Published March 1, 2011 at lemonde.fr
The Administrative Court of Paris condemned Saturday, February 26, the direction of the Ecole Normale Superieure (ENS) for refused to book a room for a debate on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The collective Palestine ENS filed in early February, a request to reserve a room to hold a new debate within the "week against Israeli apartheid" . According to its members, this debate was aimed "think about relevance of the legal apartheid to describe the Israeli-Palestinian situation. " The group had invited Omar Barghouti, West Bank initiator of the campaign to boycott Israeli goods (" Boycott, divestment and sanctions ", also known as BDS ) and the French-Israeli filmmaker Simone Bitton , as well as Israeli and Palestinian students.
The SLA refused by the voice of its director , Monique Canto-Sperber end of February, booking the room, saying "'ENS is not intended to house meetings of political parties or meetings organized by militant groups, national or international, which express a point of view unequivocal ", as explained blog of World Education .
JUSTICE GIVES REASON TO COLLECTIVEThe collective Palestine denounced a "censorship". After also refused the school principal, he decided to bring the case to court. Who gave it partly right. In its conclusions, the President considers that the complainants "are entitled to argue that the Director of the ENS, in exercising its functions, wore a serious and manifestly illegal to freedom of assembly, which is a fundamental freedom. "
The judge ordered the SLA to suspend its decision to reconsider the application of the collective Palestine. He also notes that the complainants "expressed their determination to ensure the adversarial debates scheduled. ( See the court's decision The Monde.fr on .)
Contacted by The Monde.fr, one of the lawyers of the school, Patrick Klugman , believes "this decision is a dangerous precedent " . "Week against the Apartheid Israel is an event that criminal prosecution, so I do not see how the school could authorize" , says he, considering that the term "apartheid" on the Israel is illegal in France. He added that the SLA has the will to seize the State Council on this issue.
Under the judge's decision, the school principal reviewed on Tuesday, the application of the collective. And again refused the room, because the debate should have been contradictory, and can not be included in the "week against Israeli apartheid" .
The group ensures that the debate is not a promotion organized the boycott of Israel but a substantive debate on the concept of "apartheid". And intends to enter the administrative judge Wednesday to achieve satisfaction.
THE "BACK" Stéphane HESSEL
This case follows cancellation of a debate with Stéphane Hessel Israel in mid-January, which sparked a controversy . The author of indignation you!, former resistance, was invited to discuss the repression of the campaign to boycott Israeli products. The direction of the ENS was canceled after the debate concerns relayed by the Representative Council of Jewish organizations in France and several Jewish organizations.
A decision that had angered several researchers alumni of the school, which had denounced in a letter published in Liberation an attack on freedom of expression. They felt that the Director of the ENS had "disgraced his office" . The latter had complained in a forum World a "din of indignation and sincere in bad faith mixed" . And had explained that he decided "Only" of this cancellation, saying it was a "meeting without debate." She added: "If a similar situation arose again, I would act the same way."
Nabil Wakim
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