Occupation of premises, sit-ins in the street, slogans in favor of the Palestinian struggle… a small crowd of students, activists or sympathizers of the Palestine Committee continued the pro-Palestinian mobilization, Friday April 26, in and in front of the Sciences premises Po Paris, rue Saint-Guillaume.
The tension rose a notch around 4 p.m., with the arrival of around fifty pro-Israeli demonstrators shouting in particular “Liberate Sciences Po” or “Liberate Gaza from Hamas”. Some were masked and had motorcycle helmets. A stampede between supporters of both camps occurred among the many journalists present. The police then positioned themselves to separate the two groups without violence.
If Pro-Palestinian students had started to remove the trash cans that obstructed the entrance to the building, activists continued to occupy the site and a sit-in was immediately organized on the pavement.
Management decided to close several premises on the Paris campus on Friday. In a message to the press, she “strongly condemns these student actions which prevent the proper functioning of the institution and penalize students, [the] teachers and [the] employees”.
She organized a meeting with student representatives on Friday morning. The Sciences Po Palestine Committee calls in particular for “a clear condemnation of Israel’s actions by Sciences Po” and “an end to collaborations” with all “institutions or entities” deemed complicit “in the systemic oppression of the Palestinian people.” He also calls for an end to “the repression of pro-Palestinian voices on campus.”
Message of support from Jean-Luc Mélenchon
On Wednesday evening, around ten tents were set up in the courtyard of another building of the establishment, located 1, Place Saint-Thomas-d’Aquin, before the police came to dislodge 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, it is natural, it is even dignified and it is noble,” Raphaël judged on Friday Glucksmann, head of the list of the Socialist Party (PS) and Place publique in the European elections of June 9, on BFM-TV. “Then what atmosphere do we do it in? Are we inclusive? Do we tolerate debate? Are we able to organize discussions with those who do not share [this] point of view? So far, until proven otherwise, this is not the case. And so we have a problem. And the management of Sciences Po has the right to decide to evacuate,” added Mr. Glucksmann, also a former student of the establishment.
The president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF), Yonathan Arfi, estimated on Friday on LCI that this 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 throughout our political and intellectual life and produces effects on a generation. “There is nothing massive” but “it works, it takes the entire campus hostage, it prevents academic freedom and imposes a climate of intellectual terror on some Jewish students,” added Mr. Arfi.
“We have nothing against Jewish students, there are Jewish students who campaign with us,” argued Hubert Launois, 19, a second-year student and member of the Palestine Committee. “What we have a problem with is the colonial and genocidal policies of the Israeli far-right government,” he added.
Hundreds of arrests on American campuses
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 demonstrators. “You are at this moment, for us, the honor of our country,” said the former presidential candidate. The Franco-Palestinian lawyer Rima Hassan, LFI candidate for the European elections, also came to support the movement. “These students are truly carrying the honor of France,” she declared, echoing Mr. Mélenchon’s words.
“The debate, yes. The blockage, no,” lamented the Minister of Higher Education, Sylvie Retailleau, on BFM-TV, who took issue with the role played by the “rebellious” in the mobilization. Castigating “the dangerous game” of LFI for “electoral purposes”, she accused the leaders of the protest of being “irresponsible” promoting “anarchy” on campuses.
The mobilization at Sciences Po Paris comes at a time when several American universities – including the prestigious Harvard, Yale and Princeton – are mobilized, and sometimes occupied, to protest against the war in Gaza.
Columbia University in New York postponed Friday's midnight deadline (6 a.m. Paris time) for pro-Palestinian students to evacuate the campus, which was occupied to protest the war in the Gaza Strip. she announced.
Dozens of arrests took place last week, after university officials called on the police to put an end to an occupation accused by several figures of stoking anti-Semitism. Pro-Palestinian demonstrations then continued on Wednesday on campus. More than two hundred demonstrators were arrested Wednesday and Thursday at universities in Los Angeles (California), Boston (Massachusetts) and Austin (Texas), where some two thousand people gathered again on Thursday.
