The Lille Institute of Political Studies was closed on Thursday, May 2, and access to the Lille Higher School of Journalism (ESJ) was blocked due to mobilization in support of the Palestinian people.
After closing the establishment for the morning, the management of Sciences Po Lille announced Thursday noon to extend this decision to the whole day, after a “blocking attempt” by students “partly exterior” at Science Po, the management said in a press release. The planned exams are therefore postponed, we learned from the same Source.
The students who had mobilized at dawn for this blockade then went to the neighboring ESJ, to which they blocked the access, chanting: “Children of Gaza, children of Palestine, it is humanity that is being murdered! » “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 chains.
“There is no intrusion inside the school, no breakage outside”explained to Agence France-Presse (AFP) the director of the ESJ, Pierre Savary, recalling that this type of action is “very rare at ESJ”. Classes are canceled for the entire day.
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”declared the management of Science Po, while estimating “legitimate that our community can express its solidarity with the populations victims of the war”. A meeting is planned for Friday to reflect “the actions to be taken within the school and in conjunction with our partners”.
Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers In the IEPs, an extension of the mobilization for a ceasefire in Gaza
Add to your selections
A handful of students demanding a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip also blocked access on Thursday to a university site in Saint-Etienne, where the police had already intervened on Tuesday, noted a correspondent from the AFP. Their evacuation by the police took place around 11 a.m. without clashes, the presidency of the Jean-Monnet University, which had made the request, told AFP.
From the beginning of the morning, like Monday morning, around fifteen students had piled up trash cans in front of the entrances to the building of Jean-Monnet University, which houses the department of political and territorial studies, the branch of the IEP de Lyon, and the Saint-Etienne School of Economics.
Ensure “maintenance of order”
Several gatherings and blockades have taken place since last week on Sciences Po sites and in French universities, leading in some cases to the intervention of the police, echoing an ongoing mobilization on several campuses in the United States. . The police intervened in particular at Sciences Po Paris and at the Sorbonne, at the request of the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal.
The Minister of Higher Education, Sylvie Retailleau, asked university presidents on Thursday to ensure ” preserve the order “ public, using “the fullest extent of powers” available to them, in a context of mobilizations in support of Gaza on campus.
The World Workshops
Online courses, evening classes, workshops: develop your skills
Discover
“I ask you to use the fullest extent of the powers given to you by the education code”particularly in terms of disciplinary sanctions in the event of disturbances or recourse to the police, she said during a remote intervention with university presidents, transmitted by the ministry to AFP.
“Presidents are responsible for maintaining order on university grounds. And the police can only enter at the request of the university authority.”, explained the minister to those responsible for French campuses (74 public universities in France). The minister also reminded them that they can also pronounce a “temporary ban on access to the establishment” against a student who threatens another.
Mme Retailleau also asked them to ” to guarantee “ there “plurality of expressions” within universities and ” to strenghten [leurs] devices to allow all debates to take place in your establishments, while respecting the law, of course, but also people and ideas”.
While students mobilized for the Palestinian cause at Sciences Po Paris question the “school partnerships with universities and organizations supporting the State of Israel”the minister affirmed that it is “there is no question of universities taking an institutional position in favor of this or that demand in the ongoing conflict in the Middle East”.
The management of Sciences Po Paris, for its part, organized an internal debate on Thursday morning on the situation in the Middle East in response to the mobilization last week of students, activists and sympathizers of the establishment’s Palestine committee.
Also read the interview | Article reserved for our subscribers Occupation of Sciences Po Paris by pro-Palestinian students: management defends the “narrow path” of “compromise”
Add to your selections
