A professor at a Toulouse university was suspended on Wednesday for speaking out against Israeli intervention in the Gaza Strip to students, the institution said in a statement.
“I have decided to suspend as a precautionary measure one of our contract teachers who spoke out about the situation in the Middle East,” said Christian Gollier, director of the Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), which is part of Toulouse-Capitole University. He also announced the opening of an administrative inquiry and recalled “the obligation of neutrality and reserve of public officials”.
“Unacceptable” remarks
In an audio recording broadcast on X, which sparked the controversy, a man presented as a mathematics professor claims not to understand why Israeli athletes were able to compete under their flag at the Olympic Games. “while it was forbidden to the Russians.” He also mentioned, as means of pressure to obtain a ceasefire, the possibility of participating in demonstrations or of “to inform” on campaigns to boycott certain Israeli products.
“These remarks are unacceptable.” reacted the resigning Minister of Higher Education, Sylvie Retailleau. The recording also mentions a report in Gaza of “nearly 200,000 dead”attributed to the medical journal The Lancetwhich some Internet users denounce as “disinformation”.
While a figure of 186,000 victims did indeed appear in this review, it actually corresponds to a long-term statistical projection of the number of victims that the war could cause, which does not only include people killed directly by the fighting but also deaths linked to the consequences of hostilities, such as the health and humanitarian crisis.
The attack carried out on October 7 by Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza into southern Israel resulted in the death of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data.
In response, Israel launched an all-out offensive in Gaza that has so far killed at least 40,861 people, according to Hamas’s health ministry.
