 and 30,000 demonstrators, may be correct.
The main messages that the demonstrators brought forward were directed at the Swedish government.
We demand that the government act against the genocide and dare to call it what it is, says Nova Wegerif.
In addition to this, the demonstrators demanded that Sweden should break off all arms trade with Israel and introduce sanctions against the country.
