The tension does not subside on rue Saint-Guillaume.
The Paris police headquarters banned a demonstration planned for Thursday evening in front of Sciences-po Paris, in support of students who had organized a pro-Palestinian mobilization in an amphitheater of the school.
“The police chief made the decision to ban this gathering in a context of high tensions,” the police headquarters announced to AFP.
The Urgence Palestine collective, bringing together associations and unions and at the origin of regular demonstrations of support for the population of Gaza, called for a “rally” Thursday evening in front of Sciences-po Paris, affirming on the social network “denouncing genocide is not a crime”.
⚠️⚠️ See you this evening at 6 p.m. in front of @sciencespo to support students in solidarity with Palestine!
Stop the repression of solidarity with the Palestinian people in universities! #SciencePo pic.twitter.com/yBIGLAVQeF
— Emergency Palestine (@urgence_pal) March 14, 2024
The prestigious Parisian establishment has been plunged into turmoil since Tuesday after a student member of the Union of Jewish Students of France (UEJF) reported having been refused entry into an amphitheater of the prestigious Parisian school, at the the occasion of a “day of European university mobilization for Palestine” which blocked the holding of a lecture course.
Also read “You, you’re not coming back!
»: the testimony of the Sciences-po student turned away from a lecture hall on Tuesday
According to Sciences-po management, this student was “prevented from accessing the amphitheater” where the action took place.
“Accusatory remarks were made (
at the podium
) against” the student association, added the establishment on X.
The UEJF denounced anti-Zionist remarks against this student, which led the government to refer the matter to the prosecutor on Wednesday.
These accusations were refuted by the Palestine committee of Sciences-po.
“It is intolerable that there is separatism in the Republic,” denounces Macron
The matter has reached the highest levels of the state.
“It is intolerable that there is separatism in the Republic and at Sciences-po,” choked up Emmanuel Macron this Wednesday morning during the Council of Ministers.
A few hours after the conference, Sylvie Retailleau, Minister of Higher Education, visited the site, describing the episode as “shocking”.
The government is preparing to make an "article 40", that is to say a report to the prosecutor, as the Prime Minister himself announced, while the school's internal investigation unit has been seized.
For the President of the Senate Gérard Larcher, Tuesday's event “is not anecdotal”.
“The school cannot become, even on the part of a minority, an Islamo-leftist bunker,” he insisted this Thursday.