On Monday afternoon, police intervened at the Sorbonne in Paris to evacuate activists in favor of the Palestinian cause who had set up tents inside the university.
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After the Sciences-Po Paris Institute of Political Studies, the Sorbonne. On the afternoon of Monday, April 29, the police intervened in the famous Parisian university to evacuate militants of the Palestinian cause who had set up tents inside the establishment.
About fifty protesters were led away from the historic premises of the Sorbonnein the Latin Quarter, and then evicted in groups, under police surveillance, an AFP journalist confirmed.
“There were about fifty of us when the police ran into the courtyard. The evacuation was quite brutal, with about ten people dragged on the ground. There were no arrests,” Rémi, 20, a third-year history and science student, told AFP. Geography, who was among the evicted protesters.
The Police Prefecture described the operation as “a few minutes” and “carried out calmly, without incident.”
The Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, “requested that the Sorbonne be evacuated quickly”, as “he had requested for Sciences Po on Friday”, indicated a source close to the minister. “He is closely monitoring the situation and is in contact with the police headquarters,” he added.
The Ile-de-France region announced on Monday that “suspended” its funding for the Sciences Po Paris institute, that is, one million euros “scheduled for 2024 within the framework of the CPER (State-Region Plan Contract)”, according to a source close to its president, Valérie Pécresse, told AFP.
As for the Sorbonne, the Paris rectorate told AFP that classes will resume on Tuesday, after the university closed on Monday afternoon.
“We are here in response to a call from students at Harvard and Columbia.”
According to the university, around thirty activists had met on Monday, April 29, inside the Sorbonne, where nine tents had been set up in the courtyard and three in the lobby, and a Palestinian flag was placed on the ground. According to one of the protesters, there were between 20 and 30 tents.
Other protesters gathered in front of the Sorbonne They chanted “Israel murderer, Sorbonne complicit” and “Don't look at us, join us”, in the presence of LFI deputies Louis Boyard, Thomas Portes and Rodrigo Arenas.
Lorélia Fréjo, a Paris-1 student and activist of the student organization Le Poing Levé, told AFP: “We are here following the call of the students of Harvard and Columbia.” “After the actions at Sciences Po, we are here to keep things going.”
Police intervention in this place so symbolic of the student revolts is rare. This comes a few days after tensions arose at Sciences Po Paris around the mobilization of some of its students led by the school's Palestinian Committee.
These students took as an example the protests on some prestigious American campuseswhich have sparked a lively political debate on the other side of the Atlantic.
In Saint-Étienne, around fifteen pro-Palestinian students have been blocking the Sciences Po Lyon campus since Monday morning, where they have erected barriers of garbage cans and a banner reading “Stop the genocide in Gaza”, according to AFP confirmed.
The executive wants to prevent the American movement from spreading to France
Accused by the executive and the right-wing opposition of fanning the flames of the protest, The LFI hoped on Monday that the mobilizations for Gaza “gain momentum” in universities and other placeswhile Rima Hassan, candidate for the Insoumise list in the European elections, said she “fully supports” his call for an “uprising.”
Manuel Bompard, coordinator of La France Insoumise, declared: “I hope that all the mobilizations that put pressure on the powers that be will gain momentum,” so that the “human drama that is being played out in Gaza comes to an end as soon as possible.”
The USL high school union has called on students to “mobilize in high schools for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the recognition of the Palestinian state and the end of colonization.”
During the weekend, student unions such as Unef and the Union étudiante had called for “intensifying mobilizations in places of study starting on Monday.”
Youth organizations, which support the pro-Palestinian protests, have encountered the intransigence of the government, which does not want the movement that began in the United States to spread to France at the end of the academic year.
Gabriel Attal declared at the weekend: “There will never be the right to blockade, there will never be tolerance for the actions of an active and dangerous minority that tries to impose its rules on our students and teachers.”
This article was adapted from its original in French
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