“Bismillah, c’est les ténèbres” has appeared on signs at recent demonstrations. It doesn’t make much sense (it means, “In the name of God, it’s the darkness”) but is seen as shorthand for a generational divide.
On Monday, protesters blocked the entrance to the Louvre museum in Paris. The demonstrations in support of public education and the cost of living were held in several French cities, including Marseille, Lille and Nice.
The targeted restrictions are part of a state effort to reassert control after the country’s largest riots in years, as those arrested in the chaos face expedited trials.
Mr. Khalil had recently graduated from Columbia when he was arrested by ICE agents and became the face of the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
Mahmoud Khalil speaking in Manhattan last year. His memoir, “No Land to Stand On,” recounts his harrowing experience of being arrested in the lobby of his New York apartment building and held for months in a detention camp in Louisiana.
The police’s treatment of the student last month sheds light on how a wave of school unrest evolved into national protests that spilled into widespread riots on Saturday.
The interior minister acknowledged that the police were underprepared for the scale of the riots. But Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu defended their efforts and pledged to restore order.
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