The mobilization of pro-Palestinian students continues this Friday afternoon at Sciences Po. After a first night of occupation, a few dozen students are still present in the historic premises of the school, rue Saint-Guillaume (VII). “We decided to put the tents back in the center of the University, but we are tired, we need support,” declared one of them, to the applause of several dozen people who came to support them. in front of the gates of the establishment.
“The administration has not clearly satisfied our demands and is threatening to sanction us but we will continue to block,” explains Sarah (first name has been changed), a master’s student and involved in the Palestine committee at the origin of the mobilization. “We live minute by minute, for now we are trying to hold out until this evening,” continues the young woman, who fears further intervention by the police. On Wednesday, the police had in fact evacuated another site of the establishment, in the wake of the actions carried out in American universities.
Since Thursday, the occupation has moved to the buildings at 27 rue Saint-Guillaume. After the gates of the historic building of the establishment, located rue Saint-Guillaume (7th arrondissement of Paris) closed at 9 p.m., around 80 students gathered in the street to encourage and bring pillows and other foodstuffs. to their comrades, who remained inside the premises after the vote for a new occupation decided during a general assembly which was held Thursday evening, around 7 p.m.
Against “the repression of pro-Palestinian voices”
“Even if Sciences-po doesn’t want to, we’re here. For the honor of Palestine and all those who are murdered,” sang the students gathered peacefully in front of the headquarters of the prestigious school. Between 50 and 70 students are likely to be present in this building, according to young activists or supporters of the Palestine Sciences-po committee contacted by AFP.
The committee calls in particular for “the clear condemnation of Israel’s actions by Sciences-po” and “the end of collaborations” with all “institutions or entities” complicit “in the systemic oppression of the Palestinian people”. He also calls for an end to “the repression of pro-Palestinian voices on campus.” This Friday around 3:30 p.m., the trash cans piled up the same morning to block the doors of the building were removed and several students sat down in the street.
Several deputies from La France Insoumise went to the site, including Rima Hassan, a Franco-Palestinian activist, present in seventh position on the rebellious list in the European elections, and summoned by the police on April 30 for “apology of terrorism”. “The students asked me to come and support them. I am at their side. They are right to mobilize to raise awareness of this subject,” she told the press. In a video published on X (formerly Twitter), we can see students chanting “Rima, Sciences Po is with you”.
The president of Crif, Yonathan Arfi, estimated on LCI this Friday that this movement was “dangerous because the university has a symbolic function in our societies”. “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,” he lamented. .
As a reminder, on Wednesday evening, around sixty students committed to the Palestinian cause occupied the outdoor amphitheater of a school campus in the 7th arrondissement. “After discussions with the management of Sciences-po, most agreed to leave the premises” during the night, but “a small group of students nevertheless refused and it was decided that the police proceeded to the “evacuation of the site”, indicated Wednesday morning the management of the establishment in a message to AFP.
She “regrets that the numerous attempts at dialogue so that they leave the premises peacefully have not made it possible to find another way out of this situation”. Around ten tents were set up in the courtyard of this campus on Wednesday evening, according to testimonies collected by AFP. When the police arrived, “50 students left the premises on their own, 70 were evacuated peacefully from 12:20 a.m.”, according to the police headquarters, which reported “no incident”.
This mobilization was organized by the Palestine Committee of Sciences-po. It took place while several American universities are caught in the turmoil caused by the conflict in Gaza. According to the Palestine Sciences-po Committee, its activists were “carried out of the school by more than fifty members of the police” and “around a hundred” police officers “were also waiting for them outside”.
400 people gathered Thursday
“There is a double degree between Science Po and Columbia (in New York), so we have classmates there and the students communicate with each other,” explained Hicham, a member of the Sciences-Po Palestine Committee. “We place ourselves in the same line as these universities all over the world. “.
Again Thursday, following an appeal from several structures (Collective Solidarité Palestine P4, Palestine Sorbonne, Union syndicale lycéenne (USL) or even Jeunes insoumis), 400 people according to the Paris police headquarters, in particular students from Paris 1 University, demonstrated at Place de la Sorbonne then Place du Panthéon to protest against the arrival of President Macron for a speech on the European Union at the Sorbonne. Numerous videos on Twitter demonstrated the categorical refusal of these young people to see Emmanuel Macron enter the doors of a university while the situation continues in Gaza.
They were also present to support their comrades expelled the day before, as USL spokesperson Gwenn Thomas-Alves explained: “We are peacefully denouncing the censorship of voices for peace in Gaza and they are trying to repress us. This is what happened again today when the police killed us twice and when the police evacuated the students who were blocking Sciences-Po. »