The convention organized by the ULB was in a position to start, with Eli Barnavi, the previous Israeli ambassador to France, on stage on the Flagey cultural middle. A safety system was deployed on the entrance, with a search and passage by way of a steel detector. A number of hundred college students and pro-Palestinian activists demonstrated towards his arrival, late within the afternoon on the Solbosch campus of the Free College of Brussels (ULB), earlier than heading in the direction of Place Flagey, with out with the ability to obtain this, the encompassing streets being blocked by the police.
Underneath the title “Israel-Palestine: the place are we going?“, the conference-debate night has been strongly criticized for greater than three weeks by the occupation motion in help of Palestine, known as the Widespread College of Brussels. In query, the presence as interlocutor of Elie Barnarvi. Sure feedback made by the previous Israeli ambassador are significantly singled out by the demonstrators.
“The best factor is to carpet bomb Gaza with out asking any questions“, declared the historian on the microphone of Franceinfo on October 15. On Could 21, whereas the outcomes of the Hamas Ministry of Well being reported 35,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza since October 7, Mr. Barnavi described throughout ‘an interview on BFM TV “riposte“Israeli as being”justified” et “essential“. On the microphone of our journalist, this Monday, he pleads for dialogue: “The answer, everybody is aware of it, is the Palestinian state, with a border between them and us.”
The answer is the Palestinian state, with a border between them and us
Elie Barnavi
Among the many public who attended the convention, we don’t perceive why the occasion needs to be banned: “I feel very badly that anybody may think about for a single second that in the home of free inquiry such an individual could be forbidden to specific themselves. He’s a reasonable particular person, you simply have to take a look at his story, his position as ambassador to France just a few years in the past.”
“Now we have chosen to prepare debates bringing collectively a panel of consultants from the Center East, from a balanced and affordable perspective, to encourage dialogue moderately than tense positions.“, for its half underlined the college administration on Monday.
He has nothing to do there
Within the procession of demonstrators, properly supervised by the police, few individuals agreed to reply our staff’s questions. “He has nothing to do there“, they inform us. Anybody who tries to speak to us will likely be reprimanded.
“One of these convention constitutes an try and normalize a scenario that’s not: extended army occupation, insurance policies of colonization and apartheid, in addition to the continued suppression of the basic rights of the Palestinian folks“, identified the scholar motion in a press launch. Based on the demonstrators, this participation “strategic“places ahead a biased narrative that favored a false equivalence of”two sides“battle,”intentionally masking the ability imbalances and brutality of oppression suffered by Palestinians“.
Flagey barricaded
The demonstrators tried to achieve Place Flagey, however the space was barricaded. A pumper was camped on the outskirts of the sq., and a helicopter was flying over the world. The demonstrators had been then dispersed by the police earlier than being killed in a number of locations.
9 folks had been arrested, police instructed the Belga company. Not less than one particular person was “critically injured” within the head after receiving a number of blows with a baton, in response to the scholar motion. A bunch reached the Israeli embassy, additionally underneath heavy police surveillance, earlier than leaving.
The college had indicated, in the course of the day, that it had “every little thing accomplished” – significantly on the safety degree – “in order that exchanges can happen in circumstances conducive to a peaceful and constructive debate”.
