A teacher in France has been suspended for nearly two months after holding a minute’s silence for Gaza victims in her class.
The physics and chemistry teacher at the Janot-Curie high school in Sens, Yens, was told by the local education authority that she failed to respect the principle of neutrality when she was suspended on 31 March.
On 25 March, days after resumed Israeli strikes ended the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the teacher is accused by the Dijon education authority of having organised a minute of silence for the Palestinians killed in the week before.
This was done on her own “personal initiative”, the education authority told The Independent – but this claim has been disputed by teaching unions.
“Respecting neutrality is a duty for civil servants, enshrined in their status, and any failure to comply with this obligation triggers disciplinary proceedings,” the authority explained.
But the education branches of French unions FO, CGT and Sud insist that the students had requested the silence. “The teacher agreed, at the end of her class, to observe this time of homage with the students who wished to do so,” they said.
“We demand that this teacher be reinstated immediately, that all charges be dropped, and that her dignity be officially restored in the eyes of the school, staff, and parents,” the unions added in a joint statement.
Equally outraged were political figures including the first-secretary of the Socialist Party (PS), Olivier Faure.
“A minute of silence requested by the students, with those who do not want to join being able to withdraw, to pay tribute to the victims in Gaza, and it is the teacher who is suspended… really???” he wrote on X. “We are standing on our heads.”
It comes as France’s relationship with Israel becomes increasingly strained, after Israeli ministers responded furiously to condemnation by Western allies over its actions in the Gaza strip, including the previous 11-week blockade on aid and its resumed offensive.
President Emmanuel Macron joined the UK and Canada in issuing their strongest condemnation yet of Netanyahu’s government. A statement demanded Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu halt his “egregious” actions in Gaza, threatening “concrete actions” over the “intolerable” human suffering inflicted on the enclave.
Following the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington DC on Wednesday night, Mr Netanyahu echoed earlier statements by fellow ministers laying the blame at the door of the UK, France and Canada.
“I say to President Macron, Prime Minister Carney and Prime Minister Starmer: When mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers thank you, you’re on the wrong side of justice,” he wrote on social media. “You’re on the wrong side of humanity and you’re on the wrong side of history.”
