justice orders Sciences Po Paris to maintain the MP's intervention on Palestine

This Friday, the Paris administrative court ordered Sciences Po Paris to allow a conference to take place by the MEP of La France insoumise (radical left), the Franco-Palestinian Rima Hassan, initially banned by the prestigious school. “The summary judges of the Paris administrative court order Sciences Po Paris to allow this conference to be held under conditions guaranteeing its smooth running and likely to prevent the risk of disturbances to public order”writes the court in a press release.

This conference, entitled “Humanitarian, legal and geopolitical perspectives on an arms embargo on Israel”organized by the Students for Justice (SJP) association, was initially scheduled to be held this Friday. “Huge victory”reacted Friday on X Rima Hassan. “The IEP of Paris is ordered to find a new date”also indicated on X his lawyer Vincent Brengarth.

The director of Sciences Po did not authorize this conference due to the risk of breaching public order. In his decision, the summary judge “considers that there is no circumstantial element to consider that this conference, the subject of which is technical and for which the organizers have planned different methods of maintaining order, would encourage students to resort to illegal actions to express their convictions”.

“A serious attack”

He also considers “that in the absence of a call for counter-demonstrations and in view of the progress of previous conferences on Palestine, the director of the IEP could, by resorting to other police measures, avoid possible clashes with people hostile to Rima Hassan”. He concludes “that by prohibiting the planned conference, the director of the IEP of Paris has caused a serious and manifestly illegal attack on the freedom of expression and assembly guaranteed to users of the public service of higher education”.

Contacted by AFP, Sciences Po Paris did not react on Friday morning. For Me Brengarth, it is “confirmation that the decision taken was illegal. The administrative judge has fulfilled his role as guardian of freedoms at a time when expressions relating to Palestine are too often censored despite the extremely serious situation in Gaza.he stressed in a statement to AFP.

Other establishments have banned the holding of conferences by the 32-year-old lawyer, elected from LFI to the European Parliament, such as the University of Lille, Paris-Dauphine (a cancellation ultimately prohibited) and this week, Strasbourg.