Sciences Po loses funding over Gaza protests
“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, says on social media.
The suspension came as demonstrations against Israel’s war on Gaza last week shook one of France’s most prestigious educational institutions.
The university’s acting administrator, Jean Basseres, lamented 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 the French daily Le Monde.
Regional financial support for Science Po includes 1 million euros ($1.07m) earmarked for 2024, a member of Pecresse’s team told AFP.
French Higher Education Minister Sylvie Retailleau said the French government has no plans to suspend funding for Sciences Po.
Demonstrators occupy a building at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) and hang placards representing the Palestinian flag and a poster with the French word for ‘war’ crossed out and ‘genocide’ written in on April 26
France deploys riot police to quell campus protests over Gaza
Paris, France – Tensions are rising between the French state and students at top universities who are staging pro-Palestine protests amid Israel’s war on Gaza, inspired by their American counterparts.
As well as an end to Israel’s war, demonstrators called on school administrators to cut ties with Israeli institutions and other businesses they see as complicit in the war in Gaza, which to date has killed about 34,500 Palestinians, mostly children and women.
Students demonstrate outside the Sciences Po university in Paris
Lebanese students hold first coordinated university protests over Gaza
Hundreds of students have gathered at various university campuses in Lebanon to protest against Israel’s war on Gaza.
Students, alumni and other Lebanese waved flags and posters at campuses in the capital, Beirut, and elsewhere, with some demanding their universities boycott companies that do business in Israel, Reuters reported.
At the American University of Beirut, some 200 people gathered in a campus square where they had been given approval by the administration to protest for two hours. Campus security barred protesters or journalists from venturing further into the university grounds and shepherded reporters off campus as the allotted window to demonstrate came to a close.
Demonstrations took place at other universities including the Lebanese American University.
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