The demonstrators are protesting against a partnership between the IEP of Strasbourg and the Reichman University of Herzliya. Five teacher-researchers also resigned from the board of directors.
Published on 06/01/2025 17:24
Updated on 06/01/2025 17:58
Reading time: 3min
New blockade in higher education to denounce the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip. Students blocked the Institute of Political Studies (IEP) in Strasbourg on Monday January 6 to protest against the partnership between the establishment and Reichman University in Herzliya, Israel, AFP noted. Trash cans marked with inscriptions “Down with Zionism” et “Fuck Israel” were placed in front of the entrance to the establishment, alongside a banner proclaiming “Israel Genocide Sciences Po complicit”.
This blockage is organized due to the “undemocratic vote” to reconnect “a partnership with a university complicit in genocide”Lucille, a student, told AFP. This partnership between the IEP of Strasbourg and Reichman University, established in 2015, allowed students from this Israeli establishment to be welcomed at the IEP, which sent two students per year to Israel. It was paused during Covid and then suspended in June in the context of the war in Gaza, but members of the IEP board of directors renewed their support for this partnership in a vote on December 18.
The text was voted on with 14 votes for, 1 against and 4 abstentions, while 14 members of the board of directors did not take part in the vote. Five teacher-researchers announced their resignation from the board of directors after this vote, which they described as “denial of democracy” by denouncing “numerous pressures both internal and external”.
“There is clear support from Reichman University for the actions being carried out in the Gaza Strip, for the students who are in the Israeli army”a student member of the Palestine Sciences Po Strasbourg committee told AFP. He explained that the building was “blocked for the day, at least”a general meeting being planned for the end of the morning to decide on the follow-up to be given to this action.
“I'm not surprised by the blockage, I expected it”declared to AFP the director of the IEP of Strasbourg, Jean-Philippe Heurtin, who sees “an error of judgment on the part of students and a certain number of colleagues who think that Reichman University is indeed subservient to Netanyahu's government, which, from my point of view, is not the case. case I think that it is a university which has been able to preserve academic freedom, which is the only thing that matters to us in this context.
