The International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Licra) condemned the “reprehensible attitude”, the professor calling “fraud”.
A post that caused a stir. Lumière Lyon 2 University on Sunday condemned “in the strongest terms” the contents of a publication shared by one of its medieval history professors. The latter is accused of having published a list of twenty “genocidaires who should be boycotted under all circumstances.”
Philippe Torreton, Joann Sfar, Arthur, Charlotte Gainsbourg… Twenty figures appearing in the professor’s publications had signed a column last September in Le Figaro, calling on the President of the Republic to “not recognize the state of Palestine without preconditions”.
“The contents of this publication in no way represent our university, nor the values it defends and propagates. While we recognize that these colleagues, who do not perform any function to represent our institution, have an absolute right to expression both individually and privately, we remain deeply shocked by the process that led us to completely disassociate,” continued Lyon 2 University. It added that “action is necessary.”
“Provocation against discrimination and violence”
The International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Licra) reacted last week to this publication. “You can be a history professor at a university, believe yourself to be progressive, and make a list like we did during the occupation,” he wrote on social networks.
“Calls to boycott individuals constitute a provocation of discrimination and violence. Licra condemns this despicable attitude and is willing to help any person slandered to help them in court,” he added.
⚫️You can be a university history professor, believe yourself to be progressive, and make lists like we did during the Occupation.
Calls to boycott individuals constitute a provocation of discrimination and violence.
Licra condemns this attitude… pic.twitter.com/0QAswFzYLk— Lycra (@_LICRA_) November 21, 2025
Yonathan Arfi, president of CRIF, explained to BFMTV that this post “is very representative of what we are experiencing, namely a period of permanent assignment to the conflict between Israel and Hamas, as if French Jews would be responsible for what happens between Israel and Hamas”.
A “fraud” according to the professor
Faced with the scale of the affair, the medieval history professor denounced on his social networks a “LICRA manipulation”. He explained that on September 20 he shared a long analysis from a writer from Club Mediapart. Screenshot posted by LICRA in But he kept “a photo he took from the platform at Le Figaro: the aim was to make people believe that I (the one) added this image to illustrate my list », he explains.
According to him, “this is a scam aimed at making people believe that I am having fun creating lists as I see fit, without any connection to any forum or text. Good job, to start the harassment. » To our colleagues at Le Progrès, the professor denounced “McCarthyist attacks on the freedom of research and teaching”.
