A mobilization of pro-Palestinian students this Thursday, May 2, caused the closure of Sciences Po Lille as well as that of the Higher School of Journalism, access to which was blocked by the demonstrators. In Saint-Etienne, trash cans were piled up in front of the entrances to Jean-Monnet University.
The Lille Institute of Political Studies remained closed Thursday morning, and access to the Lille Higher School of Journalism (ESJ) was blocked due to mobilization in support of the Palestinians.
The management of Sciences Po Lille has decided to close the establishment, initially until midday, after an “attempted blockade” by students “partly from outside” Sciences Po, the management indicated in a press release. Classes are ultimately canceled for the entire day.
The students who had mobilized at dawn for this blockade then went to the neighboring ESJ, to which they blocked access, shouting “Children of Gaza, children of Palestine, it is humanity that ‘we murder’.
There was “no breakage”, according to the director of the ESJ
“No more ethics on our sets”, “More than 100 journalists dead in Gaza”, could we read on signs posted in front of the establishment, while around fifty demonstrators stood in front of the doors locked by heavy chains .
“There is no intrusion inside the school, no breakage outside,” the director of the ESJ, Pierre Savary, told AFP, stressing that this type of action is “very rare at ESJ”.
A master’s degree between the IEP of Lille and Tel Aviv University criticized
Among the students’ demands, the cancellation of a joint master’s degree at Sciences Po Lille with Tel Aviv University. “Our board of directors has clearly spoken out against the boycott of Israeli universities,” indicated the management of Science Po, while considering it “legitimate that our community can express its solidarity with the populations victims of the war”.
A meeting is planned for Friday to reflect on “the actions to be taken within the school and in conjunction with our partners”.
A university site in Saint-Etienne blocked
A pro-Palestine mobilization also took place in Saint-Etienne this Thursday. A handful of students demanding a ceasefire in Gaza blocked access to a university site in Saint-Etienne, where the police had already intervened on Tuesday, noted an AFP correspondent.
Like Monday morning, around fifteen students piled up trash cans in front of the entrances to the Jean Monnet University building which houses the department of political and territorial studies, the Lyon IEP branch, and the Saint-Etienne School of Economics.
The police intervened on Tuesday to dislodge them and a delegation was immediately received by the president of the university, Florent Pigeon, to whom they asked to be able to organize a conference on Palestine.
Will university blockages increase?
During this meeting, “we did not succeed in reaching an agreement,” one of their representatives told AFP to explain the resumption of the blockade the day after May 1.
The mobilization on French campuses, which really started last week, echoes the protests agitating prestigious American universities. The Minister of Higher Education, Sylvie Retailleau, asked university presidents on Thursday to ensure the “maintenance of public order”, using “the fullest extent of the powers” at their disposal.
