After several weeks of tension, the management of Sciences Po Paris announced, Friday April 26, in the evening, an agreement with its students mobilized for the Palestinian cause, by which it undertakes to organize an internal debate and to suspend procedures disciplinary measures launched against demonstrators. “Given these decisions, the students have undertaken to no longer disrupt classes, exams and all activities of the institution”writes Jean Bassères, provisional administrator of Sciences Po Paris, in a message sent to students and professors.
The management has undertaken to organize an internal debate between now and next Thursday, “open to all Sciences Po communities”. “All questions can be asked”she assures, and in particular those linked to the demands of the demonstrators, such as the question of “school partnerships with universities and organizations supporting the State of Israel”. Management also announces “the suspension of referrals to the disciplinary section initiated since April 17”. This message was welcomed with satisfaction by the dozens of demonstrators still gathered in front of the establishment.
At the end of the afternoon, evoking “disturbance of public order”, the police chief had the public roads evacuated, peacefully: the police had asked the students, activists or sympathizers of the Palestine committee to leave the premises. Around a hundred demonstrators left on their own, and “the police action allowed another hundred people to leave peacefully”, a police source said. Around 8:15 p.m., around a hundred people remained in front of the school, noted a journalist from Agence France-Presse.
Tension rose a notch around 4 p.m., with the arrival of around fifty pro-Israeli demonstrators, notably shouting “Free Sciences Po” Or “Liberate Gaza from Hamas”. Some were masked and had motorcycle helmets. A stampede between supporters of the two camps occurred among the many journalists present. The police then positioned themselves to separate the two groups without violence.
If Propalestine 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, [les] teachers and [les] employees “.
She organized a meeting with student representatives on Friday morning. The Palestine Committee of Sciences Po calls in particular “Sciences Po’s clear condemnation of Israel’s actions” And “the end of collaborations” with all “institutions or entities” judged to be accomplices “the systemic oppression of the Palestinian people”. He further requests 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”, judged on Friday Raphaël Glucksmann, head of the list of the Socialist Party (PS) and Place publique in the European elections of June 9, on BFM-TV. “Afterwards, in what atmosphere do we do it? Are we inclusive? Do we tolerate debate? Are we able to organize discussions with those who do not share [ce] 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, 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.
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“We have nothing against Jewish students, there are Jewish students who campaign with us”pleaded Hubert Launois, 19 years old, 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. Blocking, 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” from LFI to “electoral purposes”she accused the leaders of the protest of being “irresponsible” promoting ” the anarchy “ on campus.
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 its Friday deadline at midnight (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.