Israel’s war in Gaza stokes European tensions, after clashes erupt between students and cops at American colleges.
Police forced out a pro-Palestinian group which staged an occupation overnight at Sciences Po in Paris, a top university known as a breeding ground for France’s political elite.
The occupation follows similar student movements — in protest against Israel’s war in Gaza — at major U.S. universities including Columbia in New York and UCLA in Los Angeles, which have triggered large-scale police responses.
Sciences Po’s administration decided to shut down access to its main facilities Friday after the Comité Palestine Sciences Po moved in to the university’s main building, located in the heart of Paris, “in support of the Palestinian people.”
The activist organization demanded that Sciences Po “takes a principled stance by sending an official communication condemning the actions of Israel that infringe upon the rights and well-being of Palestinians” and for the university to cut ties with “institutions or entities that uphold Zionist ideologies.”
In echoes of the U.S., pro-Palestinian student movements are organizing across France, with blockades and encampments being set up on university campuses amid an increasingly tense environment as Israel’s monthslong war on Hamas in Gaza drags on.
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