Clash over Israel

Students clash over Israel at elite French school

Sciences Po hosted a conference by three-time presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon under tense circumstances.

BY VICTOR GOURY-LAFFONT

Feuds between student activists at top U.S. universities following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza have been making headlines across the pond. A similar feud, meanwhile, is unfolding in France.

Members of right-wing and far-right student organizations clashed with student activists from the left-wing France Unbowed movement on Monday ahead of a conference by the movement’s firebrand, three-time presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, at elite French university Sciences Po.

Mélenchon was allowed to hold his Sciences Po conference after events at other universities and public venues were cancelled by academic and public officials over alleged security concerns. The France Unbowed movement, which has made its opposition to the war in Gaza a central theme in its European election campaign, denounced what it called “censorship” and an “extremely worrying precedent for our democracy.”

The movement has been embroiled in controversy over the past six months after refusing to label Hamas a “terrorist” organization, instead describing the Oct. 7 attack as a “war crime.”

Sciences Po counts French President Emmanuel Macron among its alumni and is known as a breeding ground for the French political class. A few dozen members of the Unbowed student branch there faced off with activists from UNI, a student union with traditionally strong ties with the conservative Les Républicains party and the Nemesis collective, an Islamophobic far-right group that officially promotes women’s rights.

“Unbowed France and the far-left are corrupting universities,” UNI representative Yvenn Le Coz told reporters.

The anti-Mélenchon students chanted calls to rid universities of “Islamo-leftism” as the opposing activists replied with anti-fascist and anti-Israel slogans.

As Mélenchon made his way toward the university a man confronted him, accusing the 72-year-old politician of being “complicit of Hamas.” The ensuing conference was also briefly interrupted by protesters.

During the event, Mélenchon doubled down on his pro-Palestinian stance, extending his thoughts to people in Gaza “being massacred like objects,” before presenting his latest book, published last year, which calls to action towards a “civic revolution.

He also pushed back at allegations of antisemitism he has faced, including from Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti.

“We know perfectly well the difference between a Jew and an IDF sniper,” Mélenchon said. “We do not judge individuals by their religion. We have no generic enemy.”