After several weeks of tension, the management of Sciences Po Paris announced on the evening of Friday, April 26, an agreement with its students mobilized for the Palestinian cause, which commits to organizing an internal debate and suspending the procedures of disciplinary measures initiated against the protesters. “In light of these decisions, the students have pledged to no longer disrupt classes, examinations and all activities of the institution.”writes Jean Bassères, interim administrator of Sciences Po Paris, in a message sent to students and professors.
Management has pledged to hold an internal debate from today until next Thursday, “open to all Sciences Po communities”. “All questions can be asked”assures, and especially those associated with the demands of the protesters, such as the question “partnership of schools with universities and organizations supporting the State of Israel”. Management also announces “suspension of referral to disciplinary department effective April 17”. Dozens of protesters still gathered outside the building took the news with satisfaction.
At the end of the afternoon summoning “disturbance of public order”The police chief had the public roads evacuated peacefully: the police asked students, activists or sympathizers of the Palestine Committee to leave the premises. Around a hundred protesters left on their own and “Police action allowed another hundred people to leave peacefully”, a police source said. Around 8:15 p.m., about a hundred people remained outside the school, noted a journalist from Agence France-Presse.
Tensions rose a notch around 4:00 p.m., when about fifty pro-Israel protesters arrived, mainly shouting “Free Sciences Po” Or “Free Gaza from Hamas”. Some were masked and had motorcycle helmets. Among the many journalists present, there was a stampede between supporters of both camps. The police then moved in to separate the two groups without violence.
As the pro-Palestinian students began to remove trash cans blocking entry to the building, the activists continued to occupy the site and a sidewalk sit-in was immediately organized. On Friday, management decided to close several spaces on the Paris campus. In a press release, she “strongly condemns these actions of students, which prevent the proper functioning of the institution and penalize students, (THE) teachers and (THE) employees”.
On Friday morning, she organized a meeting with student representatives. In particular, Sciences Po Palestine Committee is calling “Sciences Po clearly condemns Israeli actions” AND “end of cooperation” with everything “institutions or entities” judged as accomplices “systemic oppression of the Palestinian people”. He further requests termination “repression of pro-Palestinian voices on campus”.
A message of support from Jean-Luc Mélenchon
On Wednesday evening, around ten tents were set up in the courtyard of another building of the business, located in the 1st place Saint-Thomas-d’Aquin, before the police came to evict the activists and sympathizers of the Palestinian cause.
“That we show solidarity with the Palestinians, that we show rejection of the crimes committed in Gaza, is natural, it is even dignified and it is noble”judged Raphaël Glucksmann, leading candidate of the Socialist Party (PS) and Place public in the European elections on June 9, on Friday on BFM-TV. “Then, in what atmosphere do we do it? Are we inclusive? Do we tolerate debate? We are able to organize discussions with those who do not share (This) a point of view ? So far, until proven otherwise, it isn’t. And so we have a problem. And Sciences Po management has the right to decide on evacuation.added Mr. Glucksmann, also a former student of the facility.
The president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF), Yonathan Arfi, estimated at LCI on Friday that the movement was “dangerous because the university has a symbolic function in our societies. What happens in universities does not only concern the student world, but radiates through our entire political and intellectual life and affects an entire generation.. “Nothing massive” but “it’s working, it’s holding the entire campus hostage, it’s preventing academic freedom, and it’s imposing an atmosphere of intellectual terror on some Jewish students”added Mr. Arfi.
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“We have nothing against Jewish students, there are Jewish students who are agitating with us”pleaded Hubert Launois, 19, a second-year student and member of the Palestine Committee. “What we have a problem with is the colonial and genocidal policy of Israel’s far-right government”he added.
Hundreds arrested at American universities
The mobilized students received the support of “rebellious” leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon in an audio message broadcast by MP Thomas Portes (La France insoumise, LFI), who came to encourage the protesters. “At this moment you are the honor of our country”, said the former presidential candidate. French-Palestinian lawyer Rima Hassan, LFI’s candidate for the European elections, also came to support the movement. “These students are truly an honor to France”” she declared, repeating Mr. Mélenchon’s words.
“The debate, yes. Blocking, no”, lamented Higher Education Minister Sylvie Retailleau on BFM-TV, who objected to the role played by “rebellions” in the mobilization. Blame “dangerous game” from LFI to “electoral purposes”she accused the protest leader of being “irresponsible” promotion “anarchy” on campus.
The mobilization at Sciences Po Paris comes as several US universities – including prestigious Harvard, Yale and Princeton – are mobilized and sometimes occupied to protest the war in Gaza.
Columbia University in New York postponed its Friday midnight deadline (6 a.m. Paris time) for pro-Palestinian students to evacuate the campus, which has been occupied to protest the war on the Gaza Strip.
Dozens of arrests were made last week after university officials called on police to end the occupation, which several figures accused of inciting anti-Semitism. Pro-Palestinian demonstrations then continued on campus on Wednesday. More than two hundred protesters were arrested on Wednesday and Thursday at the universities of Los Angeles (California), Boston (Massachusetts) and Austin (Texas), where about two thousand people gathered again on Thursday.