Kylian, 22, studies law at the Sorbonne University in Paris. After the start of the Israeli massacres in Gaza following the Hamas-led attack of 7 October 2023, he joined student demonstrations to demand an end to the bombings and to defend Palestinian rights.
Raised in an Algerian family that settled in France in the early 1990s, Kylian was immersed from a young age in a climate of pro-Palestinian activism and support for the right of peoples to self-determination.
“My parents, who were born after their country’s independence in 1962, are very sensitive to issues related to colonisation,” the young man told Middle East Eye using a pseudonym.
“They used to say that Algeria was nicknamed the Mecca of revolutions for having hosted several independence movements in the 1970s and the 1988 congress proclaiming the creation of the State of Palestine,” he added.
Yet, it was his parents who, one evening in May 2024, solemnly asked him to put away his keffiyeh and his “Free Palestine” banners, to no longer march with his fellow students, nor participate in general assemblies and university blockades.
