Controversy erupts at Paris University over alleged antisemitic incident

Government minister, president support Jewish student who later admitted she was not subject to antisemitic remarks during pro-Palestinian rally

An alleged antisemitic incident at a Paris university has caused controversy with national politicians weighing in on the issue.

A female member of the Union of French Jewish Students (UEJF) was allegedly denied access to an amphitheater at Sciences Po Paris University on March 12 during a pro-Palestinian rally.

The government and Gender Equality Minister Aurore Berge denounced alleged “antisemitic” remarks that were directed at the student.

President Emmanuel Macron also came to the student’s support and described the remarks as “perfectly intolerable,” and said the incident was a “start of separatism” at the world-famous school.

UEJF said members were targeted as “Jews and Zionists” during altercations. The school announced an investigation into the incident on Wednesday.

But witnesses said the UEJF student was denied access to Boutmy Hall for security reasons because of her involvement in a cyberbullying campaign against her pro-Palestinian peers.

They noted that other UEJF students were allowed access to the gathering without incident, and refuted accusations of antisemitism.

While the Palestine Committee at Sciences Po said it was “falsely accused of being an antisemitic group,” the UEJF student later said she heard no antisemitic remarks.

Ludmila, a student at Sciences Po, told Anadolu during an unauthorized demonstration on March 14 that French media related a very different story.

She confirmed that the March 12 incident was linked to the UEJF student being known to police, not because of her religious background, but for her involvement in cyberbullying incidents against pro-Palestinians.

Another student, who asked to remain anonymous, backed Ludmila’s version and accused media outlets of spreading unverified information.

Ludmila said it was “regrettable” that Macron had commented on the situation where “the facts were not yet verified,” asserting that what happened at Sciences Po had been instrumentalized.

A “climate of repression against pro-Palestinian solidarity,” has been forming, she added.

A left-wing lawmaker and member of the France Insoumise (French Unbowed) political party, Thomas Portes, who attended the March 14 protest to support Pro-Palestine students, denounced a “debate mounted by the far-right, spread by the government and some French media outlets, to make believe that the students’ mobilization at Sciences Po was antisemitic.”

“It was a mobilization against the genocide in Gaza, to support the Palestinian people,” he said.

Legal moves against the movement have had only one objective, according to Portes: To “silence those who mobilize in France, every day, every week, to denounce a massacre, a genocide, and the French government’s inaction.”

Source: AA