Sciences-Po Strasbourg suspends its partnership with a university in Israel, “distressing” for Jean-Noël Barrot

MIDDLE EAST – A choice misunderstood by the Quai d'Orsay. The Strasbourg Institute of Political Studies (IEP) announced on Wednesday October 30 that it was suspending its partnership with Reichman University in Herzlya, near Tel Aviv, regretting its positions “deeply hawkish and devoid of any humanist perspective” in view of “the ongoing war in Gaza”.

On BFMTV-RMC, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, regretted this Thursday a “a distressing decision, which deeply saddens me.” Before adding: “The university is the place of debate, of tolerance, it is the temple of critical thinking.”

A “political position” for the Minister of Higher Education

“It is not this university which is bombing today in Lebanon or Gaza. I would like to remind you that it is in Israeli universities that we find the most fervent supporters of peace and the two-state solution.continued Jean-Noël Barrot, cas you can hear in the interview below (18e minute).

“I deplore this decision adopted for the purpose of taking a political position by the board of directors of a public establishment and in disagreement with the management of the establishment”commented the Minister (LR) of Higher Education and Research, Patrick Hetzel, in a message published Wednesday on X (ex-twitter).

In France, a pro-Palestinian student movement developed in 2024 in certain higher education establishments and in particular political studies institutes, leading to demonstrations and sometimes occupations of buildings.

Patrick Hetzel warned university presidents at the beginning of October about their responsibility in the “maintaining order” before the anniversary of the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7, 2023. In return, the leader of La France insoumise Jean-Luc Mélenchon called for “put Palestinian flags wherever possible”.

The director of the IEP expressed a “very strong reserve”

Sciences-Po Strasbourg's decision was taken in June but revealed on Wednesday by the regional daily The latest News from Alsace (DNA).

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, according to the comments transcribed in the minutes. This was nevertheless adopted by 12 votes to seven and two abstentions, 12 directors not taking part in the vote.

« 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 “ underline the authors of this motion.

The Alsatian branch of Crif (Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France) denounced on Wednesday afternoon this « boycott »seeing “the sign of serious abuses” and one “total ignorance of the organization of Israeli society”.

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