Pro-Palestinian students at an elite French university, Sciences Po, occupied a campus building overnight. Like-minded protesters have set up camp at University College London. This week, tents flying Palestinian flags were deployed on university campuses across Australia.
Tensions rocking US campuses appear to be spreading to other countries, as student activists have challenged their universities' positions on the Gaza war and relations with Israel.
Protesters at several French universities have pressured administrators to more strongly condemn the Israeli military offensive in Gaza and to review partnerships with Israeli universities and private donors.
Police entered Sciences Po University on Friday morning to expel a group of pro-Palestinian protesters who had occupied the campus overnight and refused to leave until their demands were met, according to a statement from the university. The intervention comes after a public debate on the war in Gaza on Thursday at the university - whose alumni include senior politicians, civil servants and business leaders - failed to defuse tensions.
The university said the students had violated an agreement not to disrupt classes and exams, and that it had made the “difficult decision” to involve the police after several attempts at dialogue failed. The press release indicates that several buildings were closed on Friday “as a security measure” and that a few dozen students were evacuated without violence.
According to a live video clip shared on Instagram, students sitting in the room chanted, “We demand justice!” We have the police! While the officers took them out.
“For us, it’s a movement of international scope,” Jacques Espinoz, 22, a Sciences Po student who occupied the building overnight, said in an interview. Later, hundreds of students from other universities joined the protest in front of the Pantheon in Paris. He added: “We are closely following what is happening in the United States and we would like to do the same in France.”
In Britain, small camps began to appear at universities in the cities of Bristol, Newcastle and Warwick. A coalition of students and teachers at University College London set up tents on campus Thursday to pressure the university to divest from companies complicit in what it calls the "genocide of the Palestinians." ”, among other demands.
“We will not act until the university responds to our requests,” Anwar’s spokesperson said in a social media post on Thursday. The university did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A union representing students at Trinity College Dublin said the university had been fined more than 214,000 euros, or about $230,000, for financial losses suffered due to disruptive protests since last September in due to the war in Gaza, rising tuition fees and other problems. The university, a non-profit organization, spoke in a statement of the “negative financial impact” of the protests which blocked visitors’ access to the Book of Kells, a medieval religious manuscript kept at the university.
Laszlo Molnarvi, president of the Trinity College student union, said in a telephone interview that the union could not pay the fine. He described this as an attempt at intimidation by the university, adding that protests would continue.
He added: “We will step up.” “Colombian and American students are an absolute source of inspiration for all of us here. »
In Australia, camps were held at major universities in the cities of Adelaide, Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney. The intensity of these protests increased as pro-Israel demonstrators gathered nearby.
Referring to the camps, the Australian Federation of Jewish Students said in a social media post on Thursday: “We are deeply concerned about a further escalation in the vilification of Jewish students. »
Australian university administrators have said they support students' right to protest, while warning them not to respect school policies.
"It's naive to think that students won't be interested in the same issues that challenge society as a whole," Vicky Thompson, chief executive of the G8, an organization representing Australia's leading universities, told the Sydney Morning Herald.