In France and beyond, high schoolers answer call to Palestine solidarity

The anti-war protests that sparked a Palestine solidarity movement on college campuses in the United States have created ripples across campuses worldwide, prompting high schoolers to join what is now known as the ‘Student Spring’.

Youths from tens of high schools in Boston united at the Gaza encampment located on the campus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to shield college peers from police violence.

On Monday, they joined hands in a human chain to thwart the police's attempt to dismantle the encampment.

Meanwhile, in France, where authorities often crack down on school administrations in the name of the country’s “secular values,” students have initiated a nationwide campaign to spread Palestine solidarity in high schools.

Students from dozens of French high schools marched this week in support of an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, responding to the High School Union's (USL) call.

Their campaign urges all high school students to participate in the movement actively and arrange demonstrations to demand a ceasefire in Gaza and recognition of the Palestinian state by France.

“American students are pushing Joe Biden to toughen his stance towards Israel. We must do the same with Macron,” USL deputy chief Manes Nadel said on X.

“Throughout France, high schools are blocked for peace,” he wrote.

Students mobilise across France

Upon USL’s call at the beginning of the week, numerous students from tens of French secondary schools participated in the demonstrations.

The union released a statement calling for high school mobilisation, “in particular through the occupation and blockade of all establishments,” to ensure French officials would meet their demands.

“From Columbia to high schools in France, the high school mobilisation will take place,” the statement said.

Dozens of high schools have already joined the movement, with many more set to participate in next week’s blockade as decided in the general assembly of high schools, Gwenn Thomas-Alves, head of USL, tells TRT World.

The movement extends from Caen in northwestern France to Menton in the southeast, the 18-year-old student explains.

“So everyone is mobilised on this issue across France now.”

Palestinian nominee Rima Hassan, representing the Unbowed France party (LFI) in the European Parliament elections, also joined in solidarity with high school activists. Accompanied by LFI deputy Louis Boyard, Hassan visited Blaise Cendrars High School in the Seine-Saint-Denis suburb of Paris to express support.

The campaign calls for the blockade of all French high schools in the upcoming week.

Attempts to discredit the movement

This week, French police intervened at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po), forcibly removing student activists who had occupied its premises to protest Israel’s brutal war on Palestine’s Gaza.

The police targeted students who were demonstrating against the school administration's decision to maintain academic connections with Israeli universities. Two students were reportedly arrested.

President Emmanuel Macron later condemned the closure of campus entrances at leading universities by protestor students, stating his disapproval of the protests “with utmost firmness.”

Gwenn, a senior student at Jean Mace High School in Vitry-sur-Seine, a southeastern suburb of Paris, says that the reception they have received from officials and the media has been negative and attempts to discredit their campaign. But they simply don’t care.

There is only one thing that mobilises us, he says, “that we want to be on the right side of history.”

“We don't want to stand idly by in the face of the genocide that is happening before our eyes, and that is why the reaction of the management and the government does not interest us.”

The high school union has also voiced its support with college students facing police intervention on campuses, affirming their presence at the demonstration in front of Paris city hall on Wednesday.

More than a dozen student organisations will assemble there to protest against police violence towards Sorbonne students.

US schools are also in

Recently, minors in the US have also started to orchestrate their own campaigns for showing solidarity with Palestinians, displaying an intergenerational momentum.

Dozens of students from Iowa City High School opted to skip classes for a day last week. They engaged in a walkout and a day-long protest on the school grounds following a march to the University of Iowa Pentacrest.

In Nevada’s Reno, students from Wooster High School, Reno High School, and others assembled at the Federal Courthouse for a pro-Palestinian protest coordinated by the Palestine Solidarity Reno collective.

Gathering initially at two separate parking lots on Wednesday, they marched together to the courthouse, carrying signs and raising chants. Some students were accompanied by their parents.

The same day, students across Chicago's public high schools participated in sit-ins for the same cause. High school students in Loudoun, Virginia, and Austin, Texas, also orchestrated class walkouts to demonstrate solidarity with Gaza.

Gwenn says that by participating in the great international youth movement that has recently widened from Tokyo to Sydney to the United States, students demonstrate that their voices as young people can make a difference.

“We will intensify the demonstrations in the coming days until we achieve satisfaction with our demands.”