DUKE INVITES REAL BLUE DEVILS TO CAMPUS

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DURHAM -- A tentatively scheduled national pro-Palestinian student conference at Duke University has stirred up an Internet dust storm this week, with more than 1,200 people from Israel to Durham signing a petition asking President Richard Brodhead to ban the conference. The Fourth National Student Conference of the Palestine Solidarity Movement is scheduled for Oct. 15-17 at Duke, according to the Web site www.palestineconference.com. Diana Appelbaum, an activist with the Boston Israel Action Committee, is leading a petition against the Palestine Solidarity Movement, a group she claims "supports violence and suicide bombing." "The avowed goal of the Solidarity Movement is the destruction of the State of Israel 'by any means necessary,' " Appelbaum wrote in the petition she created Monday night.