Menton, its lemons, its sun, its colorful buildings… and its Sciences Po campus which has been in turmoil since October 7. Its three-year degree (including one abroad) specializing in the Middle East gives access to the master’s degree at Sciences Po Paris, where students are partly destined for prestigious competitions, such as that of executives at the Quai d’Orsay.
The Menton campus has around 60% foreign students, mainly from the Arab world. Since the Israeli-Palestinian conflict resonates in the Middle East, the Alpes-Maritimes campus feels its tremors. “We talk a lot about what is happening at Sciences Po Paris, for which the government immediately mobilized, but in Menton, we have been talking about these problems for a long time,” alerts a Jewish student on campus.
A hostile climate at Sciences Po Menton
With her Jewish friends, she deplores to the Point a “hostile” climate since the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7. These students talk about their “exclusion”: refusal to enter a party, or even the inability to work with others as part of an association project. No student wanted to testify on his behalf. “Menton is too small a campus, we meet each other every day in town,” they justify.
From October 7 and 8, these students were shocked to see their comrades post messages of support for Hamas’ action, calling it “resistance.” “What did you think?” That decolonization was feelings? Articles ? Editorials? Losers…”, for example, posted a student.
READ ALSO Sciences Po Paris room blocked in support of Gaza, Jewish students banned from enteringAround 30 individual messages were reported to campus administration. After legal examination, four of them were assessed as “potentially advocating terrorism” by the courts, indicates Sciences Po, contacted by Point. “These students were summoned individually for a reminder of the legal framework that applies in France, and in particular the limits set on freedom of expression. The students understood and they all removed the problematic posts. »
On campus, Jewish students report anti-Semitic prejudices heard here and there, such as “beware of Jews” or “Jews control the media.” “Jewish students are ostracized, we no longer sit next to them, in class we move away from their benches,” says one of them. People don’t say hello to us. We hear barbs, saying that so-and-so doesn’t seem that Jewish…”
READ ALSO Anti-Semitism at Sciences Po Paris: a student testifiesIn the school corridors, the posters of the Israeli hostages were crumpled and torn down, but not those of the Palestinian BDS (Boycott Divestment Sanctions) movement, known for calling for a boycott of Israel. An injustice for Jewish students who do not feel supported. “Little by little, Sciences Po Menton is emptying itself of its Jewish students,” regrets one student. One of them decided to leave campus. Other Jews are not recommended to come. »
Palestine UTS, the association that is causing debate
Like the Palestine Committee at Sciences Po Paris, a noisy and radical association is taking over the streets in Menton: Sciences Palestine, renamed Palestine UTS. On December 8, 2022, Sciences Palestine received Ahmed el Dallach during a conference entitled: “The plundering of Palestine”. The historian explains that the Jews have no connection with Israel and that their presence is completely illegitimate. The same association tried to demonstrate in August 2022 during a football match between Maccabi Tel-Aviv and OGC Nice, near Menton. She finally changed her mind under pressure from the management of Sciences Po and local elected officials, notably the mayor (LR) of Nice, Christian Estrosi. Contacted, the association did not respond.
READ ALSO Delphine Horvilleur and the ravages of anti-SemitismOn October 8, 2023, Sciences Palestine posted an uninhibited message on its Instagram account: “Yesterday, Palestinian resistance fighters launched an attack against Israel” the day after the Hamas terrorist attacks. In response, the management summoned the students concerned the next day “for a firm reminder of the regulations,” explains Sciences Po at Point. The students removed this post and expressed regret that their message may have offended their classmates.” “Insufficient”, believes a Jewish student, for whom the management should have reported the facts to the courts via “article 40”.
No action by Sciences Palestine could then be organized without the approval of the campus administration. “Since October 7, management has been afraid of excesses,” observes a professor. On both sides, students see management’s calls for calm as a call for censorship. » “For me, management has its hands tied,” adds a Jewish student. She has to deal with two very different narratives facing each other and it’s not easy. »
READ ALSO Gaza: “Ceasefire Now!” “, a lazy and dangerous sloganThese measures irritate Sciences Palestine. In November, she managed to gather around a hundred students to blockade the campus in protest. That day, the police issued 66 tickets for participating in a prohibited demonstration. Not counting those who weren’t caught… On a campus of around 300 students, the mobilization is notable. How to explain it? “There is an undeniable import of the conflict on a campus historically sensitive to the Palestinian question,” admits a professor. Some students from the Arab world have sometimes never been around Jews and Israelis. The campus also hosts radical pro-Palestinian activists. »
These activists are supplemented in their actions – as at Sciences Po Paris or in other universities – by a part of the radical left such as the Solidaires union, Nupes and LFI. “Solidarity and empathy do not need a lot of knowledge,” notes a professor. This inspires us to teach the complexity of the subject. »
The need for dialogue with students
Denis Charbit, professor of political science at the Open University of Israel and author of Israel and its paradoxes (The Blue Rider, 2023), may have felt some fears before arriving on campus at the beginning of February to teach for six months. The first hours are “tense”, but quickly a dialogue takes place. “I explained that I was Israeli, but not the Israeli ambassador to France,” he confides. Patiently and pedagogically, he explains the history of the conflict, reveals its singularities, deconstructs semantic artifices and offers a diversity of points of view.
Is the term “genocide”, for example, appropriate? “To answer the question, I present three singularities specific to the current conflict. In a civil war situation, civilians are generally sent to shelters. In Gaza, these shelters are requisitioned by Hamas and reserved for the military, this is a first singularity. Then, they cannot take refuge in neighboring countries, as the Syrians were able to do by going to Turkey and Jordan, because Egypt refuses to open its border. Finally, they cannot reach another part of the territory, which is too narrow. We are not facing a genocidal project, but the means available to a civilian population to survive do not work in Gaza. This does not remove an ounce of Israel’s responsibility, but we now understand better why the toll is so heavy…”
READ ALSO Hamas-Israel War: What is the silence towards French Jews called? His classes attract a large number of students. “It’s an extremely enriching experience, because I can see that they are disturbed by being exposed to other voices for the first time. They come out saying to themselves: ultimately, the situation is more complex than that… I want to prevent them from having a Manichean vision of this conflict. This is neither scientifically nor morally admissible. It is not a conflict between good and evil. »
“Isolation” of Jewish students
More than ideology, ignorance wreaks havoc. Denis Charbit, on the other hand, confirms that the rare Jewish students on campus (there are less than ten of them) confided in him. “They suffer from their isolation,” laments the professor, to whom the management of Sciences Po suggested, given the usefulness and success of his courses, to broaden his audience by planning to give a conference in Paris. Five courses on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are offered to students on the Sciences Po campus in Menton during the spring 2024 semester.
“We are doing everything to encourage dialogue between students of different nationalities and different faiths, who are obviously deeply affected by the conflict in the Middle East,” insists Sciences Po. Several reports have in fact been made concerning a hardening of relations and very strong tensions between students, but the facts are sometimes difficult to characterize. »
