Dozens detained at Paris pro-Palestinian university protest

PARIS: French police detained 86 people following an operation to remove students staging a pro-Palestinian occupation at the Sorbonne university in Paris, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Those arrested in the police operation on Tuesday night were being held for a variety of public order offences, said the statement.

They include wilful damage, rebellion, violence against a person holding public authority, intrusion into an education establishment and holding a meeting designed to disrupt order. Some are also being held for participation in a group with a view to preparing violence or damage to property.

German police clear pro-Palestinian camp at Berlin University

They can be held for an initial 24 hours, which can then be extended another 24 hours.

The day before police moved in, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said there would never be a right to disrupt France’s universities with such protests.

Police acted after about 100 students had been occupying a lecture theatre for two hours in “solidarity” with the people of Gaza, an AFP journalist on site noted.

Dutch police end a pro-Palestinian demonstration at Amsterdam university

Tuesday night’s police operation at the Sorbonne – and at another university on Paris’s Left Bank, Science Po university – followed interventions to end similar protests at the end of April.

Students at universities in several European countries have followed the actions on US campuses where demonstrators have occupied halls and facilities to demand an end to partnerships with Israeli institutions because of Israel’s punishing assault on Gaza.

Police have also intervened to clear campuses in the United States, Netherlands and Switzerland.

Palestinian group Hamas on October 7 attacked southern Israel, resulting in the deaths of about 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel estimates that 129 hostages seized on October 7, out of the 253 taken, are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,789 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run besieged Palestinian territory.

A woman holds a placard reading “They are murdering humanity in Palestine” as people gather during a demonstration by students of several universities in support of Palestinian people in Paris on May 3, 2024. Photo: