Israeli Court Says University Bowed to Chinese Pressure in Closing Exhibit

An Israeli court has ordered Tel Aviv University to restage a campus art exhibition about the Chinese spiritual discipline Falun Gong that was closed after protests from Chinese diplomats, according to The Jerusalem Post and Haaretz. The Tel Aviv District Court ruled that the university had shut down the original event under economic and political pressure from the Chinese Embassy, similar to pressure the Chinese have exerted in other countries. The court ordered the university to sponsor the exhibit for another week during the next semester, and to pay more than $10,000 in costs to the exhibit’s student organizers, who had brought the case. The university’s dean admitted in court that the embassy had asked the exhibit to be closed.