France deploys riot police, cuts funding to quell campus protests over Gaza
Campus sit-ins upend Sciences Po and Sorbonne in Paris as students decry Israel’s ‘genocide’ and university partnerships.
France doesn’t want a Columbia encampment here’
Eliana*, a French American student who requested anonymity for security reasons, believes the French government pressured university officials to let security forces in.
“In my first meeting with the [university] administration during the occupation on Wednesday, a member of the administration received a phone call and was told to do everything to get us out of the university, as the government was putting pressure”, she recalled.
“My analysis is that the government didn’t want a Columbia [University-style] encampment here in France, they didn’t want to be faced with that image”, she told Al Jazeera, referring to the protests at the US university that have made global headlines.
Thousands have joined pro-Palestine protesters at Columbia, an Ivy League university, and several other US schools. Hundreds have been arrested while some have been suspended from their courses.
“Sciences Po thought it was acceptable to call the cops on their own students. We are in utter disgust at this decision, but we also have a stronger resolve to push for our demands,” said Eliana.
Campus sit-ins upend Sciences Po and Sorbonne in Paris as students decry Israel’s ‘genocide’ against Palestinians.
www.aljazeera.com
