American student challenges Israeli entry ban in court

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Jack Guez, AFP | US student Lara Alqasem attends a hearing at the Tel Aviv district Court on October 11, 2018.
Jack Guez, AFP | US student Lara Alqasem attends a hearing at the Tel Aviv district Court on October 11, 2018.

A US student banned from entering Israel for allegedly having supported a pro-Palestinian boycott of the country appeared in court on Thursday to challenge the decision.

Lara Alqasem, 22, has been held at an immigration facility since her arrival more than a week ago, but is hoping to be allowed to enter for the start of the academic term next week.

She was refused entry at Israel’s Ben-Gurion airport near Tel Aviv on October 2 despite having a visa to study for a master’s degree in human rights at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

It is the latest in a series of cases drawing criticism of an Israeli law barring boycott supporters that opponents say violates freedom of expression.

Israeli authorities have also come under criticism in recent months over what some have seen as the politically motivated questioning of certain foreigners seeking to enter the country.

Alqasem has chosen to challenge the entry ban rather than fly back to the United States.

Her lawyers defended her at a hearing in Tel Aviv district court on Thursday, saying the government had no grounds for barring her.

“She was accepted by the university, got a visa from the ministry of interior,” said lawyer Yotam Ben Hillel. “Now she is barred on the basis of searches in Google in which they found scraps of information she may or may not have said and an organisation she may or may not be linked to.”

The hearing was adjourned with the judge saying he would inform the lawyers of his decision later.

In March 2017, Israel’s parliament passed a law banning the entry of supporters of the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, inspired by measures against South Africa before the fall of apartheid.

Alqasem, reportedly of Palestinian descent, is said to have been president of a chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine while an undergraduate student at the University of Florida.

The group has supported boycott campaigns against Israel.

US weighs in

Alqasem has reportedly said she has distanced herself from the movement, and supporters point to her willingness to enter Israel to study as proof.

The university has called on the authorities to allow her in to study, while professors from the University of Florida have also supported her.

A professor of Jewish language and culture who taught Alqasem in Florida wrote in a letter to the editor of Israeli newspaper Haaretz that she was “an outstanding student, curious, with an open mind”.

Dror Abend-David added that she was “someone who very much wanted to study international relations in Israel to develop her own opinion on the conflict”.

The United States said Wednesday it supports freedom of expression and that its embassy in Jerusalem was offering Alqasem consular assistance.

“As a general principle, we value freedom of expression even in cases where we don’t agree with the political views expressed and this is such a case,” State Department spokesman Robert Palladino told reporters.

“Our strong opposition to the boycotts and sanctions of the state of Israel is well-known.” But he added: “Israel is a sovereign nation that can determine who enters.”

Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan has said that he would consider allowing Alqasem to take up her university place if she publicly denounces BDS.

There have been several high-profile cases involving the law barring boycott supporters as well as the questioning of foreigners seeking to enter.

In May, an Israeli court suspended an expulsion order for Human Rights Watch’s country director, Omar Shakir, whom authorities ordered to leave after accusing him of having previously supported a boycott. That case is still ongoing.

Peter Beinart, a prominent Jewish American journalist, said he faced extensive and pointed questioning when seeking to enter Israel for a private visit in August.

A supporter of a boycott of goods from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, Beinart said he was asked repeatedly for names of organisations with which he is associated.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Beinart’s questioning was an “administrative mistake”.

“Israel is an open society which welcomes all – critics and supporters alike,” Netanyahu said.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

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14 responses to “American student challenges Israeli entry ban in court”

  1. Bravo Lara. This is the civilized way to go . Lets find out if there is justice in Israel

    1. MaryTPresumptuous Avatar
      MaryTPresumptuous

      Of course Justice — Israeli Justice — has a central place and role in Israel. It has always been that way (e.g., ref. Leviticus and other examples of Jewish law supplanting monarchic law and establishing the basis on which all Western Civilization’s laws rest).

      If and when she is expelled, it will be lawful under Israeli law. If and when she is allowed entry, it will be lawful under Israeli law. The decision-making is an application of existing law, not either whimsy or monarchical dictate.

      Your complaining about a system based on isolated results that you don’t like is a misguided generalization from an instance. If you actually preferred a land run by laws, you would already know from your study of hermeneutics that your logic is faulty.

      1. Palestinian refugees number only in the thousands, not millions as some love to exaggerate.

        UNRWA was founded in 1949 in the wake of the exodus of around 700,000 (not the millions designated by a UN aid agency) refugees who fled or were driven out of Israel on its founding as a state.

        The 5 million descendants of 1948 original refugees are just descendants not refugess – not all the descendants are locatated in those camps that the Arab states cultivate in order to get aid from UNRWA – discussing.
        Lara Alqasem, is no refugee, just a descendants with Palestinian grandparents.

        1. Hind Abyad Avatar
          Hind Abyad

          You posted only a picture of Sharon,.you’re the most stupid human being i met on the internet.
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBhlMUwMkoA

    2. MaryTPresumptuous Avatar
      MaryTPresumptuous

      Reasoning Justice at work …

      https://www.jpost.com/BDS-THREAT/High-Court-presses-Israel-on-whether-Lara-Alqasem-supports-BDS-now-569693

      Israeli Justice is nothing like the phony baloney justice currently playing out in Lebanon’s inability to govern itself without Iranian meddling via its Nasrallah lapdog. Aaah, if only Beirut still sought to model itself after French ways …

      1. Israel, with all its shortcomings, has after all more reliable justice system than Lebanon and the rest of the Arab countries.

        The latest example is the KSA that are looking for a ‘scapegoat’ for Khashoggi, according to the exiled Prince Khalid

  2. As it wasn’t enough that the entire world is occupied by Political Zionism, Australia will consider recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving its embassy there from Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Scott Morrison says.

  3. The entire world is prooccpied with the Political Zionism, however some don’t give a damn about it – they do it this way….
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8914b7d5b353c0889f957a324b834627b8512b1411d42a6f7592ca30d843d7f4.jpg

  4. Hindenism is Schizophrenia a mental illness that affects the way you understand and interact ..like
    https://twitter.com/AbyadHind/status/1052939245348904961

  5. Hindlers hatred against Jews is evident when she confuses facts such as the “deportations of the Jews” https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/90617aef851a835d0c45dbaa4e448461c3f96d23c4844b4d7464c3fe53ad50c2.jpg from all European countries and were welcomed with open arms by the British Mandate of Palestine-1947, https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4d5713057ea2ad3133765c6aa5fc3f9d5c0fa684f1a66307d8eb4b01f450bc7b.jpg British soldiers check Jewish refugees from Aliyah Bet (“illegal” immigration) ship “Theodor Herzl” before deporting them to detention camps in Cyprus. Haifa port, Palestine, April 24, 1947.
    In fact “Operation Embarrass” to keep the Jews out of Palestine with the help of detentions camp on Cypern.

  6. Another strange statement!

    Saudiarabien is not located in Palestina
    https://twitter.com/AbyadHind/status/1053095050496880641

    However the desert raiders are not living in tents anymore, due to the cooperation with the western countries.

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