It was around 6:30 p.m. on May 26 when a police procession passed through the door of 45 rue d’Ulm in a slow stride. Behind the gates, on the street side, several figures with tote bags hurry to film the scene. Twenty minutes later, the prestigious Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS), occupied for four days in support of the Palestinian cause, was evacuated by the police (the premises had been closed less than forty-eight hours after the start of occupation). In particular, according to a press release published by the management at 7 p.m. sharp, the publication, on the Instagram account of the group “ENS Ulm in struggle”, the beating heart of the Committee to Support the Palestinian People of the ENS, of “photographs and names, covered with drops of blood, of certain members of the [conseil d’administration] from school”.
How was this institution, one of the most selective and prestigious in France, placed under the direct authority of the Minister responsible for Higher Education, able, in turn, to join the less and less closed circle of schools under pro-Palestinian occupation? But above all: how could the situation degenerate so quickly, knowing that Normale, a model student, seemed to be spared the excesses from which Sciences Po suffered?
“Like other prestigious schools, Normale has become much more international in recent years, which has allowed the penetration of the culture of American universities and can explain the increased sensitivity of certain students to the Palestinian question,” argues Gilles Kepel, university professor whose master’s degree in the Middle East and Mediterranean was recently canceled at the ENS. But for this great Arabist, “the management has its share of responsibilities. This was intended (no doubt sincerely) as a signal of openness towards the students – namely discussions with the student “leaders” and the implementation place of seminars – was perceived by those mobilized as weakness Add to this the fact that with the end of the year, the mobilization at Sciences Po dried up, and that the ENS is a symbolic place: It was a golden opportunity…”
Troubled seminar
Listening to Frédéric Worms, philosopher and director of the ENS, the exchanges with the students seemed to have started under good auspices… “After October 7, several students came to see us in a spirit of trust with demands, requests … We therefore agreed on a framework to respect, both from a legal and academic point of view, by setting up scientific seminars on the subject, which would serve as places for reflection and dialogue on the Israeli-Palestinian subject.” This Bergson specialist emphatically details the program of said seminars: one, entitled “Thinking with Palestine” (set up by students, but supervised by several departments), another, “Building a common Israeli-Palestinian discourse” (“fascinating”), and a third, “Anti-Semitism and philosophy”.
But according to some students and professors, one of these programs, “Thinking with Palestine” stood out for the choice of its guests – including Eyal Sivan, Israeli director and co-author ofA legitimate boycott; For the academic and cultural BDS of the State of Israel (La Fabrique), or even Véronique Bontemps, anthropologist, researcher at the CNRS, and signatory in January of a forum of academics calling to support the academic boycott and to participate in it… “I don’t understand how the management was able to accept the setting up a seminar like this, or at least being satisfied with it given the pedigree of its guests, whose pro-Palestinian (and often anti-Zionist) activism is known. And I am not, myself, an activist, to say that I’m just a student who has the Internet,” says Jonas*, a 25-year-old former ENS student of Jewish faith, regular reader of the rue d’Ulm library. “Some guests perhaps have, in addition to their subject of study, an activist activity, recognizes Frédéric Worms. But the departments have vouched for the seriousness of the scientific arguments made during these events.” “Everyone knew what the subtext of this seminar was, Jonas still annoys. Its implementation, with the support of management, did not ‘open a debate’, or provide elements of academic reflection , but galvanized those who were going to occupy the school!”
Ghost normaliens
2,500 is within a few units of the number of subscribers, on Instagram, of the collective “ENS Ulm in struggle”. This is little, derisory even, for a group with a base of subscribers more than a year and a half old (when they were created, they opposed pension reform). Thirty is the number of “likes” received by the Facebook page dedicated solely to the Committee to Support the Palestinian People – ENS, created in February. Thirty is also the estimate of the number of “students” mobilized during the occupation of May 21, according to all those interviewed by L’Express. Where have these normaliens “galvanized” by the famous “Thinking with Palestine” seminar gone? ? Did they ever exist?
“We weren’t even sure of the identity of those in front of us.”
