Paris 8 University held a conference where they featured a recently released Lebanese terrorist and permitted members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and other terrorists to speak over zoom.
By Rachel Avraham
Paris — once celebrated as a beacon of liberty and reason — has become the stage for a moral scandal that leaves many French citizens asking how far academic freedom can stretch before it turns into complicity with hate. A recent event hosted at a leading Paris university, Paris 8 University, praised the October 7 massacre and glorified members of Hamas, calling them “resistance fighters” and “martyrs.” The gathering, promoted under the guise of an “academic panel on liberation movements,” drew condemnation from Jewish organizations, survivors of terrorism, and several French lawmakers who called it an “intellectual cover for terror.”
The event was organized by a small coalition of radical professors and student activists aligned with far-left and pro-Palestinian networks. Flyers distributed on campus featured the faces of Hamas terrorists involved in the October 7 massacre, presented as “heroes of anti-colonial struggle.” Speakers, which included real live terrorists, repeatedly described Israel as a “settler entity” and defended the massacre as “legitimate resistance.” While the organizers claimed their aim was “academic debate,” the content — live-streamed on social media — crossed into open endorsement of violence. The rhetoric echoed talking points used by Hamas media outlets, celebrating the slaughter of civilians as a “turning point in history.”
Reactions were immediate and fierce. The Union of Jewish Students of France (UEJF) filed a complaint with the French Ministry of Higher Education, accusing the university of “hosting hate propaganda.” The Conference of University Presidents condemned any “use of academic platforms to justify terrorism,” reminding institutions that freedom of expression does not include the freedom to incite violence. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said police were “verifying whether criminal laws against glorifying terrorism have been breached.” Several lawmakers from Emmanuel Macron’s party demanded a parliamentary inquiry, arguing that “apology for terror is not protected speech.”
Observers say the event highlights a growing radicalization within segments of French academia, where certain professors present terrorism as “decolonial resistance.” This intellectual drift, long confined to fringe conferences, now reaches mainstream universities. Critics warn that by romanticizing violence against Jews as “anti-imperialist struggle,” these circles repeat the ideological justifications used by European extremists in the 1970s. The parallels are disturbing: then as now, political rage masquerades as theory.
The incident has also deepened the divide between France’s commitment to academic liberty and its duty to protect citizens from hate. Universities are autonomous, but they operate within the Republic’s legal framework. French law explicitly criminalizes public apology for terrorism under Article 421-2-5 of the Penal Code. That boundary, Jewish leaders argue, was clearly crossed in Paris. “Academic freedom ends where the glorification of murder begins,” said Rabbi Moshe Sebbag of the Grand Synagogue of Paris. “If professors defend the killing of babies and call it liberation, that is not debate — it is barbarism.”
Beyond legalities, the event exposes an ethical failure. At a time when France faces a surge in antisemitic incidents — nearly 1,600 recorded since October 2023 — a university stage became a megaphone for the ideology that inspired those attacks. Students wearing kippot have been assaulted; Jewish dorm rooms vandalized; Holocaust memorials defaced. In this climate, every public defense of the October 7 massacre becomes more than speech — it becomes an accelerant.
The university administration initially attempted to downplay the scandal, calling it “an independent academic initiative.” But after footage circulated online, the rectorate launched an internal investigation. French media reported that at least one invited speaker was previously under investigation for supporting banned terror organizations. The Ministry of Higher Education has since demanded disciplinary action and proposed clearer guidelines on “academic neutrality.” For many observers, however, the damage is already done: France’s enemies have learned they can find sympathizers not only on the streets but also in lecture halls.
The broader lesson extends beyond Paris. Across Europe and North America, a small but vocal segment of academia now dresses extremist ideology in scholarly vocabulary. Words such as “intersectionality,” “decolonization,” and “resistance studies” have become rhetorical shelters where terror apologetics hide behind critical theory. For Jewish communities, this represents not intellectual diversity but moral erosion — a normalization of antisemitic narratives within institutions once trusted to cultivate truth.
France, the cradle of the Enlightenment, must now decide whether its universities will remain laboratories of thought or turn into sanctuaries for hate. Upholding academic freedom means defending inquiry, not excusing massacre. There is no contradiction between liberty and accountability; both are pillars of the Republic. As one Paris lawmaker put it: “We are not banning ideas — we are banning the celebration of murder.” The distinction is simple, but the courage to enforce it defines civilization itself.
Photo from RT59RC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_8_University#/media/File:B%C3%A2timent_D,_Universit%C3%A9_Paris_8_Vincennes-Saint-Denis_2024.jpg
