Police entered Paris's prestigious Sciences Po university on Friday to remove dozens of students staging a pro-Palestinian sit-in in the entrance hall, as opposition to the Israel-Hamas conflict spreads to higher education institutions in other parts of France.
One student told French news agency AFP he and other protestors had been peacefully brought out in groups of 10 by officers, while another, Lucas, said "some students were dragged and others gripped by the head or shoulders".
The university was closed for the day on Friday in response to the sit-in, with a heavy police presence around its main building.
Jack, a Sciences Po student who declined to give his surname, said he was one of around 70 people who spent Thursday night occupying one of the university's main buildings in central Paris.
He told Reuters news agency that protesters had rejected an ultimatum by university officials on Thursday to clear large parts of the building and restrict their movement to a determined smaller area.
Students from universities across Paris gathered at the Panthéon monument on Friday afternoon.
BREAKING:
— sarah (@sahouraxo) May 3, 2024
Right now, in the heart of Paris!
Students from Sciences Po converge at the Place du Panthéon, standing in solidarity with Palestine and chanting in unison:
“Long live the struggle of the Palestinian people!”
🇵🇸🔥pic.twitter.com/ggwNcaWvOc
Sciences Po's interim director Jean Bassères on Thursday rejected demands by protesters to review its relations with Israeli universities, prompting protesters to continue their movement.
Speaking before the police intervened, a spokesperson for the university said it was seeking a "negotiated solution to end the standoff" with its students, and that some of its satellite campuses in Reims, Le Havre and Poitiers were also affected by protests.
'Rigorous' response
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal's office said the protests would be dealt with rigorously, adding that 23 university sites had been "evacuated" on Thursday.
But on Friday, Sciences Po Lyon, an unaffiliated university in France's third largest city, was also blocked by protesting students, as well as the Lille school of journalism.
In the northern city of Reims, five to seven students are reportedly on hunger strike, according to a student who declined to give her name.
Unlike in some college campuses across the United States, the French protests have been largely peaceful.
The Union of Jewish Students of France (UEJF) was on Friday holding a "dialogue stand" close to the Sciences Po building in Paris.
"We want to show it's not true that you can't discuss the Israel-Palestinian conflict and to do that you have to put aside people who point the finger at Jewish students as complicit in the genocide," said the head of UEJF Samuel Lejoyeux.
French student protests had remained more peaceful than those in the United States as there was a greater desire for dialogue in France, he told broadcaster BFMTV on Thursday.
(with newswires)
