The police intervened on Friday May 3, 2024 at Sciences Po Paris to evacuate the pro-Gaza activists who had occupied it since the day before. The establishment and its campuses remain the epicenter in France of student mobilization in favor of the Palestinians.
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According to a Sciences Po student who spoke to the press, “ around fifty students were still present in the premises on rue Saint-Guillaume » when the police entered the school, a week after a mobilization marred by tensions at Sciences Po Paris and a previous evacuation of premises.
“ The firmness is and will remain total “, declared Matignon. Gabriel Attal has “ requested intervention upon requisition by the provisional administrator” from Sciences Po Paris. The provisional administrator of the school, “ Jean Bassères called the police. He gave a 20 minute ultimatum to get out “, because of “ the exams will be held from Monday and they must be prepared from tomorrow », declared Hicham, representative of the Palestine Committee, to the press after leaving the occupied premises.
“ Upon request, the police prefect engaged the public force to evacuate the Sciences Po site on rue Saint-Guillaume. Some 91 people were evacuated without incident. The operation takes place peacefully », Specified the police headquarters.
There were the students who were inside the campus. There were about a hundred who stayed the night. Students gathered around 9:30 a.m. – 10 a.m. in front of 27 rue Saint-Guillaume which is the main and historic campus of Sciences Po Paris. Journalists came, but they were quickly pushed aside, then there was a small rally of support when the blockers were kicked out. All the people who were in front were killed by the police.
Victor, Master 2 student at Sciences Po Paris, recounts the evacuation
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Low mobilization in France outside Sciences Po Paris
Student mobilization in favor of Gaza and the Palestinians remains limited to Sciences Po, its regional campuses and other political studies institutes, but is struggling to spread in universities. Elsewhere in France, several Sciences Po Paris campuses such as Le Havre, Dijon, Reims and Poitiers were subject to disruptions, blockages or partial occupations.
At Reims, “ five to seven students » have started a hunger strike, one of these students, who did not want to give her name, told AFP. In Lyon, the police intervened on Friday to calmly evacuate pro-Palestinian demonstrators from the Institute of Political Studies (which is not attached to Sciences Po Paris). Once outside, a few dozen demonstrators chanted “ Gaza, Gaza, Lyon is with you “. In Saint-Etienne, the police also intervened to evacuate around fifteen students who were blocking access to a university site. In Lille, the entrance to the ESJ (the journalism school) was still blocked, according to an AFP journalist.
However, a rally in support of the Palestinian cause is planned for Friday at 2 p.m. in Paris at the call of student unions. In the United States, the campuses of around forty universities experience a wave of mobilizationwith muscular interventions by the police.
Place de la Sorbonne, a few hundred meters from Sciences Po Paris, the Union of Jewish Students of France (UEJF) holds a “ dialogue table », with several guests, including the designer Joann Sfar. Only around ten people participated at midday. “ We want to prove that it is not true that we cannot talk about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. To do this, we must put aside those who point the finger at Jewish students as complicit in the genocide. », declared the president of the UEJF, Samuel Lejoyeux, on Radio J.
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