Paris: two Fine Arts students sanctioned for a flag and posters in support of Palestine

Two Beaux-Arts de Paris students were sanctioned this Wednesday for putting up posters, a decision decided according to them in reaction to the painting of a Palestinian flag on the stairs of the school, which the management disputes. One received a warning and the other a reprimand, according to management.

“These are the weakest sanctions provided for by the internal regulations, but which indicate a persistent desire to make examples in a context of collective mobilization of all students,” commented the students’ lawyer, Me Prisca Ancion.

These two students were summoned to a disciplinary council for the “deterioration of common heritage assets”, caused by posters plastered “on the walls of the school using glue which does not allow their removal”, according to the management of the establishment. “Some posters were also offensive,” she emphasizes.

“We demand our freedom of expression”

According to the students’ account, a Palestinian flag was first painted at the beginning of the year on the risers of a staircase during a “collective action”, which the management had quickly cleaned. Then in protest, students put up posters, notably making puns with the name of the director, Éric de Chassey, such as “Chassey the natural he comes back at a gallop”.

“We are attacked for posters, while we are students in an art school, we claim our freedom of expression through collages, performances,” declared Raphaël, one of the two sanctioned students.

Around fifty students, holding Palestinian flags and chanting slogans such as “supporting Palestine is not a crime”, gathered in front of the school on Wednesday in support.

According to management, the flag painting “was not erased because of its political content”, but “for a strictly heritage reason”, the staircase being “classified as a historic monument, thus causing degradation of a protected property”.

The State of Palestine recognized by France

“France recognizes the Palestinian state and the school management has no reason to speak out against this recognition,” she added.

The recognition of the State of Palestine by France and several other countries took place last September, almost two years after the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, triggered by the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on October 7, 2023 in Israel.

This recognition also comes against a backdrop of escalation, since the start of the war in Gaza, of violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank, territory occupied by Israel since 1967.