Paris, (UNI) The French government will deport a Gaza student accused of reposting alleged antisemitic content on her social media and also halt all evacuations from the territory, the country’s foreign minister said today as outrage grows over her reposts.
“She must leave the country. She does not have a place in France,” Jean-Noël Barrot said in an interview with radio station France Info, without saying if authorities would return the student back to Gaza.
The foreign minister did not name the woman, who has also been expelled from her university in the northern French city of Lille.
The incident has sparked a political firestorm in French media, with the interior minister saying her content amounts to “Hamas propaganda”, reports CNN.
The French and Israeli vetting of her before she arrived in France did not reveal the “antisemitic and unacceptable” posts, Barrot said, adding that all French evacuations from Gaza would now be suspended pending the results of an inquiry into the case.
France has evacuated hundreds of people from Gaza since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel.
The foreign ministry has yet to say if these evacuations will continue.
Barrot added that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is “inhumane,” describing it as a “scandal that must stop immediately”.
The woman’s university, Sciences Po Lille, did not specify the posts that drew controversy, but said the content was “in direct contradiction” with its values.
Other senior ministers also echoed the outrage at the student’s posts and said the matter had been referred to the judicial authorities.
