FRANCE – The University of Lille announced in a press release that it had decided to cancel the conference on Palestine by rebels Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Rima Hassan scheduled for Thursday, April 18.
“There has been an alarming increase in international concerns in the past few days as a result of the military escalation that occurred in the Middle East on April 13 and 14. These tensions are reverberating nationally and locally, as well as at the university” , writes the University of Lille in its letter.
“We have determined that the requirements for ensuring the peacefulness of the discussions are no longer satisfied, and we will no longer let Mr. Mélenchon and Mrs. Hassan to have their conference inside its limits,” she explains.
Pressure exerted
This conference was organized at the initiative of a pro-Palestine student association. The University of Lille regrets “the pressure exerted on the educational and scientific autonomy of higher education establishments” without specifying the origin of these pressures.
“The French University was founded as a place of free research on the past and present of human societies and remains so, despite the attacks it is subject to,” writes the university, which invites “each and everyone to measure in the comments that will be made in order to preserve the common good that brings us together.
For its part, France Insoumise immediately announced that the conference would still be organized in Lille on the same date, “in another location” communicated to those registered.
Elected Officials Requested The Cancellation
LR, RN and Renaissance elected officials demanded the cancellation of this event. Amid the complaints, the association’s emblem appeared on the evening’s offering banner beside to images of Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Rima Hassan, who rank seventh and eighth respectively on the list of Rebels for the European elections.
This logo represents a territory encompassing Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, on which the name of the association “Free Palestine” is affixed.
“The symposium organized by La France insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, and Rima Hassan, which uses the ‘Free Palestine’ emblem to reject the existence of the State of Israel, is intolerable in a French institution “, reacted on X the president (LR) of Hauts-de-France, Xavier Bertrand.
This Wednesday, the latter welcomed “this political meeting, disguised as a conference with anti-Zionist overtones (which) had no place in a French university”.
Criticism also came from the left, like Raphaël Glucksmann, who regretted this Wednesday that Jean-Luc Mélenchon “appears” with the logo of an association “which denies the existence of the State of Israel ” to announce this conference.
Defenders of the Netanyahu Regime Unconditionally
In a press release, France Insoumise reacts and denounces “the exploitation of this conference by supporters of unconditional support for the Nentayahu government”.
The political party deplores that the University of Lille “shows itself incapable of resisting the pressures which attack freedom of expression, undermine university and academic freedoms and aim to silence the voices of peace in the Middle East “, specifying that the association at the origin of this conference was “registered at the prefecture and approved by the University”.
On The Same Subject
European Elections: with the candidacy of Rima Hassan, LFI puts Gaza at the center of the debate
Glucksmann accuses Mélenchon of displaying himself with a logo “which denies the State of Israel”
“Too much. It has been cancelled three times at the university that Jean-Luc Mélenchon was supposed to speak. It is now enough to ‘stir up the sauce’ on an event for decision-makers to censor? Where is the limit?”, asks on X the LFI deputy François Ruffin.
