For months now, the Gaza conflict has seriously degraded the atmosphere at the prestigious Sciences Po, the Paris university center specialized in political science and international relations. Last night the riot police had to intervene to forcibly end the blockade by students of the main entrance to the institution, which is based on the left bank of the Seine, in the bourgeois neighborhood of Saint-Germain-des-Prés.
Hours earlier there had been moments of great tension between pro-Palestinian students and pro-Israel protesters. Law enforcement managed to separate them and keep them at a distance. The pro-Israelis were members of the Nous vivrons (We Will Live) collective. They were men and women between 40 and 50 years old. They carried banners with slogans such as “Free Gaza from Hamas!” Another group raised flags of the Jewish State and photos of the hostages still in Gaza.
France is a country very sensitive to the latest events in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The country is home to the largest Muslim and Jewish communities in Europe, exacerbating tensions. It was logical that Sciences Po became a place of heated debates and protests, even more so given the example of American campuses. But things led to daily insults and intimidation.
The situation has coincided with a deep crisis at the educational institution, whose director, Matthias Vicherat, recently resigned due to a personal scandal. The Arabist Gilles Keppel, one of the highest French academic authorities on the Arab and Muslim world, was very concerned about the instrumentalization of the university for political purposes and the lack of authority of those responsible for the center. Kepel especially targeted Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of La Francia Insumisa (radical left), accused for years of practicing so-called “Islamo-leftism”, for electoral purposes, to win votes in the suburbs with a high proportion of immigrant population. The proximity of the European elections surely cannot be dissociated from what is happening at the moment.
The management of Sciences Po committed last night to holding an internal debate and to annul the disciplinary procedures initiated against the protesters.
The Paris Institute of Political Studies (IEP), popularly known as Sciences Po, was founded in 1872 after France's humiliating defeat by Prussia. Today it has 15,000 students, half of them international. President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Gabriel Attal were among his students.
