It was planned that the scientific conference, organized for a long time, on “Palestine and Europe: weight of the past and contemporary dynamics”, would be held in the premises of the Collège de France on Thursday 13 and Friday 14 November. The very high quality of the research carried out within the Collège de France is recognized throughout the world. This conference, with numerous international speakers of great scientific renown, is an illustration of this.
However, the administrator of the Collège de France made the decision to cancel it.
By the admission of the Minister of Higher Education, Research and Space, Philippe Baptiste, this decision was taken at his request.
This intervention by the Minister constitutes an unacceptable challenge to academic freedom. It shocked the entire scientific community and university and research institutions, even provoking a reaction from France Universités, which expressed its “deep concern” about the preservation of academic freedom.
Our organizations denounce this intervention, which is part of a more general policy aimed at preventing any free expression on Israel-Palestine, to the point of wanting to ban academic research on this subject.
Since the cancellation pronounced by the administration of the Collège de France, the Arab Center for Research and Political Studies of Paris (CAREP) has offered to host this conference in its premises.
Our organizations welcome this initiative even if it actually reduces the number of places to attend.
Defenders of academic freedom will not back down from intimidation or pressure of any kind.
This is why, to demonstrate that no attack on academic freedom will no longer be tolerated, our organizations are calling on all those who are committed to defending them to come together:
Tuesday November 18 at 5 p.m. in front of the Ministry of ESRE,
1 rue Descartes in PARIS
and everywhere else in front of the rectorates on the same day.
