Demonstrations against Israel expanded from the United States to France over the past week with pro-Palestinian activists setting up blockades around several French universities, French Newspaper Le Figaro has reported.
Protestors against Israel and the conflict in Gaza took over several Institutes of Political Studies (IEP) — known as Sciences Po — throughout France, with activists blocking the entrances to universities in Lyon, Menton, Rennes, and Strasbourg.
The events follow those of several colleges in the United States with protestors demanding that schools divest from companies they allege "profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide and occupation in Palestine."
Columbia University, Yale, and The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill were among the most active.
On Monday, police removed dozens of students from the elite Sorbonne university after protestors took over the main courtyard. The Associated Press reported that roughly 50 protestors had set up tents, unveiled Palestinians flags and shouted chants of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza.
In Strasbourg, students barricaded the entrances to the IEP with trash cans and construction site barricades, Breitbart reported.
Mathilde Panot, leader of the left wing La France Insoumise party in the French Parliament spoke at a rally in Paris on Tuesday and told the crowd, "They would like the genocide in Gaza to take place in silence. They failed. All over the world, people are rising up to denounce it, from Columbia to Sciences Po. Glory to the youth who embody the honor of our country and the world! I am proud to speak out for peace and international law. No political attack and police or judicial intimidation will make us bend. A genocide is underway, it is our honor to denounce it tirelessly."
The Times of Israel reported that the Paris region authority had suspended funding for Sciences Po, following anti-Israel protests.
"I have decided to suspend all regional funding for Sciences Po until calm and security have been restored at the school," Valerie Pecresse, head of the greater Paris Ile-de-France region said on Monday.
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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