Why are universities being won over by pro-Palestinian demonstrations?

Dozens of pro-Palestinian students from Sciences Po Paris University occupied a building at their establishment Thursday evening, the day after a first demonstration. The mobilization continues this Friday, April 26.

The movement is gaining momentum. Several dozen pro-Palestinian students mobilized on the night of Thursday April 25 to Friday April 26 to occupy a building at Sciences Po Paris university, reports BFMTV. Between 50 and 70 were expected Thursday evening according to estimates by activists from the Palestine Sciences Po committee reported by AFP. The mobilization continues this Friday, April 26. The students present that night were joined by around twenty people outside the Sciences Po building who were blocking the entrance to the establishment. Classes were canceled this Friday.

Thursday evening, from 9 p.m., once the gates of the famous university closed, dozens of students gathered in the street, encouraging their comrades who remained inside after the vote for a new night of mobilization decided during of a general meeting. In peace, the students then sang several songs in favor of Palestine. All are demanding a clear condemnation from their school of Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip or an end to “collaboration” with all “institutions or entities” which are complicit in the “systemic oppression of the people.” Palestinian”. In a press release, the school management indicated this Friday that it “strongly condemns these student actions which prevent the proper functioning of the institution and penalize Sciences Po students, teachers and employees”. The Minister of Higher Education, Sylvie Retailleau, for her part, regretted on BFMTV a debate far from being “peaceful”, explaining that “red lines have been crossed”, even though the talks with a delegation of The mobilized students continue to find a way out of the situation.

The movement intensifies

The dispatch of the police the day before did not change anything in the situation. “The director crossed a red line by deciding to send the police to our places of study,” declared Inês Fontenelle, elected at Sciences Po from the Student Union, reports 20 minutes, arguing that the management of the establishment “must take steps to restore a climate of confidence”. Organized by the Palestine Committee of Sciences Po, the movement is in line with those launched within American universities. “There is a double degree between Science Po and Columbia (New York), so we have classmates there and the students communicate with each other,” explained one of the members of the Committee, reports BFMTV. And to continue: “We place ourselves in the same line as these universities all over the world.” On site, in the United States, arrests followed one another at Columbia University, Yale University and New York.

In France, the movement is intensifying and spreading to other Parisian universities. This is particularly the case in Paris 1, where on Thursday April 25, 150 to 200 students demonstrated at Place du Panthéon during President Emmanuel Macron’s trip to the Sorbonne for a speech on the European Union. “We refuse to allow Macron to come quietly to the Sorbonne at a time when there is a genocide in Palestine,” explained Lorélia Fréjo, member of the student organization Le Poing Levé Paris 1.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Rima Hassan take a stand

The mobilization of students in favor of Palestine has sparked several reactions of support from politicians, particularly on the left. This is the case of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who, from Yerevan in Armenia where he is currently traveling, wanted to send “the most grateful and admiring greeting” for the work undertaken by the young people in occupying this place symbolic. Rima Hassan, the France Insoumise candidate for the next European elections, indicated on X (ex-Twitter) that she was going to join the movement on site during the day as a sign of solidarity.