Paris students end Gaza war protests after street fight, New York campus activists vow to continue anti-war camp

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Students take part in the occupation of a street in front of the building of the Sciences Po University in support of Palestinians in Gaza on April 26, 2024. (REUTERS)
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Updated 27 April 2024
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Paris students end Gaza war protests after street fight, New York campus activists vow to continue anti-war camp

  • The Paris protesters called off their action in return for an “internal debate” about the Sciences Po’s ties to Israel
  • In New York, Columbia University students said they decided to fight on after reaching an impasse with administrators

PARIS/NEW YORK: Students at one of France’s most prestigious universities on Friday called off protests over the Gaza war after street scuffles between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli groups.

Administrators at the Institute of Political Studies, or Sciences Po, university in Paris acted to douse mounting tensions at the Paris establishment as demonstrations spread across American universities over the impact of the Gaza war.
Pro-Palestinian students have staged several days of sit-ins and protests at the 150-year-old university. Some blocked entrances to the university and tents were set up at the central courtyard for a protest camp.
Hundreds of students turned out Friday and police moved in when about 50 pro-Israeli demonstrators arrived shouting and scuffles started.
With exams scheduled to start soon, the university said the pro-Palestinian students had agreed to call off their action in return for an “internal debate” about the university’s ties to Israel.
University authorities also agreed to drop all disciplinary proceedings against demonstrators, said a note sent to students and faculty by Jean Basseres, Sciences Po’s administrator.
Science Po has a joint degree program with New York’s Columbia University and several French students are taking part in protests at one of the US institutions most radicalized by protests.




Pro-Israeli counter-protesters arrive at the Sciences Po University on April 26, 2024, to confront supporters of Gaza Palestinians amid fighting between Israel and Hamas militants.  (Reuters)

By Friday night, the Paris protests had eased and the street outside was calm, according to an AFP reporter on the scene.
Protest leaders, who had demanded a study of Science Po’s partnerships with universities or institutions that support the Israeli government, said they were happy with the promise of an internal debate.
France is home to the world’s largest Jewish population after Israel and the United States, as well as Europe’s biggest Muslim community.
The war in Gaza began with an attack by Palestinian militants Hamas on Israel on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of around 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
In retaliation, Israel launched a military offensive that has killed at least 34,305 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

US campus unrest

In New York, Columbia University students who inspired pro-Palestinian demonstrations across the country said that they reached an impasse with administrators and intend to continue their encampment until their demands are met.
The announcement after two days of exhaustive negotiations came as Columbia’s president faced harsh criticism from faculty and puts more pressure on university officials to find a resolution ahead of graduation ceremonies next month — a problem that campuses from California to Massachusetts are facing.
As the death toll mounts in the war in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis worsens, protesters at universities across the country are demanding that schools cut financial ties to Israel and divest from companies they say are enabling the conflict. Some Jewish students say the protests have veered into antisemitism and made them afraid to set foot on campus.
Student negotiators representing the Columbia encampment said that after meetings Thursday and Friday, the university had not met their primary demand for divestment, although there was progress on a push for more transparent financial disclosures.
“We will not rest until Columbia divests,” said Jonathan Ben-Menachem, a fourth-year doctoral student.
Columbia officials had said earlier that talks were showing progress.
“We have our demands; they have theirs,” university spokesperson Ben Chang said, adding that if the talks fail, Columbia will have to consider other options.




Columbia University students participate in an ongoing pro-Palestinian encampment on their campus following last week's arrest of more than 100 protesters on April 26, 2024 in New York City. (Getty Images/AFP)

