The president of a Paris University launched an administrative investigation on Thursday into a Gaza question “of a polemic nature” set to students of the Bichat Hospital Faculty of Medicine, Agence France Presse reported.
In a statement, the Paris Diderot University president Vincent Berger announced “the opening of an administrative enquiry that will be strictly implemented by the board of the academic authorities of the university”. CRIF, the umbrella organisation of French Jewry CRIF, responded with “indignance” in a public statement on Thursday to the “scandalous” question relating to the bombing of civilians in Gaza, which it claimed constituted “incitement against Israel”.
According to the CRIF and corroborated by a report by the National Bureau of Vigilance against Anti-Semitism, Professor Christophe Oberlin set the students of humane medicine the question, using the example of the deaths of 22 members of the same family in a “classic bombing” during the Gaza conflict of 2008-2009.
“To what extent does it constitute a perpetual crime (war crime, crime against humanity, genocide crime)?” it asked, according to reports. Oberlin was not immediately available for comment, said AFP.
The president of the University expressed “his consternation at the interpretation (of this) question in the context of a non-compulsory medical exam”. “It (the question) implies a regrettable polemic attitude which contravenes the neutral and secular nature of higher education”, the statement continued.
Berger recalled that the independent principles of the founding educators, enshrined in the French constitution, don’t allow for the abuse of the fundamental values of public service.
“As it stands, this question constitutes an absolute incitement to hate Israel”, stressed Richard Prasquier, president of CRIF. “It has no place in medical education much less in a university and amounts to a violation of the neutrality (demanded by) professor Oberlin (in his capacity as an educator)”.
“We would like to remind Mr Oberlin that he doesn’t have a right to use the university to espouse a selective agenda,” added Prasquier.
Meanwhile, the Union of Jewish Students in France (UEJF) claimed the professor had “encouraged the students to adopt condemnatory positions” in posing them the question.
“In the eyes of the UEJF, Professor Oberlin abused his position of authority, in his role as exam moderator, by not allowing students to publicly express their disagreement with this misleading ideological statement,” the organisation declared in a statement.
UEJF president Jonathan Hayou demanded the Paris 7 University not to moderate the contentious question and to summons the professor to explain his actions.

EJP