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Video length: 3 min
While several American universities are mobilizing in favor of Palestine, 19/20 info speaks with Emmanuelle Saada, president of the French department at Columbia University in New York.
Where are the pro-Palestinian student demonstrations on the Columbia campus on Sunday, May 5? “For the moment, the mobilization has completely stopped. Since Tuesday (…) the campus has been closed to anyone from outside the campus. Only students who live on campus – that is to say a very small fraction of the students – were allowed to stay, and since Friday [les] teachers. So there is the administration, some students and police officers”reports Emmanuelle Saada, president of the French department at Columbia University in New York (United States).
A “disproportionate” deployment of law enforcement
Nearly 2,000 people were arrested at around thirty universities in the United States, including just over 200 at Columbia. What is Emmanuelle Saada’s view on the police intervention? The president of the French department of the university reports “a huge mobilization of teachers against police intervention”this intervention having been requested by the president of the university without consultation with the professors or the Senate.
She describes this deployment of law enforcement as “extremely spectacular” and judges the operation “disproportionate”.