PARIS — France will suspend its program to receive Palestinians from conflict-torn Gaza pending the outcome of an investigation into how a student accused of sharing antisemitic posts was allowed into the country, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Friday.
The move comes after officials said the female student, Nour Atallah, 25, from Gaza, will have to leave France after the Sciences Po university in the northern city of Lille revoked her accreditation over the online posts.
Screenshots of posts the student allegedly shared in September — published by pro-Israel accounts on X — include an image of Adolf Hitler and words appearing to call for the death of Jews.
“No evacuation of any kind will take place until we have drawn conclusions from this investigation,” Barrot told Franceinfo radio.
All Gazans who have entered France will undergo a second screening, he added.
Atallah had been offered a place at the Sciences Po Lille university based on a recommendation by the French consulate in Jerusalem, the school said. Following the recommendation by French diplomats, the woman initially lived at the home of the university’s director while she waited for permanent lodgings, Sciences Po said.
Protesters hold posters of the Palestinian flag as they demonstrate near the entrance of the Institute of Political Studies, Sciences Po Paris, occupied by students, in Paris, France on April 26, 2024. (Julien De Rosa / AFP)
But the school said that after consultations with the education ministry and regional authorities, it “decided to cancel this student’s planned registration at our establishment.”
Some of the posts “come into direct contradiction with the values upheld by Sciences Po Lille, which fights against all forms of racism, antisemitism and discrimination, as well as against any type of incitement to hatred, against any population whatsoever,” the university added in a post on X.
France has helped more than 500 people leave Gaza since the latest war between the terrorist group Hamas and Israel began, including wounded children, journalists, students and artists.
The conflict, triggered by Hamas’s murderous October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, has seen Israel retaliate with a deadly military campaign and an aid blockade in Gaza that some rights groups have qualified as genocide, an accusation that Israel rejects.
Lille’s chief prosecutor told AFP on Thursday that a probe had been opened against the student for allegedly trying to “justify terrorism” and “justify a crime against humanity.”
The X account attributed to Attallah has been taken offline after French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau demanded it be closed down.
“Hamas propagandists have no place in our country,” Retailleau said on X.
French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau leaves after the weekly cabinet meeting at the presidential Elysee Palace in Paris, on November 6, 2024. (Ludovic MARIN / AFP)
A French diplomatic source said the student arrived in France on July 11 on a scholarship based on “academic excellence” and after “security checks.”
AFP was not immediately able to reach Attallah for comment.
“She must leave the country,” the foreign minister confirmed, adding that discussions were ongoing to determine her destination.
The cancellation of Atallah’s enrollment came days after French President Emmanuel Macron announced that the country, which is home to Europe’s largest Jewish population, would recognize a Palestinian state in September. The decision, against the backdrop of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, provoked anger among French Jewish leaders as well as Israeli officials, who called it a reward for the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack that began the war.
Reports of antisemitism have spiked in France since the October 7 onslaught by Hamas, and a series of Jewish institutions have been attacked.
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