France has started forcefully removing students staging peaceful pro-Gaza protests from universities. On Friday, the French police entered the Sciences Po University and removed students as peaceful protests ignited political debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
One student told reporters “around 50 students were still inside the rue Saint-Guillaume site” when police entered. Bastien (22), a student, told AFP he and other protesters had been peacefully brought out in groups of 10 by officers forcefully. Another student from pursuing his masters said, “Some students were dragged and others gripped by the head or shoulders”.
University administrators had closed Sciences Po’s main buildings on Friday in response to the protest and called for online classes. Around 70 to 80 people occupied the foyer of the central Paris building, said a university official.
France PM Gabriel Attal’s office said such pro-palestine student protest would be dealt “total rigour”, adding that 23 university sites had been “evacuated” on Thursday.
University’s Palestine Committee’s student members told reporters they faced a disproportionate response from police, who had blocked access to the site before moving in. They also alleged that they being restricted from basic “medical assistance” for seven students who are on a hunger strike in solidarity with Palestinian victims.
Interestingly, Sciences Po university is France’s top political science school with alumni including President Emmanuel Macron, has seen student action at its at sites across the country in protest against the war in Gaza and the ensuing humanitarian crisis.
After US it’s the France among the western countries which has started fierce actions against peaceful student protests across country. In response, Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi rebels extended its support offering a place for students suspended from U.S. universities after staging pro-Gaza protests.
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