Pro-Palestinian students of Sciences Po, one of France’s most elite universities, occupied a campus building overnight. Like-minded demonstrators set up a camp at University College London. And this week tents with Palestinian flags stretched across university campuses in Australia.
The tensions gripping universities in the United States appear to be spreading to other countries, where student activists have challenged their schools’ positions on the war in Gaza and relations with Israel.
Demonstrators at several universities in France have strongly condemned Israel’s military crimes in Gaza and pressured administrators to reconsider partnerships with Israeli universities and private donors.
According to a spokesperson for the university, police officers went to the Faculty of Science on Friday morning to clear a group of pro-Palestinian protesters who had occupied the campus building overnight. The intervention came after a town hall debate on the Gaza war on Thursday at the university – which counts top politicians, civil servants and business leaders among its alumni – failed to quell tensions.
The main Paris campus was closed on Friday, a Sciences Po spokeswoman said. According to Live video Shared on Instagram, students sitting in a hall chanted, “We demand justice! We’re getting the police! ” the officials pulled them out.
In Britain, smaller campuses have started to spring up at universities in Bristol, Newcastle and Warwick. A confederation of University College London students and staff set up tents on campus grounds on Thursday to press for the school to divest from institutions complicit in what they called the “genocide of Palestinians.”
“We will not move until the university fulfills our demands,” a spokesperson who could only be identified as Anwar said on Thursday. A social media post. The university did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A union representing Trinity College Dublin students has fined the university 214,000 euros, about $230,000, for financial losses caused by disruptive protests since last September over the war in Gaza, student fee hikes and other issues. A for-profit university, in a statement, cited the “negative financial impact” of protests to prevent visitors from accessing the Book of Kells, a medieval religious manuscript held at the university.
László Molnarfi, president of Trinity College’s student union, said in a telephone interview that it was impossible to pay the fine. He said it was an attempt of intimidation by the university and added that the protest would continue.
“We will intensify,” he said. “The students at Columbia and the US are an absolute inspiration to all of us here.”
In Australia, there are camps Set up in major universities Adelaide, Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney. The protests have become more tense as pro-Israel demonstrators have gathered nearby.
Referring to the camps, the Australian Union of Jewish Students said: A social media post On Thursday, he said, “We are deeply concerned that there will be a further increase in the denigration of Jewish students.”
University administrators in Australia have warned that they support students’ right to protest while abiding by school policies.
“It’s naïve to think that students aren’t consumed by the same issues that challenge wider society,” said Vicky Thompson, chief executive of the Group of Eight, which represents Australia’s leading universities. told the Sydney Morning Herald.
Aurelian Breeden Contributed report.
