France freezes admission of Palestinians while investigating student accused of anti-Semitic remarks

France will no longer accept evacuated Gazans into its territory until the conclusions of an investigation into the failures that allowed the reception of a student accused of anti-Semitic remarks, the French Foreign Minister declared on Friday, August 1. "No operation of this type, no evacuation of any kind will take place until we have drawn the consequences of this investigation," Jean-Noël Barrot stated on France Info.

The Lille prosecutor's office announced Thursday that it has opened an investigation into the social media posts of a Gazan student whose registration was canceled by Sciences-Po Lille on Wednesday for condoning terrorism and crimes against humanity. Screenshots circulating on social media show that an account attributed to the student by Internet users and since closed had re-shared messages calling for the killing of Jews.

The young woman was deregistered from the Lille Institute of Political Studies, where she was due to study from September, due to the content of some of her publications which "come into direct contradiction with the values upheld by Sciences-Po Lille" , the establishment announced on Wednesday. The IEP also explained that it had "welcomed this student at the suggestion of the French Consulate General in Jerusalem."

"Why did we get through this ? There is still a question, it must be answered," François-Noël Buffet, Minister to the Minister of the Interior , acknowledged on RMC on Thursday. "There will be legal proceedings and based on these elements, she is likely to be sent back to her country, of course," he added.

The incident sparked widespread reaction from the political class, including the government. "A Gazan student making anti-Semitic remarks has no place in France," Jean-Noël Barrot reacted on X. The minister indicated that he had "requested that an internal investigation be carried out so that this cannot happen again under any circumstances." The Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, for his part, stressed on the same social network that he had " requested that this hateful account be closed," and insisted that "Hamas propagandists have no place in our country."