French President Emmanuel Macron has criticized blockades of pro-Palestinian demonstrators at French universities, saying the tactic exceeds legitimate means of debate and protest, reported DPA, quoted by BTA.
Macron said he understood that the events in the Gaza Strip upset people "but blocking the debate has never helped to resolve the conflict", according to an interview with the president published today in the newspapers "La Provence" and "La Tribune Dimanche".
"It is perfectly legitimate and even reasonable and comforting that our young people can say that international events affect them and discuss them. But to use violence and blockades to force an institution to adopt this or that policy, to prevent other students from entering university halls under the pretext of being Jewish - this is not the Republic," Macron said.
In his opinion, such behavior does not reflect mutual respect, pluralism and condemnation of racism and anti-Semitism, DPA notes.
On Friday, police broke up a sit-in by pro-Palestinian students at the Institute of Political Sciences in Paris, during which protesters had blocked access to university buildings.
The protesters condemned their university's stance on the war in Gaza and demanded, among other things, that cooperation with Israeli universities be reconsidered. An attempt by the university management to end the conflict through a major internal debate failed.
Students at other campuses of the Institute of Political Sciences in France and at other French universities have also recently blocked parts of academic facilities. Some of the protesters reportedly made anti-Semitic statements during the demonstrations, DPA noted.