“A climate of hatred”: at the University of Lille, a pro-Palestine conference raises fears of excesses

The University of Lille at the heart of the storm. It is she who will host this Thursday evening, in an amphitheater in Villeneuve-d’Ascq, the conference of the “Libre Palestine” association with Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Rima Hassane, a pro-Palestinian activist registered on the LFI list in the European elections. An event which worries the LR majority, but also the National Rally as well as the Jewish community which sees it as a provocation. Even within the university, some fear the emergence of anti-Semitic discourse.

Scandalized by the conference poster logo which wipes Israel off the map. Some professors, such as Philippe Froguel, a recognized teacher-researcher, have directly called on the president of the University of Lille to forbid “those who carry hatred from coming to preach”, he says, in his university.

Fear of excesses

“What happened elsewhere, with meetings like this, is that in many places it led to anti-Semitic acts, ‘Zionists outside the universities’, which basically means that we want to expel the students Jews from French universities and all this leads to a climate of hatred which we really don’t need in France”, worries the teacher.

The Union of Jewish Students of France announces that it will be present at the university tomorrow evening to denounce a speech likely to endanger students of the Jewish faith. “It risks making the situation worse for Jewish students, which is already so complicated. I think that the context is already tense enough for us to add to it with this conference which risks spilling over,” confides the Lille president of the UEJF. Only the presidency of the University of Lille has the authority to prohibit this conference. So far, she has not reacted.