Names marked with an asterisk have been changed to protect their identity.
Paris, France – Tensions are rising between the French state and students at top universities who are staging pro-Palestinian protests amid Israel’s war on Gaza, inspired by their American counterparts.
Last week, students at Sciences Po University in Paris occupied parts of the facility and blocked access to a building before riot police arrived on campus.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who, like President Emmanuel Macron, is one of the university’s notable graduates, said his government would not tolerate “the actions of a dangerous minority that seeks to impose its rules and an ideology that comes from North America.” three-day blockade at the renowned school.
Despite the threat of police action, anti-war demonstrators from the prestigious Sorbonne University demonstrated on campus on Monday, setting up tents, chanting and waving the Palestinian flag.
“[University officials] told us that we could be kicked out, that the director would call the riot police officers back into the house and that we would not get our diploma,” said Ismail, a master’s student at Sciences Po who joined the sit-ins as he denounced : “Intimidation Tactics.”
“I personally am not afraid. I may face disciplinary action from a university that is complicit in genocide. If I have to risk it, I will,” he told Al Jazeera.
He believes his school has “not reached the moment when it comes to condemning the ongoing genocide in Gaza and cutting partnerships with complicit universities and companies.”
Sciences Po has partnerships with several universities in the Middle East, including Tel Aviv University in Israel, while some undergraduate and postgraduate students study in exchange programs in Israel.
Sciences Po demonstrators initially occupied part of the campus on Wednesday evening after 100 students voted to set up tents on the university grounds.
In addition to an end to the Israeli war, they called on their university to cut ties with Israeli institutions and other companies that they see as complicit in the war in Gaza, which has so far killed some 34,500 Palestinians, mostly children and women.
A few hours later, the school’s interim president, Jean Basseres, called together riot police to clear out the sit-in, a move that was significant in France because police rarely entered universities.
Although there were no arrests, the president’s decision crossed a red line, according to some students and faculty. The protest continued Thursday with tents overnight.
Valerie Pecresse, president of the Ile-de-France region where Paris is located, has announced that the region’s funding for Sciences Po Paris will be cut until “peace and safety are restored to the school.”
“France doesn’t want a Columbia camp here”
Eliana*, a French-American student who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons, believes the French government pressured university officials to let security guards in.
“On my first meeting with him [university] During the occupation on Wednesday, a member of the administration received a call and was asked to do everything possible to remove us from the university as the government was exerting pressure,” she recalls.
“My analysis is that the government didn’t want Columbia [University-style] “They didn’t want to be confronted with this image in their camp here in France,” she told Al Jazeera, referring to the protests at the US university that have made headlines around the world.
Thousands have joined pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia, an Ivy League university, and several other U.S. schools. Hundreds were arrested and some were suspended from their courses.
“Sciences Po thought it was acceptable to call the police on their own students. We are deeply outraged by this decision, but we also have a stronger determination to enforce our demands,” said Eliana.
That Sciences Po Paris was the first university in France to hold a day-long pro-Palestine protest on campus was “highly symbolic,” said Ziad Majed, a professor at the American University of Paris and a specialist in Middle East politics.
“Sciences Po is viewed by the French government as a sacred site whose mission is to produce the country’s elite. A counter-model has emerged within this elite institution, which is very worrying in the eyes of the establishment,” he told Al Jazeera.
He said the decision to deploy riot police was not surprising given France’s position on Israel-Palestine since October 7, when the historic conflict sharply escalated.
That day, Hamas, the Palestinian group that rules Gaza, attacked southern Israel. The attack killed 1,139 people and captured more than 200. Dozens of Israelis are still being held.
“Initially, France represented unconditional support for Israel, while President Macron claimed he wanted to avoid ‘importing the conflict’ into France,” Majed said.
“The government is very afraid that the student protests could spread to other French universities and is therefore doing everything in its power to prevent this.”
The drama at French universities coincided with other societal tensions related to the Middle East war.
Last week, police summoned several public figures accused of inciting “terrorism,” including Mathilde Panot, leader of the left-wing La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) party, and journalist Sihame Assbague, over her comments following the Hamas attacks .
Assbague then posted on social media: “The only person responsible: the colonial state of Israel.” The only solution: the end of colonization and the liberation of Palestine. The only political path is to speak about the causes of perpetuation, in a word, colonization and violence, to condemn the complicit states and to support the Palestinian resistance.”
Panot heads LFI, the parliamentary group of France Unbowed, which on October 7 called the Hamas attack an “armed offensive by the Palestinian forces” and referred to the Israeli occupation.
Majed said the police summonses represented a “threat to public freedoms” and were part of a “repressive environmental climate.”
“All this comes as far-right rhetoric is on the rise in France and anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab racism has become normal in the media and political scene.
“But French civil society, led by students, is resisting and denouncing these abuses, which is frightening the government.”
While France previously banned pro-Palestine rallies, Macron recently called on Israel to stop killing civilians in Gaza.
On Friday, demonstrators from Sciences Po met with university officials and agreed to hold a town hall meeting where students could voice their concerns.
The university director also agreed to drop disciplinary proceedings against several students involved in the protests.
“It’s not a victory yet, but it has given me hope,” Ismail said, adding that students plan to “hold the university accountable” by seeking to end the school’s partnerships that are “complicit in the genocide”.
“[We will also] We urge other universities to join the fight for Palestine,” he said.