Paris police remove pro-Palestinian students occupying Sciences Po university
Sciences Po has become the epicentre of French student protests over the war and academic ties with Israel, which have spread across France but have remained much smaller in scale than those seen in the United States
Reuters Published 03
Protesters in support of Palestinians in Gaza are escorted away by police forces during the evacuation of the Sciences Po University, during the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Paris, France, May 3, 2024.Reuters
Police in Paris entered France's prestigious Sciences Po university on Friday and removed student activists who had occupied its buildings in protest against Israel's conduct in its war against Hamas in Gaza.
A Reuters witness saw police go into the buildings and take out many of the 70-odd protesters inside. Unlike in some college campuses across the United States, the French protests have been peaceful and there were no signs of violence as the students were brought out of the buildings.
Sciences Po has become the epicentre of French student protests over the war and academic ties with Israel, which have spread across France but have remained much smaller in scale than those seen in the United States.
The university was closed for the day on Friday, with a heavy police presence around its main building.
Protesters in support of Palestinians in Gaza are escorted away by police forces during the evacuation of the Sciences Po University, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Paris, France, May 3, 2024.Reuters
Jack, a Sciences Po student who declined to give his surname, said he was one of around 70 students who spent Thursday night occupying one of the university's main buildings in central Paris.
He told Reuters on Friday morning that protesters had declined an ultimatum by university officials to clear large parts of the building and restrict their movement to a determined smaller area.
A Sciences Po spokesperson, speaking before the police intervention, said the university was seeking a "negotiated solution to end the standoff" with its students, and that some of the its satellite campuses in Reims, Le Havre and Poitiers were also affected by protests.
Sciences Po Lyon, an unaffiliated university in France's third largest city, was also blocked by protesting students on Friday, as well as the Lille school of journalism, images broadcast by French news channels showed.
Sciences Po's director Jean Basseres on Thursday rejected demands by protesters to review its relations with Israeli universities, prompting protesters to continue their movement with at least one person entering a hunger strike, according to a student speaking on behalf of the protesters.
Samuel Lejoyeux, who heads the Union of Jewish Students of France, said French student protests had remained more peaceful than those in the United States as there was a greater desire for dialogue in France.
"With the overwhelming majority of students at French universities, including Sciences Po, it is still possible to have a debate. I even think there is an increased hunger for debate," he told broadcaster BFM TV.
Police 'drag' students to clear sit-in against Gaza war at Paris university
French police have dispersed demonstrators protesting Israel's Gaza war at Sciences Po university as protests continue across the country.
Police entered Paris' Sciences Po to evacuate pro-Palestinian protesters. / Photo: Reuters
Police have entered the Sciences Po university in Paris to remove dozens of students staging a pro-Gaza sit-in in the entrance hall, AFP journalists saw, as protests fire political debate about Israel's Gaza war.
One student, who identified himself as a representative of the Palestine Committee named Hicham, said on Friday university authorities had given the group 20 minutes to leave before the forcible evacuation because of "exams to be held from Monday".
"The chief of police deployed law enforcement to evacuate the Sciences Po site... 91 people were removed without incident," the Paris police headquarters said.
Bastien, 22, told AFP he and other protesters had been peacefully brought out in groups of 10 by officers.
But another student, Lucas, working towards a master's degree, said "some were dragged and others gripped by the head or shoulders".
Administrators had closed Sciences Po's main buildings on Friday in response to the sit-in and called for remote classes instead.
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal's office said such protests would be dealt with using "total rigour", adding that 23 university sites had been "evacuated" on Thursday.
Some students were still at the end of the blocked street after the building was cleared, chanting "we are still here, even if Sciences Po doesn't want us" and "long live the Palestinian people's struggle".
'Disappointing'
Sciences Po, widely considered France's top political science school, with alumni including President Emmanuel Macron, has seen student action at its sites across the country in protest against the war in Gaza and the ensuing humanitarian crisis.
Protests have been slow to spread to other prominent universities, unlike in the United States — where demonstrations at around 40 facilities have at times spiralled into clashes with police and mass arrests.
Demonstrations have so far been more peaceful in France, home to the largest Jewish population outside Israel and the US, and to Europe's largest Muslim community.
The University of California, Los Angeles, announced that Friday's classes would be held remotely after police cleared a protest camp there and arrested more than 200 people. Sciences Po administration took the same step for its Paris student body of between 5,000 and 6,000.
Protesters had occupied the entrance hall in a "peaceful sit-in" following a debate on the Middle East with administrators on Thursday morning that their Palestine Committee dubbed "disappointing".
The university's interim administrator, Jean Basseres, refused student demands to "investigate" Science Po's ties with Israeli institutions.
