Police expel pro-Palestinian students who occupied a college building in Paris | World

The French police entered the Sciences Po building, the Faculty of Political Sciences in Paris, this Friday (3), and expelled demonstrators who occupied the place in protest against Israel.

According to a student interviewed by the newspaper “Le Figaro”, around 50 people were there when the police entered the building.

The main buildings at Sciences Po had been closed since Friday morning, by decision of the rectory, after dozens of students who were there in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza refused an agreement to leave the place.

Sciences Po Paris, considered the best Political Science center in France and where President Emmanuel Macron studied, has been the scene of several protests since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.

Unlike the United States, where demonstrations at around 40 universities sometimes led to clashes with police and mass arrests, in France the protests were peaceful and punctual.

The French government tries to demobilize them quickly to avoid a mobilization like in the United States.

Several universities around the world were taken over by protests by students who oppose the military campaign in Gaza and demand that educational institutions break ties with Israel.

On Tuesday night (30), police forces expelled students protesting against Israel on the campus of Columbia University, in New York, another major focus of the protests.

Students had occupied Hamilton Hall, one of the university’s buildings, hours earlier, after setting up a camp at the beginning of the month. After police forces entered the campus, protesters who resisted ended up being detained.

Shortly before the operation, the New York Police Department received a notice from Columbia authorizing officers to act, a police officer told the Associated Press. The official was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The police used a ladder to access one of the university’s windows. To support the operation, a bus was made available to transport the detained students.

After the police action, protesters continued to demonstrate in the streets around the university. The shouts of order, this time, were against the New York police.