Meanwhile, Columbia’s president, Minouche Shafik, faced a significant — but largely symbolic — rebuke from faculty Friday but retained the support of trustees, who have the power to hire or fire the president.
A report by the university senate’s executive committee, which represents faculty, found Shafik and her administration took “many actions and decisions that have harmed Columbia University.” Those included calling in police and allowing students to be arrested without consulting faculty, failing to defend the institution in the face of external pressures, misrepresenting and suspending student protest groups and hiring private investigators.
“The faculty have completely lost confidence in President Shafik’s ability to lead this organization,” said Ege Yumusak, a philosophy lecturer who is part of a faculty team protecting the encampment.
Following the report, the senate passed a resolution that included a task force to monitor how the administration would make corrective changes going forward.
In response, Chang said in the evening that “we are committed to an ongoing dialogue and appreciate the Senate’s constructive engagement in finding a pathway forward.”
Also Friday, student protester Khymani James walked back comments made in an online video in January that recently received new attention. James said in the video that “Zionists don’t deserve to live” and people should be grateful James wasn’t killing them.
“What I said was wrong,” James said in a statement. “Every member of our community deserves to feel safe without qualification.”
Protest organizers said the comments didn’t reflect their values. They declined to describe James’ level of involvement with the demonstration.
Across the country at Arizona State University, protesters pitched tents, including some that police dismantled, and at least one person was handcuffed and taken away.
Police clashed with protesters Thursday at Indiana University, Bloomington, where 34 were arrested; Ohio State University, where about 36 were arrested; and at the University of Connecticut, were one person was arrested.
California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, has been negotiating with students who have been barricaded inside a campus building since Monday, rebuffing an attempt by the police to clear them out. The campus was shut down at least through the weekend.
On the other end of the state, the University of Southern California canceled its May 10 graduation ceremony a day after more than 90 protesters were arrested on campus. The university said it will still host dozens of commencement events, including all the traditional individual school ceremonies.
Elsewhere in New York, about a dozen protesters spent the night in tents and sleeping bags inside a building at the Fashion Institute of Technology. The institute’s museum, which is in the building where the demonstrators set up camp, was closed Friday.




Activists and students demonstrate on the outskirts of an encampment protest at George Washington University on April 26, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images/AFP)

Protesters also stayed overnight at the encampment at George Washington University. Officials said in a statement that those who remained were trespassing on private property and disciplinary actions would be pursued against students involved in the unauthorized demonstrations.
At Emory University in Atlanta, video that circulated widely on social media showed two women who identified themselves as professors being detained, with one of them slammed to the ground by an officer as a second one pushed her chest and face onto a concrete sidewalk.
University President Gregory Fenves said via email that some videos of clashes were “shocking” and he was “horrified that members of our community had to experience and witness such interactions.”
Fenves blamed the campus unrest on “highly organized, outside protesters” who he said arrived in vans, put up tents and took over the quad. But in an earlier statement, school officials said that 20 of the 28 people arrested were members of the university community.
Since the Israel-Hamas war began, the US Education Department has launched civil rights investigations into dozens of universities and schools in response to complaints of antisemitism or Islamophobia. Among those under investigation are many colleges facing protests, including Harvard and Columbia.
 


UK govt under pressure from own MPs over Israeli arms exports

Updated 11 sec ago
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UK govt under pressure from own MPs over Israeli arms exports

  • Steve Witherden: ‘We can’t claim to uphold international law while profiting from its breach’
  • London previously suspended around 30 weapons export licenses but hundreds remain

London: UK authorities are under pressure to halt arms exports to Israel from MPs within the governing Labour Party.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy suspended around 30 arms export licenses to Israel in September, amid warnings that the weapons could be used to breach international law in Gaza, but hundreds of other licenses remain in place.

During a parliamentary debate on Monday, Labour MP Steve Witherden criticized a lack of transparency on arms exports to Israel, and asked the government to explain what criteria would be needed to enact a broader ban.

He highlighted the UK’s role in the manufacture and export of parts for the F-35 fighter jet, which is used by the Israeli military.

Palestinian rights group Al-Haq has previously said the export license for F-35 parts creates a “carve-out” that gives “rise to a significant risk of facilitating crime” by the Israeli military.

Witherden said: “The foreign secretary’s recent condemnation of Israel’s action as ‘monstrous’ was welcome but incomplete, for my very same government continues to facilitate such actions.

“We can’t have it both ways. We can’t condemn atrocity whilst simultaneously fueling the machinery that enables it. We can’t claim to uphold international law while profiting from its breach.”

He added: “It’s the government’s position that the need to continue to supply F-35 components outweighs the risk of genocide and, if so, is there any circumstance that would lead to the UK stopping that supply?

“The government has claimed that there are red lines that would trigger a halt to exports, but Gaza is already a slaughterhouse.”

Witherden continued: “Children are emaciated or dying of hunger. Hospitals have been intentionally destroyed. Israel’s leaders vow to wipe out Gaza and still the weapons flow.”

He added: “I call on this government to suspend all arms exports to Israel to ensure that no British-made weapons are used in Israel’s brutal plans to annexe, starve and ethnically cleanse the Palestinian population.”

Trade Minister Douglas Alexander responded that UK rules prevent sales of F-35 components directly to Israel, but that as part of a global supply network, there are limits on what the UK could do to prevent parts reaching the country.

“Undermining the F-35 program at this juncture would, in the view of the government, disrupt international peace and security, NATO deterrence and European defense as a whole,” Alexander said, adding that he believes Israel’s actions in responding to the “act of barbarism” by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, have been “disproportionate” and “counterproductive to any lasting peace settlement.”

