Pro-Palestinian students at one of France’s most elite universities, Sciences Po, occupied a campus building overnight. Like-minded demonstrators at University College London set up an encampment. And tents with Palestinian flags stretched out this week 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 own schools’ stances on the war in Gaza and ties to Israel.
Demonstrators at several universities in France have put pressure on administrators to more forcefully condemn Israel’s military offense in Gaza and review partnerships with Israeli universities and private donors.
Police officers went into Sciences Po on Friday morning to clear out a group of pro-Palestinian protesters who had occupied a campus building overnight and refused to leave until their demands were met, according to a statement from the university. The intervention came after a town hall debate about the Gaza war on Thursday at the university — which counts top politicians, civil servants and business leaders among its alumni — failed to defuse tensions.
The university said that students had breached an agreement not to disrupt classes and exams, and that it had made the “difficult decision” to involve the police after multiple attempts at dialogue failed. Several buildings were closed on Friday as a “security measure,” and a few dozen students were removed without violence, the statement said.
According to live video shared on Instagram, students sitting in a hall chanted, “We ask for justice! We get the police!” as officers pulled them out.
