Since April 24 and your first occupation, at Sciences Po, then at the Sorbonne and other campuses in France, I have been trying to find the words to make you, students mobilized for Palestine, understand that together we must do better than this agitation which only advances anger and hatred. I try to hear you, as I hope you will try to read me.

Like you, I believe in the power of student mobilization. We have a responsibility to stand up in the face of injustice.

Because many of our elders will always want to silence us, any form of mobilization seems legitimate to me as long as it is non-violent. My belief in this is so strong that, when I was a student at Sciences Po, I took part in the school's blockades. For two nights, I slept in the Boutmy lecture hall, obtaining the introduction of student representation on the board of directors in Sciences Po's statutes.

Because, like you, I believe in the power of the student voice to change society, any form of repression of the student movement frightens me. I'll never be happy to see CRS [riot police] entering a campus.

Like you, I am outraged

The fact that this mobilization is about the plight of Palestinians doesn't change that. Like you, I weep when I see the images from Gaza. Like you, I am repulsed and outraged by the comments of certain Israeli politicians, whom I describe unflinchingly as far right.

More than anything, I believe in dialogue. The great social advances in France have always been the fruit of militancy and debate. Human rights, the Front Populaire, decolonization, abolition of the death penalty, the institution of marriage for all: These are all due to activist mobilization, but none was achieved by trying to silence opponents.

On the other hand, I resent you for other actions, other words, that I cannot accept. Firstly, for your inability to clearly denounce anti-Semitism, for your attitude that casts a threatening mistrust over us Jewish students. Your permeability to anti-Semitism allows some to assert that you are the only danger, and therefore that the far right is the solution to restore order.

Exploiting your cause

I also blame you for accepting the exploitation of your cause by [radical left party] La France Insoumise. Can't you see that their support for you is purely electoral? You are the instrument of a classic method: discrediting opponents – in this case, Jewish students – to allow for refusing to debate and challenge. By applauding [LFI members] Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Rima Hassan, Aymeric Caron, Antoine Léaument and Thomas Portes, you are betraying the principle of independence of the social movement and allowing Jews to be thrown into the fray.

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