The College de France, France’s most prestigious academic institution, bowed to pro-Israel pressure [Getty]
France’s most prestigious academic institution, the College de France, has cancelled an event it organised jointly with the Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies entitled ‘Palestine and Europe: The Weight of the Past and Contemporary Dynamics’ amid pressure from right-wing and pro-Israel groups and the Minister of Higher Education.
Organisers told The New Arab’s sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that they are now considering moving the academic conference to other venues.
The cancellation of an academic conference addressing the Palestinian issue is an unprecedented event in France.
French Minister of Higher Education Philippe Baptiste claimed in a post on X that he was “defending free, respectful, and plural debate” and that the conference on Palestine was “very unlikely to meet these conditions”.
The Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies, however, has previously organised three academic conferences in cooperation with the College de France.
Henri Laurens, the Chair of History of the Contemporary Arab World at the College de France was due to participate. It was scheduled for 13 and 14 November before being cancelled.
Prior to Baptiste’s announcement, the right-wing French news magazine Le Point published two articles, last Friday and Sunday, attacking conference participants, which include former EU Commission Vice-President Josep Borrell, former French prime minister Dominique De Villepin, and UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese, for being “pro-Palestinian” and acknowledging the genocide in Gaza.
The International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (LICRA), a French pro-Israel organisation, joined in the attack, with historian Emmanuel Debono claiming that College de was organising “non-academic” conferences such as the one planned by the Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies.
On Sunday, the College de France issued a statement signed by its director Thomas Römer, announcing the cancellation of the conference, while reaffirming its “neutrality” regarding political and ideological matters. Incongruously, the statement talked at length about freedom of expression and academic freedom, praising itself as a bastion of these values.
It said that it had cancelled the conference over concerns for “the safety of College de France staff and attendees and the need to prevent public disorder”.
Baptiste welcomed the statement enthusiastically, writing on his X account that the decision to cancel the conference came as a result of communication between him and Römer.
He congratulated Collège de France on its “responsible decision”, describing it as one befitting an institution that should embody “academic excellence in a nation open to all currents of thought and opinion, within respect for the law and our republican values”.