“Rue d’Ulm is a little bubble,” explains Mathieu*, a prep student met on the scene several days after the evacuation. To be frank, the most militant in the school move from cause to cause. We know the faces. But when the occupation began in the Ernest courtyard, I only recognized a minority of people.” Another, who claims to support the mobilized students, is categorical: “Most were former comrades in the struggle . I recognized at least six or seven… Well, for sure, five.” At least two of the students – one with a megaphone – filmed by the media Blast in a video entitled “Normale Sup: ‘L’ elite’ of the country revolts for Gaza”, published on May 27, also appear in publications of the Palestine Support Committee of… Sciences Po.
The management describes a movement that is disorganized to say the least. “At each meeting, the small group who came to bring the collective’s demands to the establishment was different from the previous one. We were not even sure of the identity of those we had in front of us”, before to clarify: “The occupation was largely fueled by individuals from outside the school, which is already a problem. But there is ‘external’ (notably students with cards) and ‘very external'”.
BDS “training”
During the occupation, the small group seemed to enjoy the support of numerous non-student organizations, both political (Thomas Portes, deputy for France Insoumise, made the trip on May 21) and associations. Starting with the “Urgence Palestine” collective, which “ENS Ulm in struggle” thanked on Instagram for “food, sleeping bags, and support for the occupation”. Or the Samidoun organization, which presents itself as a solidarity network for Palestinian prisoners, dissolved last November in Germany for its anti-Semitic positions. Leaflets from Samidoun were hung in a garland in the Ernests’ courtyard during the operation…
To date, the partnerships of PSL University (Paris Sciences Lettres, of which ENS is a member) with Israeli companies and universities deemed “complicit in violations of international law and human rights” are at the heart of the students’ demands. . “There has always been a hard core of demands, but they have multiplied over time, to the point of targeting PSL partnerships, pretending to confuse the ENS and the latter – with which we are in solidarity,” specifies The direction.
According to Frédéric Worms, the school refused to hold an event involving the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which specializes in the boycott of Israeli products, as well as the sporting, cultural and academic boycott, despite the request of the Committee of support for the Palestinian people from the ENS. But for its part, BDS France certifies that the campaign would have given “training” in December to a group of students, “who happen to have grouped together in this Committee to Support Palestine of the ENS”. And this, “in their union premises because the management had refused them a room. I would say that our work which documents in particular the links between Israeli universities and the Israeli army serves them as ‘resources’, in a way”, welcomes our interlocutor. The management of the ENS, however, assures that it is not aware that such an event took place in the school. When asked, “ENS Ulm in struggle” did not respond to L’Express.
In reality, even one of the rare punchy actions carried out by the collective would have been blown away… by a passing student during the occupation, Ernest’s courtyard. Tom*, whom we met on rue d’Ulm, tells us, not a little proud: “It was Tuesday, so the first day. A boy gave me a leaflet and asked me if I knew the links between PSL and certain companies, so I responded by pointing out that Roland Lescure, Minister for Industry, was due to give a conference within the school that very evening. The student in question had no idea. ‘replied in surprise, ‘Oh, that’s really interesting!’ and he left, probably to warn the others.” The same evening, the conference was disrupted, “awkwardly”, according to our interlocutor.
New section of the UEJF
Real-false normaliens, real-false action plans… However, it is this mix of genres that got the better of the graduation ceremony for the class of 2024, scheduled for May 24 within the ENS. Goodbye cocktails and petit fours, instead, the students were treated to a visit to the exhibition “A bras-le-corps” at the Collège de France, the replacement venue, and to a new disruption – including a speech “ resolutely militant”, according to our interlocutors present during the event. Then, the versions diverge. Some accuse the management of having applauded the speech, which it refuted in a long email sent to ENS students on May 31.
Picrocholin, the debate reveals the climate of mistrust that has taken hold in the corridors of Normale. “I had already been chilled by the management’s inability to crack down since the start of the occupation, in the face of students calling for an ‘intifada’… But the lack of condemnation on the part of the management in the face of ‘the operation’ carried out during this ceremony [au Collège de France], as if everything was perfectly normal, finally convinced me. For me, the ENS is over”, assures Jonas. A sign of the times, a branch of the Union of Jewish Students of France (UEJF), until now completely absent from the school, should be created there shortly .
*First names have been changed.
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