Students swept in other cities
The war in Gaza began after the Palestinian resistance group Hamas launched an attack on Israel on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel estimates that 129 hostages seized by Hamas during their attack remain in Gaza. The Israeli military says it believes 34 of them are dead.
Israel's relentless offensive on Gaza has killed at least 34,596 people in the Palestinian territory, mostly women and children, according to the besieged enclave's health ministry.
Outside the Sorbonne University, a few hundred metres (yards) from Sciences Po in central Paris, members of the Union of Jewish Students in France (UEJF) set up a "dialogue table" on Friday.
"We want to prove that it's not true that you can't talk about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," UEJF president Samuel Lejoyeux told broadcaster Radio J.
"To do that, we have to sideline those who single out Jewish students as complicit in genocide," he added.
Police also removed students from the Institute for Political Studies (IEP) in Lyon.
And in the northeastern city of Lille, the ESJ journalism school was blocked off, an AFP reporter saw.
Around 100 students had occupied a lecture hall at Science Po's Lyon branch late on Thursday.
Law enforcement on Friday removed a dozen students who were blocking the entrance to a university site in Saint-Etienne, near Lyon, for the second day running.
French police have dispersed demonstrators protesting Israel's Gaza war at Sciences Po university as protests continue across the country.
Police entered Paris' Sciences Po to evacuate pro-Palestinian protesters. / Photo: Reuters
Police have entered the Sciences Po university in Paris to remove dozens of students staging a pro-Gaza sit-in in the entrance hall, AFP journalists saw, as protests fire political debate about Israel's Gaza war.
One student, who identified himself as a representative of the Palestine Committee named Hicham, said on Friday university authorities had given the group 20 minutes to leave before the forcible evacuation because of "exams to be held from Monday".
"The chief of police deployed law enforcement to evacuate the Sciences Po site... 91 people were removed without incident," the Paris police headquarters said.
Bastien, 22, told AFP he and other protesters had been peacefully brought out in groups of 10 by officers.
But another student, Lucas, working towards a master's degree, said "some were dragged and others gripped by the head or shoulders".
Administrators had closed Sciences Po's main buildings on Friday in response to the sit-in and called for remote classes instead.
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal's office said such protests would be dealt with using "total rigour", adding that 23 university sites had been "evacuated" on Thursday.
Some students were still at the end of the blocked street after the building was cleared, chanting "we are still here, even if Sciences Po doesn't want us" and "long live the Palestinian people's struggle".
'Disappointing'
Sciences Po, widely considered France's top political science school, with alumni including President Emmanuel Macron, has seen student action at its sites across the country in protest against the war in Gaza and the ensuing humanitarian crisis.
Protests have been slow to spread to other prominent universities, unlike in the United States — where demonstrations at around 40 facilities have at times spiralled into clashes with police and mass arrests.
Demonstrations have so far been more peaceful in France, home to the largest Jewish population outside Israel and the US, and to Europe's largest Muslim community.
The University of California, Los Angeles, announced that Friday's classes would be held remotely after police cleared a protest camp there and arrested more than 200 people. Sciences Po administration took the same step for its Paris student body of between 5,000 and 6,000.
Protesters had occupied the entrance hall in a "peaceful sit-in" following a debate on the Middle East with administrators on Thursday morning that their Palestine Committee dubbed "disappointing".
The university's interim administrator, Jean Basseres, refused student demands to "investigate" Science Po's ties with Israeli institutions.
Students swept in other cities
The war in Gaza began after the Palestinian resistance group Hamas launched an attack on Israel on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel estimates that 129 hostages seized by Hamas during their attack remain in Gaza. The Israeli military says it believes 34 of them are dead.
Israel's relentless offensive on Gaza has killed at least 34,596 people in the Palestinian territory, mostly women and children, according to the besieged enclave's health ministry.
Outside the Sorbonne University, a few hundred metres (yards) from Sciences Po in central Paris, members of the Union of Jewish Students in France (UEJF) set up a "dialogue table" on Friday.
"We want to prove that it's not true that you can't talk about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," UEJF president Samuel Lejoyeux told broadcaster Radio J.
"To do that, we have to sideline those who single out Jewish students as complicit in genocide," he added.
Police also removed students from the Institute for Political Studies (IEP) in Lyon.
And in the northeastern city of Lille, the ESJ journalism school was blocked off, an AFP reporter saw.
Around 100 students had occupied a lecture hall at Science Po's Lyon branch late on Thursday.
Law enforcement on Friday removed a dozen students who were blocking the entrance to a university site in Saint-Etienne, near Lyon, for the second day running.
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