(Paris) The student movement against the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip continues around the world: starting from American campuses and sometimes being the subject of police repression, it has reached Paris, Lausanne, Berlin, Montreal, Mexico and Sydney again.
UNITED STATES
Since April 17, a wave of mobilization for Gaza has swept across American campuses, in around forty universities, from east to west, evoking demonstrations against the Vietnam War.
In total, nearly 2,000 people were arrested, according to a report established by several American media.
PHOTO DAVE SANDERS, THE NEW YORK TIMES
An arrest at Columbia University
In recent days, the police have carried out a series of manu militari dismantling of pro-Palestinian camps, such as at New York University (NYU) on Friday at the request of the establishment.
Demonstrators barricaded in the prestigious Columbia University, the New York epicenter of the student mobilization, were thus chased away. At the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), dozens of students were arrested.
Unlike other institutions, Brown University (Rhode Island, east) agreed with the demonstrators on the dismantling of their encampment in exchange for a vote on a possible “divestment” from “companies that make possible and profit of the genocide in Gaza.
Long silent, President Joe Biden insisted on Thursday that “order must prevail”.
France
The police evacuated on Friday the pro-Palestinian activists who had occupied the prestigious Parisian school Sciences Po, which accommodates 5,000 to 6,000 students, since the day before.
A week after a mobilization already marred by tensions at Sciences Po Paris and a previous evacuation of premises, “91 people were evacuated, without incident”, specified the Paris police headquarters.
PHOTO MIGUEL MEDINA, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
French police began an intervention on Friday to evacuate several dozen pro-Palestinian activists who occupied the premises of Sciences Po in Paris.
The school’s provisional administrator, Jean Bassères, affirmed that there was no question, as some students were demanding, of “investigating” Sciences Po’s relations with Israeli universities.
Student mobilization in favor of Gaza and the Palestinians remains confined to Sciences Po Paris, its regional campuses (Lille, Le Havre, Dijon, Reims or Poitiers) and the Institutes of Political Studies (IEP) but struggles to make a mark. oil in universities.
The Minister of Higher Education Sylvie Retailleau asked university presidents on Thursday to ensure the “maintenance of public order”, using “the fullest extent of the powers” available to them.
Place de la Sorbonne, a few hundred meters from Sciences Po Paris, the Union of Jewish Students of France (UEJF) held a “dialogue table” on Friday with guests, including the designer Joann Sfar, author of the comic strip achievement “The Rabbi’s Cat”.
Germany
Police intervened on Friday to evacuate pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered in front of Humboldt University in Berlin, in the center of the capital.
PHOTO JOHN MACDOUGALL, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Police intervened on Friday to evacuate pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered in front of Humboldt University in Berlin.
Some demonstrators were expelled “by force” after refusing another proposed location, Berlin police said on X.
Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner criticized the protest, writing on X that the city did not want “situations like in the United States or France.”
Canada
The pro-Palestinian student movement has established itself in several cities including Vancouver, Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal. The first and largest camp erected, that of the prestigious McGill University in Montreal, began on April 27 and grew.
PHOTO CHARLES WILLIAM PELLETIER, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Camp at McGill
Hundreds of demonstrators have fortified their camp in recent days due to the threat of dismantling by the police.
They say they are determined to occupy the premises as long as necessary, until McGill cuts all financial or academic ties with Israel.
The management of the establishment declared on Wednesday that they wanted the camp to be dismantled “without delay”, affirming that it was a “non-negotiable” request. According to her, “a certain number of demonstrators are not part of the student community”.
The Montreal police, who say they are advocating a “peaceful” outcome of the situation, have not yet intervened to dismantle the camp.
Australia
At the University of Sydney, hundreds of pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators came face-to-face on Friday. Despite some tense exchanges, the two gatherings remained peaceful and the police did not intervene.
Pro-Palestinian activists have been camped for ten days on a lawn opposite the sprawling Gothic building of the University of Sydney, a bastion of Australian academic knowledge.
PHOTO AYUSH KUMAR, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
At the University of Sydney, hundreds of pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators came face to face on Friday.
Like their American counterparts, protesters want the University of Sydney to cut its ties with Israeli institutions and refuse donations from arms companies.
Mexico
In Mexico City, dozens of pro-Palestinian students from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the largest in the country, set up camp in the capital on Thursday, chanting “Long live free Palestine!” » and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will win!” “. In particular, they asked the Mexican government to break diplomatic and commercial relations with Israel.
Swiss
Around a hundred pro-Palestinian students have occupied the entrance hall of the Géopolis building at the University of Lausanne (UNIL) since Thursday evening, demanding an academic boycott of Israeli institutions and an immediate ceasefire.
PHOTO RAQUEL CUNHA, REUTERS
In Mexico City, dozens of pro-Palestinian students from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the largest in the country, set up camp.
The occupation continued peacefully on Friday and is expected to last until Monday.