On the Place du Panthéon, demonstrators flocked this Friday, May 3, white and black, red or green keffiyehs, around their necks for many of them. The meeting was set at 2 p.m. for a peaceful gathering. Slogan: “For the Palestinian people, no to repression and the closure of universities.” Among the signatories of the call to demonstrate, we find student unions such as the Student Union, Unef and Poing Raised, as well as youth organizations from political parties such as La France insoumise, the Communist Party and the Ecologists. . Their flags mingle with that of Palestine.
“Supporting Gaza is not anti-Semitic”
Several tourists, including school groups, who had come to visit the Pantheon, watched, curious, as the gathering took place. Among them, a father is accompanied by his two teenage daughters and his young son, whom he carries on his shoulders. Tariq and his family live in Romania and are vacationing in Paris, and while passing by, they recognized pro-Palestinian chants. If Tariq does not usually go to demonstrate, today it seems obvious to him to provide his support. “It is a genocide that is taking place before our eyes, he said. We are all human, it is normal to support the Palestinian people.”
The students place themselves behind the banners of their different campuses, including Tolbiac, Nanterre, ENS-Ulm and the Sorbonne. Facing the cameras and microphones of numerous media, many of them foreign, they vigorously sing pro-Palestinian songs. “Viva Palestina”, “Israel assassin, Macron complicit” Or “We are all children of Gaza” one after the other. A few signs stand up. On one of them we can read: “Supporting Gaza is not anti-Semitic.” A slogan shared by Morgane Tagachoucht, 22 years old, third year student of a double degree in History-Art History and archeology at the Sorbonne. “The voices that speak out against the genocide in Palestine would speak out against any other massacre in the world. To label pro-Palestinian movements as anti-Semitic is to silence Jewish people who obviously do not all support Israel’s colonial policy.”
“The political balance of power is unequal”
This Friday afternoon, the several hundred demonstrators are not all students. Like Manu, a 35-year-old socio-cultural facilitator. Accustomed to activist networks, he considers the mobilization for Palestine too weak and hopes for greater awareness. “The only way for France to stop supporting Israel’s policies is to put pressure on the government.” Enzo (1), a History degree student at the Sorbonne, is less convinced. “For the moment, the balance of political power is unequal, there would have to be tens of thousands of us for something to really happen, and that is far from being the case.” Why is he here today? He wants the images of the mobilizations to reach the Palestinians. So that they see the support that is given to them.
Elsewhere in France, such as Le Havre, Dijon, Reims or Poitiers, several Institutes of Political Studies were the scene of disruptions, blockages or partial occupations, some of which were lifted. In Lyon, the police intervened to calmly evacuate pro-Palestinian IEP demonstrators, and the establishment will remain closed until May 12. In Saint-Etienne, the police also intervened to evacuate around fifteen students who were blocking access to a university site. The Sciences-Po Menton campus, specializing in the geopolitics of the Middle East, has reopened after several days of closure.
(1) The first name has been changed.
