The Strasbourg Institute of Political Studies (IEP) has suspended its partnership with Reichman University in Tel Aviv, regretting its positions “deeply hawkish and devoid of any humanist perspective” in view of “the ongoing war in Gaza”. This decision, revealed by BFM-TV, Tuesday October 29 and confirmed by the regional daily The Latest News from Alsace (DNA), was taken during a board meeting of the establishment on June 25, but the minutes of which have only just been published on its website.
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The motion was submitted by the Solidarit'Etudiants list, which has eight of the 10 student representative seats on the board of directors, and was also supported by some teachers. The director of the IEP, Jean-Philippe Heurtin, expressed a “very strong reserve” regarding this proposal.
This was nevertheless adopted by 12 votes to seven and two abstentions, 12 directors not taking part in the vote. While condemning “without reservation the terrorist attack suffered by the Israeli population on October 7, 2023”the authors of the motion denounce the “positions of the university in question, deeply hawkish and devoid of any humanist, pacifist and critical perspective with regard to the ongoing war in Gaza”.
“The active engagement of this university in a conflict which led to the massacre of tens of thousands of civilians, women and children, is in contradiction with the humanist values to which Sciences Po Strasbourg claims”they insist.
According to Jean-Philippe Heurtin, the partnership between Reichman University in Tel Aviv and the IEP in Strasbourg “is not currently active” et “no student will be sent to Israel or Lebanon before the end of hostilities”.
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