He reminded MPs of the government’s decision to suspend arms licenses shortly after taking office last year.

“This measure is still in place and I’d like to reiterate that, based on our current assessment of potential breaches of international humanitarian law, we aren’t licensing military equipment provided directly to the (Israeli military) that could be used for military operations in Gaza,” he told the House of Commons.

“It’s right to acknowledge that our export licenses granted in relation to Israel cover a wider remit than simply those items that may be used in Gaza.

“There are a relatively small number of licenses for the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) relating to equipment which we assess wouldn’t be used in the current conflict including, for example, parts of air defense systems that defend Israel from acts such as the major aerial attack from Iran in April 2024.

“We also think it’s right for us to continue providing military-grade body armor used by non-governmental organizations and journalists, and to provide parts to the supply chain which are ultimately re-exported back out of Israel to support the defense of our NATO allies.”


Russian farmers appeal to Putin for help against antelope invasion

Updated 1 min 46 sec ago
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Russian farmers appeal to Putin for help against antelope invasion

MOSCOW: Farmers in Russia’s Saratov region have appealed to President Vladimir Putin for help in dealing with an invasion of saiga antelopes that have migrated from Kazakhstan and devastated their fields.
The appeal, posted on several popular farmers’ channels on Telegram, said that the saiga population has grown uncontrollably in recent years, reaching up to one million in Russia alone.
Saratov, located along the Volga River, is the country’s sixth-largest grain-producing region, with an annual harvest of about 4 million metric tons, accounting for 3.5 percent of Russia’s total grain harvest.
Farmers reported that about 500,000 saigas crossed into Russia from Kazakhstan at the end of May. They said that thousands had drowned in local rivers, contaminating the water supply.
“We hope for your understanding and assistance in resolving this situation, which threatens the very existence of agriculture in our region,” the farmers said in their appeal. Culling or hunting saigas, which were nearly extinct in the 1990s, is prohibited in Russia.
A separate letter to Putin, signed by heads of the region’s leading farms and obtained by Reuters, said that crop losses from saigas are not covered by insurance because the animal is not yet listed as an agricultural pest.
The Saratov regional Ministry of Agriculture said on Tuesday that it has set up damage assessment commissions and is developing a mechanism to support farmers.
The surge in the population of saigas, easily recognized by their trunk-like nose that filters sand particles from the desert air, is considered a global conservation success story.
Evgeny Karabanov from Kazakhstan’s Grain Union lobby group told Reuters that an estimated 4.0-4.5 million antelopes are currently roaming in the Central Asian country, compared to only 25,000 in the 1990s.
“Their migration area has significantly expanded... No one is asking them for passports,” Karabanov said.


Philippines sees 500% increase in HIV cases among young people

Updated 6 min 48 sec ago
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Philippines sees 500% increase in HIV cases among young people

  • More than 148,000 active cases recorded in the country
  • HIV testing, treatment are free in state-run facilities 

MANILA: The number of young Filipinos infected with HIV has increased by 500 percent, Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa said on Tuesday, as he called for a national public health emergency to be declared. 

The Philippines has been facing the fastest-growing HIV epidemic in the Western Pacific region due to the continuous rise in infections. 

Health officials have been recording around 56 new cases daily since the beginning of April, a total of 5,101. The latest figure is approximately 50 percent higher than during the same period last year. 

“We’ve seen a 500 percent increase in HIV cases among those aged 15 to 25. In fact, the youngest person diagnosed was just 12 years old, in the province of Palawan,” Herbosa said in a video statement. 

“Based on our data, we now have the highest number of new cases in the Western Pacific region. What’s frightening is the high number of new cases among our youth.” 

The Philippines saw a 543 percent increase in new infections between 2010 and 2023, according to the UNAIDS global report released in November. 

There are currently 148,831 active HIV cases in the country, which has a population of 117 million.

While the spread of HIV has slowed drastically in many parts of the world since the epidemic’s peak in 1995, infections have been rising steeply for over a decade in the Philippines. Officials recorded 48 daily cases on average last year, compared to 21 in 2014.

The government has warned that if the current trend continues, the number of people living with HIV could more than double. 

“If we don’t stop the increase in HIV cases, we could reach over 400,000 people living with HIV … It would be better to declare a public health emergency or national emergency for HIV, so that the entire society and government can work together in this campaign to reduce new cases,” said Herbosa.

