Sciences-Po Lille: Gazan student accused of anti-Semitic remarks "is expected to leave the country"

Deregistered and then expelled. A Gazan student facing judicial investigation for "apology for terrorism and condoning crimes against humanity" after violently anti-Semitic posts, "is destined to leave the national territory," a French diplomatic source told AFP on Thursday, July 31. Screenshots circulating on social media show that an account—attributed to this student by Internet users and since closed—reshared messages calling for the killing of Jews.

The young woman, who arrived in France on July 11, had received a government scholarship to study at the Sciences-Po Lille higher education school in northern France, as part of a program for Gazan students created a year ago, the source said.

Scholarship recipients "are selected based on academic excellence and undergo security checks by the relevant services before their arrival in France," according to the same source. "The Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs and the Minister of the Interior have requested the launch of an internal investigation to ensure that this situation does not happen again," she said. The destination to which the student could be sent back was not specified.

The Lille prosecutor's office announced on Thursday the opening of an investigation into "apology for terrorism, apology for crimes against humanity with the use of an online public communication service."

The young woman was deregistered on Wednesday from the IEP , where she was due to study from September, because the content of some of her publications "is in direct contradiction with the values upheld by Sciences-Po Lille" , the establishment also indicated.

Several hundred people - including French nationals, scholarship holders, artists and researchers - have been evacuated from Gaza by France since the start of the war launched in retaliation for the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, according to the diplomatic source.