Pro-Palestine protest in France: Police moves into a Paris university
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Representational.
Paris: In France, state police entered the Paris' Sciences Po university on Friday to disperse dozens of pro-Palsestinian students who were conducting a sit-in in the entrance hall, Agence France-Presse reported.
AFP reports that there were around 50 students inside the rue Saint-Guillaume site when police entered the campus. When some of the protesters stated that they were removed from the protest site peacefully, others alleged that they were dragged or gripped by the head or shoulders.
On Friday, the university authorities closed the Sciences Po's main buildings in response to the sit-in and ordered remote classes. The administration said that 70 to 80 individuals were occupying the foyer of the central Paris building.
To the growing protests, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal's office responded that such demonstrations would be dealt with using "total rigour". The office added that 23 university sites have been evacuated on Thursday.
Earlier, students from the university's Palestine Committee informed the reporters that they faced a disproportionate response from the police. Police blocked the way into the protest site before they entered. The committee members also complained that there was no medical assistance for seven students who were on hunger strike in solidarity with Palestinian victims.
Sciences Po has witnessed a slow spread of peaceful protests in recent days in solidarity towards the Palestinian people. France's President Emmanuel Macron is an alumnus of the university.
Unlike in the United States, protests have been slow and peaceful so far in France, where the largest number of Jews reside after Israel and the US.
Protesters occupied the entrance hall of the university and held a peaceful sit-in after a debate was held in the Middle East with the institution's administrators on Thursday morning. However, the debate turned out to be disappointing for the Palestine Committee.
