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COPENHAGEN: More than 10,000 people took part in a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Copenhagen on Sunday, calling for an end to the war in Gaza and urging Denmark to recognize the state of Palestine.
Some 100 organizations including Oxfam, Greenpeace and Amnesty took part in the march, as well as unions, political parties, artists’ collectives and activists including Greta Thunberg.
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.”
A traditional supporter of Israel, Denmark 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 recently said had gone “too far.”
But Denmark has said it has no plans to recognize a Palestinian state in the near future.
“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.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Israel’s offensive has killed at least 62,622 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.

NEW DELHI: After three years of community engagement including even those residents aged 100 and older, Kerala has India’s first fully digitally literate state.

Efforts began in Pullampara, a village near the state capital Thiruvananthapuram, when rural workers employed under a government scheme started receiving payments digitally into their bank accounts. They needed to go online to confirm that their wages had been paid correctly.

“Villagers needed digital literacy to see their salary in bank. The digital transfer of salary was the spur for a new digital learning,” Rajesh P.V, head of the Pullampara village council, told Arab News.

“In 2022, with the help of the government, we managed to start the campaign for digital literacy.”

The campaign was initially aimed at those aged up to 60, but older villagers also showed interest.

“We managed to educate the whole village. People as old as 103 also joined the class,” Rajesh said.

“People who were using smartphones only for calling suddenly became conscious that there are many ways the phones can be used. They suddenly felt the world had come so close to them. Elderly people started using it for watching news, and they understood how to use mobile phones to enhance their engagement.”

The efforts in Pullampara were then replicated across Kerala, with local self-help groups operating under Kudumbashree, a state-level poverty eradication and women’s empowerment program.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced the program’s completion on Thursday, referring to a similar success in 1991 when the state became the most literate in India.

“Kerala was the first to achieve total literacy in April 1991, and now, we are the first to become fully digitally literate too,” Vijayan said, citing central government data stating only 38 percent of Indian households have digital literacy.

Kerala’s literacy is estimated to be around 96.2 percent for individuals aged seven and above, compared with India’s average of 80 percent.

Digital literacy is often measured per household rather than per person. If at least one person in a household can use digital tools such as smartphones and banking apps, it counts as digitally literate.

Rajesh, who was part of the literacy campaign in the 1990s, said he was happy to witness both events.

“We have kept pace with time, and we have made people understand the value of technology,” he said.

In his village, seniors who wanted to learn to navigate the digital world have achieved more than the initial aim of using online banking.

Padmini Vishwamnathan, a 65-year-old homemaker who lives with her 75-year-old husband, said the couple was now exploring other things that previously seemed beyond their reach.

“I managed to learn much more than what I thought. Digital literacy opened a new world for me and my husband,” she said.

“Now I can learn cookery, I can learn knitting and watch so many funny videos. My husband loves to watch the news and also watches old movies.”

Vishwamnathan has now completed secondary school and, decades later, is discovering new opportunities to learn.

“I can still improve my education through digital platforms,” she told Arab News.

“I am still a little nervous using the internet for banking, but I love using and exploring the digital world. It seems the world has suddenly come to our home.”