Myriam Abu Daqqa was barred from speaking at a conference on Israeli apartheid, which subsequently led to threats to suspend funding for the University of Lyon II

Myriam Abu Daqqa was due to speak at Lyon II University in her capacity as president of a Gaza-based feminist association during a conference entitled “Israeli Colonization and Apartheid: What Future for the Palestinians?”, co-organized by the student union Solidaires and the Collectif Palestine 69.

A few days before the event, she was accused on X of being a “terrorist” because of her membership in the political bureau of the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine). In response to the controversy, the leadership of Lyon II University asked the organizers to remove her from the program, a decision that was widely seen as an act of censorship targeting the Palestinian activist.

The conference nevertheless went ahead, with Abu Daqqa attending as a member of the audience. At the end of the presentations, she spoke briefly during the question-and-answer session. Her remarks, reported by Le Point later that evening, sparked a public controversy. In its aftermath, Laurent Wauquiez, president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regional Council, threatened to suspend the university’s regional funding.