Following antisemitic remarks and the glorification of Hamas at a gathering in October at Paris 8, Minister Philippe Baptiste has imposed nine recommendations on the Saint-Denis university “to ensure that such acts do not happen again.”
The University of Paris 8 will be required to implement nine recommendations following an October gathering at which antisemitic statements and the glorification of terrorism were made, in order to prevent a recurrence of such “extremely serious” events, the Minister of Higher Education announced on Friday. A monitoring committee, overseen by inspectors, will be tasked with ensuring that these measures are applied, Philippe Baptiste confirmed during a visit to the university in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis).
In October, a video from “Leon le média” — which describes itself as an independent outlet covering Jewish history — was circulated showing what it called “a far-left event organised on the campus of Paris 8 University.” The footage captured a gathering held on 15 October at the Université Vincennes-Saint-Denis, called by several organisations including the Fédération syndicale étudiante. In the video, a woman could be heard asking “do you condemn the events of 7 October?”, to which part of the lecture theatre responded with “no.”
The “operational” recommendations presented on Friday stem from a report by the General Inspectorate, which was commissioned following the incident, “to ensure that such acts do not happen again” — recommendations that “the university will be required to implement as swiftly as possible,” the ministry stated in a press release.
Tighter oversight, disciplinary proceedings…
The report recommends in particular “systematising the initiation of disciplinary proceedings in the event of misconduct, fundamentally overhauling event authorisation procedures to make them more rigorous and traceable, and strengthening anticipatory capacity through active monitoring of content circulated within the university community.”
It also calls for “enhanced supervision of events identified as sensitive, with a systematic institutional presence, as well as genuine structuring of policies for the prevention of and response to antisemitism, notably through training, the appointment of designated officers, and the full implementation of existing frameworks.” According to Philippe Baptiste, the October event was organised in a “half-improvised manner,” with procedures only “half-followed” by the organisers, resulting in “a series of identified failings.”
University president Arnaud Laimé indicated that the internal disciplinary inquiry should deliver its findings “shortly.” The Bobigny public prosecutor’s office, which was referred the matter by the university rector, immediately opened an investigation, entrusted to the brigade responsible for combating offences against persons. That investigation remains ongoing, according to Philippe Baptiste.
