French President Emmanuel Macron condemned "intolerable" remarks reported during a pro-Palestinian protest at Paris's prestigious Sciences Po university on Tuesday. This after students occupying the main lecture hall were accused of barring entry to a Jewish student and insulting her.
The student, a member of the Union of Jewish Students in France (UEJF) was met with shouts of "Don't let her in, she's a Zionist", the union said on X.
The incident sparked condemnation at the highest level of government, with Macron telling Wednesday's cabinet meeting that the remarks were "unspeakable and perfectly intolerable".
Around a hundred students occupied the main amphitheatre of France's most prestigious school of political science on Tuesday, as part of a "European university mobilisation day for Palestine".
«Ne la laissez pas rentrer, c’est une sioniste»
— UEJF (@uejf) March 12, 2024
Limite franchie à @sciencespo où le grand amphi est occupé. Les étudiants de l’UEJF y sont pris à partie comme juifs et sionistes.
Nous appelons à la levée immédiate du blocus et à des sanctions exemplaires contre ces étudiants. pic.twitter.com/mUi2b4P35y
According to a student present in the amphitheatre, interviewed by French news agency AFP, the young woman member of the UEJF was prevented from entering "for security reasons, because she had previously intimidated pro-Palestinian students".
"She is the only one who could not enter. Other members of the UEJF attended the debates," she said, speaking anonymously.
"UEJF students are targeted as Jews and Zionists," the Jewish student association denounced on X, while the president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (Crif), Yonathan Arfi, deplored an "atmosphere of antisemitism".
Disciplinary action
Sciences Po's management announced that it would take disciplinary action, informing AFP "that several red lines have been crossed".
The management said it regretted a "hardening" of relations between students and the "embedding of an unacceptable poisonous climate".
— Sciences Po (@sciencespo) March 12, 2024
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and Higher Education Minister Sylvie Retailleau went to the Sciences Po Foundation's board to "underline the seriousness" of what happened and urged the university to remain a "place of teaching" and "healthy debates", its management said.
Government spokesperson Prisca Thevenot said that President Macron had clarified and firmly reiterated his position: "academic institutions are autonomous, but this autonomy does not justify any form of separatism," she said.
But students on the ground said the government should be more circumspect in its condemnation.
"It's really sad that unverified information is taken directly to the French president," said one student who declined to be named. "We don't tolerate any form of anti-Semitism."
The protests attracted praise from left-wing politicians like France Unbowed (LFI) MP Aymeric Caron who wrote on X: "bravo to the students of Sciences Po who are mobilised against the ongoing genocide in Gaza".
LFI candidate in the European elections Rima Hassan also expressed her "support to all students and faculties mobilising against the ongoing genocide" on Tuesday.
France has seen a rise in pro-Palestinian protests since militant group Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, sparking a retaliatory Israeli military campaign in the besieged Palestinian territory of Gaza.
At least 31,341 people have been killed during more than five months of war, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
(With newswires)
