Top French university loses regional funding over pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protests

Country’s higher education minister criticizes decision, insisting there were no antisemitic remarks or violence at the Sciences Po demonstrations

A demonstrator holds up flares as two others hold a banner reading in French 'Solidarity with Palestine' during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in the courtyard of the Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) building in Lyon, France, on April 30, 2024. (Olivier Chassignole/AFP)
A demonstrator holds up flares as two others hold a banner reading in French 'Solidarity with Palestine' during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in the courtyard of the Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) building in Lyon, France, on April 30, 2024. (Olivier Chassignole/AFP)

The Paris region authority sparked controversy Tuesday by temporarily suspending funding for Sciences Po, one of the country’s most prestigious universities, after it was rocked by tense pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel demonstrations.

“I have decided to suspend all regional funding for Sciences Po until calm and security have been restored at the school,” Valerie Pecresse, the right-wing head of the greater Paris Ile-de-France region, said on social media on Monday.

She took aim at “a minority of radicalized people calling for antisemitic hatred” and accused hard-left politicians of seeking to exploit the tensions.

Regional support for the Paris-based university includes 1 million euros ($1.07 million) earmarked for 2024, a member of Pecresse’s team told AFP.

On Tuesday, the university’s acting administrator, Jean Basseres, said he regretted the decision.

“The Ile-de-France region is an essential partner of Sciences Po, and I wish to maintain dialogue on the position expressed by Mrs. Pecresse,” he told French daily Le Monde in an interview.

Protesters take part in a demonstration with a Palestinian flag and a banner that reads ‘Stop the genocide, we demand action’ in front of the Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po Paris) occupied by students, in support of Palestinians, in Paris on April 26, 2024. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP)

In an echo of tense demonstrations rocking many top United States universities, students at Sciences Po have staged a number of protests, with some students furious over the Israel-Hamas war and ensuing humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

France is home to the world’s largest Jewish population after Israel and the US, as well as Europe’s biggest Muslim community.

University officials called in police to clear a protest last week. On Monday, police broke up a student protest demanding an end to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza at Sorbonne, another top French university.

French Higher Education Minister Sylvie Retailleau said on Tuesday the French government had no plans to suspend funding for Sciences Po.

Speaking to broadcaster France 2, she estimated the state’s funding for the university at 75 million euros ($80 million). She said there had been “no antisemitic remarks” and no violence had been committed during the demonstrations.

Both Basseres and Retailleau also said there were no plans to suspend Sciences Po’s collaboration with universities in Israel.

Anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian protesters take part in a demonstration with a Palestinian flag and a banner which reads ‘Stop the genocide, we demand action’ in front of the Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po Paris) occupied by students, in Paris on April 26, 2024. (Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP)

‘Counter-terrorism methods’

Critics on the left denounced Pecresse’s announcement.

“It’s shameful and an absolute scandal,” said Mathilde Panot, the head of hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) deputies in parliament, adding the behavior of the students was a “credit to the world and a credit to our country.”

Panot and Rima Hassan, a Franco-Palestinian activist who is running on the LFI list for European elections, were on Tuesday questioned in an investigation into suspected justification of “terrorism” over comments on the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.

Several hundred people staged a solidarity rally in support of the two women on Tuesday morning.

“In what democracy are counter-terrorism methods used against political activists, community activists and trade unionists?” Panot, 35, told her supporters, who chanted “Resistance” and waved Palestinian flags.

“I want to tell the pro-Israeli lobby organizations behind these complaints that they will not silence us,” added 32-year-old Hassan.

Demonstrators raise posters reading “Our demands” and “All eyes on Rafah” as students occupy a building of the Institute of Political Studies (aka Sciences Po) in an anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian protest, in Paris on April 26, 2024. (Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP)

The war started after Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the terrorists murdering some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 253 hostages.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza claims Israel killed more than 34,000 people during the war, but the number cannot be independently verified and it is believed to include both Hamas terrorists and civilians, some of whom were killed as a consequence of the terror group’s own rocket misfires.

The Israel Defense Forces says it has killed over 13,000 terrorists in Gaza, in addition to some 1,000 who were killed inside Israel on and immediately following October 7.

Most Popular
read more: