Home>War in Gaza: Sciences Po's Institutional and Academic Actions
30.04.2025
War in Gaza: Sciences Po's Institutional and Academic Actions
Since the beginning of the conflict in October 2023, Sciences Po has fully played its role as a major international university, by taking actions in defence of academic freedom and offering a wide range of teaching formats to shed light on the situation in Gaza from the perspective of the humanities and social sciences.
In doing so, Sciences Po is perfectly in line with the doctrine adopted earlier this year according to which positions taken by Sciences Po are considered legitimate if they are linked to the primary missions of the institution and to its activities as a research and educational academic institution.
Protecting students and researchers
The ongoing war in Gaza has significantly disrupted the education of all 625,000 students in the region and deeply affected the lives and livelihoods of thousands of teachers. The lack of access to learning not only has immediate consequences but also long-term effects, especially given the widespread damage and destruction of most university buildings.
As a university, Sciences Po’s priority has been the safety of our students impacted by the war. Sciences Po has supported tens of students whose families are directly affected by the conflicts in the region, providing material and financial assistance.
In 2024, Sciences Po signed a partnership agreement with Birzeit University in the West Bank, which allowed 9 exchange students to be hosted this year with full scholarships provided by Sciences Po (flight and living allowance). This funding has been renewed for 2025-2026, with 5 mobility scholarships financed by Sciences Po again. From 2026-2027, the Erasmus MIC programme (international credit mobility) will be providing support to the exchange students.
The partnership with Birzeit University brings to two the number of exchange agreements in place with Palestinian universities, Sciences Po having already signed with Al-Quds University, also located in the West Bank, several years ago. Five Erasmus + scholarships were granted in 2024-25 to students from Al Quds University, and five more are planned for 2025-26.
In Gaza, 90,000 university students have lost access to education. Sciences Po decided last year to participate in the Technical Education Support for Higher Education Students Initiative – TESI. It aims at empowering Gaza students to complete their university education remotely as visiting students in West Bank Universities, with no financial burden on the students or their respective universities.
Sciences Po also recruited Dr. Sanaa AlSarghali from An-Najah University-Nablus (on the West Bank) as a visiting professor to the Law School. Dr. Alsarghali is the first woman to ever earn a Ph.D. in Constitutional Law in Palestinen.
Finally, as part of the PAUSE programme which supports scientists and artists in exile by facilitating their hosting in higher education and research institutions or cultural institutions, Palestinian artist Maha Issa Al-Daya is jointly hosted by the Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination, the Columbia Paris Global Center, and Sciences Po for a year. Affiliated to Sciences Po Institute for the Arts & Creation, she already took part in an event titled “Art in times of war" in March. On 14 April, Maha Issa Al-Daya attended the exhibition opening about “the salvaged treasures of Gaza” set by the Institut du Monde Arabe, during which President Emmanuel Macron symbolically held a map of Palestine embroidered by the artist.
Analsing the situation in Gaza and Palestine
As a university, Sciences Po believes it is its role to share knowledge and context regarding the current situation in Gaza. To do so, the institution has been organising many events, classes, conferences, for its students but also for a larger audience, in Paris and on the Menton Campus mainly. A cycle of 12 lessons, designed by the Middle East North Africa Programme, was offered in Paris this year to shed light on the war using the tools of different social sciences: history, political science, sociology, and economics.
Sciences Po Library published a selection of books, articles, reports by discipline (as well as a selection of films and novels), a selection of archival documents and an exhaustive and structured "Israel-Palestine Transverse Fund", giving access to all the available resources (in French and/or English).
- Series of 12 conferences on the Middle East conflict:
- “The emergence of the Palestine question (1897-1947)” by Vincent Lemire, Professor of History at Gustave Eiffel University, 3 October 2024
- “Zionism: why should Israel exist?” by Alain Dieckhoff, CNRS Research Professor at Sciences Po CERI, 17 October 2024
- “Palestinian refugees in the Middle East” by Kemal Doraï, researcher at the CNRS and at the MIGRINTER laboratory of the University of Poitiers, 7 November 2024
- “The making of a nation: Israel” by Denis Charbit, professor of political science at Israel's Open University, 14 November 2024
- “Palestinians facing Israel” by Laetitia Bucaille, professor of political sociology at INALCO, 28 November 2024
- “Israel, what kind of democracy?’ by Samy Cohen, Emeritus Research Professor at Sciences Po CERI, 5 December 2024
- “Living and taking action in the West Bank and Gaza” by Stéphanie Latte Abdallah, Director of Research at the CNRS, 6 February 2025
- “Israel versus the Palestinians (1948-2025)” by Mark Tessler, Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan, 20 February 2025
- “The political economy of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” by Sami Miaari, Professor of Economics at Tel Aviv University and Yale University, 6 March 2025
- “The Hizbullah and Israel, between tension and confrontation” by Joseph Bahout, Director of the Issam Farès Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, 20 March 2025
- “US policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” by Camille Mansour, editor-in-chief of the Interactive Encyclopaedia of the Palestine Question, 3 April 2025
- “The Gulf monarchies and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” by Laurence Louër, Deputy Director for Scientific Affairs at Sciences Po CERI and Associate Professor, 17 April 2025
- Two-day training organised by Sciences Po Law School and MENA Programme about “Navigating Uncertainty: The Case for Interim Constitutions in Syria and Palestine”, 15-16 May 2025.
- Movie cycle on Gaza and Palestine:
- Gaza mon amour (December 2023),
- Voyage à Gaza (November 2024),
- Bye Bye Tibériade (November 2024).
- Organisation of a conference with Palestinian artist, photographer and painter Mohamed Abusal, from Gaza (November 2024).
- Discussion autour de la guerre entre Israël et le Hamas with Gérard Araud et Ghassan Salamé, PSIA, 12 October,
- Israël/ Palestine : le retour de la guerre, et après ? with Karim Bitar, Laetitia Bucaille, Alain Dieckhoff and Stéphane Lacroix, Collège universitaire, 26 October,
- Israël/ Palestine : Building spaces for diplomacy with reserachers from CERI et UN representatives (Ariel Colonomos, Bernardino Leon, Julie Trottier, Bruno Stagno Ugarte) PSIA, 7 November,
- Discussing the Israel-Hamas Conflict : challenge for political humanities, Cercle des humanités politiques (Ariel Colonomos, Astrid Von Busekist, Rebecca Mignot-Mahdavi and Frederique Leichter-Flack), 13 November,
- Religions et nationalismes en Israël/ Palestine with Alain Dieckhoff, Chaire d’étude du fait religieux, 14 November,
- Hamas-Israël : quels buts de guerre dans quel contexte international ? Association française de Science Politique, 18 December,
- Israël/ Hamas : la guerre, de quel droit ?, with Julia Grignon, Samy Cohen, Étienne Dignat, Sharon Weill, CERI, 7 February,
- 60 minutes with Filippo Grandi, Haut commissaire aux réfugiés ONU, PSIA, 1 March,
- Conflit Israël / Hamas : quel rôle du religieux ?, Mgr Pierre d’Ornellas, Frédéric Gros, Hélène Le Gal, Moshé Lewin, Tareq Oubrou, Emouna, 11 March,
- Gaza and our world with Bertrand Badie, Dima Alsajdeya, Jean D'aspremont, Louise Bichet, Sbeih Sbeih, CERI, 30 April,
- What is next for Palestinians ? Internal debates vs. external demandes, Sanaa Al Sarghali and Guillaume Tusseau, École de droit.
- Crise israélo-palestinienne, tensions au Moyen-Orient : décryptage d'une actualité brûlante et de ses répercussions en France, Masterclass de Gilles Kepel, 4-6 December 2023,
- Le processus de rédaction de la constitution palestinienne, conférence de Sanaa Alsarghali, constitutionnaliste palestinienne, 8 December 2023,
- Conférence de Clothilde Mraffko, correspondante du journal Le Monde à Jérusalem, 16 février 2024,
- Conférence de Denis Charbit, professeur franco-israélien de science politique, 18 avril 2024.
- Hamas-Israël : quels buts de guerre dans quel contexte international ? Association française de Science Politique, 18 décembre,
- Israel/ Hamas : la guerre, de quel droit ?, avec Julia Grignon, Samy Cohen, Étienne Dignat, Sharon Weill, CERI, 7 février,
- What is next for Palestinians ? Internal debates vs. external demandes, Sanaa Al Sarghali, et Guillaume Tusseau, École de droit.