Though screening for the virus and treatment is free in state-run clinics, stigma surrounding HIV continues to be a major barrier for many Filipinos. 

Only 55 percent of those living with the virus in the Philippines have been diagnosed, according to government data, while only 66 percent of those are on lifesaving antiretroviral therapy. 

“Some people are afraid to get tested,” Herbosa said. “We now also have HIV self-test kits in the Philippines, and I hope these self-test kits are used, especially to address the stigma.”


Saudia’s budget carrier Flyadeal to launch flights to India next year

Updated 35 min 58 sec ago
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Saudia’s budget carrier Flyadeal to launch flights to India next year

  • Up to 6 new destinations in India will be added in first year of operations, CEO says
  • Flyadeal plans to have 5-10% of its total traffic coming from India

NEW DELHI: Saudi budget carrier Flyadeal is planning to launch flights from the Kingdom to India next year, its CEO said, as industry leaders gathered in New Delhi for the International Air Transport Association’s annual summit.

Established in 2017, Flyadeal is a subsidiary of the Saudi national flag carrier, Saudia. Headquartered in Jeddah, the airline primarily serves domestic routes and has, over the past few years, expanded to international destinations in the Middle East, Europe, and North Africa.

It currently reaches some 35 destinations. Another five or six will be added in India soon.

“We’re planning to launch flights from the Kingdom to India next year,” Flyadeal’s CEO Steven Greenway told Arab News on the sidelines of the IATA meeting on Monday.

“We’re talking about five to six (destinations) in our first year alone — so quite a lot, and mostly secondary cities ... Our sister carrier Saudia will remain in Delhi and Mumbai. We’re looking at the secondary cities.”

While he expects the airline’s upcoming India operations to address mostly labor traffic, tourists are a growing group too, as Saudi Arabia is heavily investing in tourist destinations.

In the past few years the Kingdom has seen significant developments at its eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites, eco-friendly and luxury resorts on the Red Sea coastline, and entertainment and sports complexes.

With their vast promotion, also involving Bollywood stars, more and more Indians are willing to visit Riyadh, Jeddah, or AlUla.

“You’ve got a country which is now open for business, which is now deploying key strategic initiatives that are going online  — the Red Sea resorts and so forth. That will bring tourism,” Greenway said.

“I would like to think that we could probably have anything between 5 and 10 percent of our total traffic coming from India over the next couple of years.”

Tourism is booming in Saudi Arabia under the Vision 2030 diversification plan, with the sector expected to contribute 10 percent of the gross domestic product.

The Saudi Tourism Authority announced last year that it expected India to become its key inbound market, with 7.5 million Indian travelers visiting the Kingdom by 2030.


Germany’s Merz says court ruling will not stop migration crackdown

Updated 03 June 2025
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Germany’s Merz says court ruling will not stop migration crackdown

BERLIN: Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Tuesday a court ruling that German authorities acted unlawfully when border police expelled three Somali asylum seekers could restrict his government’s migration crackdown but would not stop it altogether.
People would continue to be turned away at the German border, he said.
A Berlin administrative court said on Monday the expulsion of the three unnamed Somalis, who were sent back to Poland after arriving at a train station in eastern Germany, was “unlawful.”
It said the asylum application should have been processed by Germany under the European Union’s so-called Dublin rules that determine which country is responsible for processing a claim.
The ruling was a setback for Merz’s government, which won a federal election in February after promising a crackdown on migration that has caused concern in neighboring countries.
The court ruling has “possibly further restricted the scope for maneuver here,” Merz told a local government congress. “But the scope is still there. We know that we can still reject people.”
“We will, of course, do this within the framework of European law, but we will also do it to protect public safety and order in our country and to relieve the burden on cities and municipalities,” he said.
Migration is among German voters’ biggest concerns and a backlash against an influx of new arrivals has contributed to a rise in the popularity of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, which came second in February’s election.
It is a big shift since Germany’s “Refugees Welcome” culture during Europe’s migrant crisis in 2015 under Merz’s conservative predecessor, Angela Merkel.
Merz’s government issued an order in May to reject undocumented migrants, including asylum seekers, at Germany’s borders.
Monday’s ruling was seized on by critics as evidence that Merz’s migration policy was unworkable.
“The administrative court has determined that Dobrindt’s policy of rejecting asylum seekers is unlawful, contrary to European law, and now the Federal Ministry of the Interior should really start thinking about how to finally put an end to this nonsense,” Karl Kopp of the pro-immigration advocacy group Pro Asyl told Reuters.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt defended the expulsions, saying he would provide the court with justifications for banning entry.