Petition Questions French University's Ban on Debate on Israel

More than 150 prominent academics from the United States, Britain and elsewhere have signed a petition calling on École Normale Supérieure, in Paris, to lift a ban on a debate on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, The Guardian reported. A pro-Palestinian student group attempted to organize the event and was blocked from doing so by the university's administrators. The petition calls for the institution to restore "its long history of free speech and political expression."