Why we disrupted Annalena Baerbock’s award speech

The former German foreign minister is no proponent of peace and justice. No award can wipe out her disastrous record. When the Dag Hammarskjold Foundation announced Baerbock as its 2026 medallist, the cognitive dissonance was striking, even after years of hypocrisy within powerful institutions.

According to the foundation's homepage, the medal recognizes those who contribute to a more just, peaceful and environmentally sustainable world through achievements in politics or research. Baerbock was invited to deliver a lecture at Uppsala University, an event claiming to celebrate 'compassion, humanism and commitment to international solidarity'.

The motivation for Baerbock's selection described her as a 'strong proponent of a rules-based international order' despite evidence suggesting the opposite. As soon as Uppsala University began promoting the ceremony, activists decided to plan a protest to demonstrate that she was not welcome.

Protest tactics

Activists entered the event split into groups and interrupted Baerbock's seminar four times. She became increasingly frustrated with each interruption, attempting to respond to the first group with an incoherent ramble about an alleged misfired Palestinian rocket.

Baerbock's controversial positions

As foreign minister, Baerbock repeatedly expressed strong support for Israel as an occupying power, declaring that Israel's security also is 'in the interest of the German state.' She called it her responsibility to always defend Israel's 'security,' something she deemed 'non-negotiable for Germany.'

She upheld Israeli claims that it had the right to target schools, hospitals and other civilian establishments because of alleged resistance forces' presence. These positions were maintained despite the International Court of Justice's provisional measures against Israel and the International Criminal Court's arrest warrants for Israeli leaders on war crimes charges.

For these efforts, Baerbock was later appointed president of the United Nations General Assembly. In that role, she refused to call what is happening in Gaza a genocide, despite multiple UN experts confirming this characterization.

University's inconsistent stance

Uppsala University's decision to co-organize Baerbock's lecture drew criticism, especially given its previous actions. In 2022, the university quickly ended collaboration with Russian institutions after the invasion of Ukraine. However, three years into the genocide in Gaza, it has taken no similar action against Israeli institutions despite demands from students and faculty.

The activists expressed gratitude for the opportunity to demonstrate why radical resistance is necessary. They noted that previous protests against the genocide in Palestine have followed established rules without effect, while Palestinians continued to be killed and institutions refused to take responsibility.