Facade of the Clio building (faculty of law and political science), on the Berges du Rhône campus, University Lyon 2 - Lumière (CreativeCommons/Francois Obada)

A spokesperson for the University of Lyon II has requested to cancel an event hosting an activist from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) for a planned debate.

Activist Mariam Abou Daqqa was supposed to be meeting on campus for the event by the Solidaires Union and the Palestine 69 Collective, for the debate called “Colonization and Israeli apartheid, what future for the Palestinians?” where she is a “Gaza feminist activist”.

However, Abou Daqqa has been criticized by some recently for being a “framework” of the PFLP. The Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (Crif) took to X to say: “Academic freedom ends where shame and dishonor begin!” and requested the cancellation of the conference.

The Minister of Higher Education Sylvie Retailleau also received a letter asking her to ban the event, according to a copy posted online by elected official Meyer Habib.

Fabienne Buccio, the prefect of the Auvergne Rhône Alpes region, “alerted” the university “about the profile” of Abou Daqqa, and the university's office asked the organizers to halt inviting Abou Daqqa.

One of the spokespeople said: “The conference can be held, but we will be vigilant about the absence of this person”, while Solidaires said in a press release a “denigration campaign (...) aimed at prohibiting any criticism of the State of Israel”.

LFI deputy Thomas Portes posted on X: “Faced with these significant pressures, we do not wish to put the University of Lyon II in difficulty,” adds the union, which is maintaining the conference without Mariam Abou Daqqa. His sidelining was described as an “absolute shame”.

Lyon's municipality has already canceled two conferences that were supposed to be attended by Franco-Palestinian lawyer Salah Hamouri, whom the Israeli occupation had accused Hamouri, of being a member of the PFLP, which "Israel", the US, and the EU consider a "terrorist group".