Lino Castex, Théa Augoula, Emma Dez and Victor Galmel are master's students at Sciences Po.
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To the provisional management of Sciences Po, to our dear institution,
No, Sciences Po does not have the face that some people wanted to give it this Tuesday afternoon.
Videos and testimonies expose the seriousness of the actions and comments that were made in the very heart of our university.
We hear this painful phrase
“Don’t let her in, she’s a Zionist”
.
Don't let her in.
She's a Zionist.
Don't let her in.
She's a Zionist.
Nothing in these words deserves a place in our school.
No part of our democracy should accept them.
These words are proof of absolute bankruptcy.
The very meaning of our institution and our commitment as students has been chipped and in this gap which has opened since October 7 we no longer want to let any monster through.
These words go against who we are.
The hasty departure of our (former) director should not make us forget the institution's duty to our student community.
Our names must never again be associated with such comments and those who uttered them have no place among us.
To say
“don't let her come in, she's a Zionist”
is to reproduce what Miguel Unamuno stood up against.
The university must remain a
temple of intelligence
and those who want to convince must know how to persuade “by reason and law” and by no other means.
Refusing the presence of a student because she looks too much like a Jew and her appearance is immediately criticized for “Zionism” is not “convincing” but humiliating, discriminating, breaking.
The shadow of anti-Semitism must compel us more than anything to exercise absolute caution and the greatest mistrust in the face of such actions.
Let us bet that in the future, the ambiguous and the violent will no longer darken the atmosphere of our beautiful institution with a barely veiled anti-Semitic shadow.
Because we are students at Sciences Po, we have an absolute duty to cultivate a certain ethic of discussion.
In this space open to ourselves and open to the world, there is no place for dogmatists and authoritarians.
No one can be ostracized because they are Jewish.
No one can be thrown out because they are Arab, female or homosexual.
Debate is our reason for being and knowledge is the means
“to raise defenses against the savages of the present and the barbarians of the future”
(Ernest Vinet to Émile Boutmy).
Be careful, critical distance is not rational coldness.
We can be carried by the emotional wound in our discussions and feel a conscious emotion about the terrorist acts of Hamas and the illegal responses of Netanyahu, but we can never be allowed to give in to hatred or racism.
Never exclusion.
Never intellectual tyranny.
Make yourselves the bearers of this word that we know is the majority.
Living and studying at Sciences Po presupposes everything that these insults deny.
Discussion, tolerance, critical thinking and discourse at all times are supported by each of us.
Doors always open to receive students ready to discuss.
The duty to remember and criticism of current events rub shoulders with theoretical and political commitments.
It must be possible to defend the recognition of a Palestinian state and to bring to life the memory of those murdered, because they were Jews, because they were caught in a fratricidal war, because they were hostages of Hamas, because they were residents of Gaza.
Critical distance is not the negation of commitments but humanist prudence.
Let us bet that in the future, the ambiguous and the violent will no longer darken the atmosphere of our beautiful institution with a barely veiled anti-Semitic shadow.
This open letter to the institution summarizes in substance the elements that we sent to management following Tuesday's events.
These remarks are the result of spontaneous discussions between Sciences Po students, driven by a desire for debate and discussion and deeply saddened by the hateful excesses of a handful of us.
We ask the interim management to take the necessary measures to ensure that our school remains faithful to its purpose.