US student detained in Israel for alleged boycott support
US student detained in Israel for alleged boycott support
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In a unique case of its kind, Israel He has held a US graduate student at his international airport for a week, accusing her of supporting a boycott movement led by the Palestinians against the Jewish state.
Lara Alqasem, a 22-year-old US citizen with Palestinian grandparents, landed at Ben-Gurion airport last Tuesday with a valid student visa.
But she was banned from entering the country and ordered to be deported, due to suspicions that she supports a campaign calling for boycotts, divestments and sanctions against Israel.
An Israeli court has ordered him to remain in custody while appealing. The one-week detention is the longest held in a case related to a boycott, and it was not immediately clear on Tuesday when a decision would be made.
Alqasem is a former president of the University of Florida chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, a group that supports the boycott movement.
The base boycott campaign, known as BDS, has targeted Israeli companies, cultural institutions and universities in what it says is non-violent resistance to Israel's unjust and racist policies. But Israel says its true objective is to delegitimize and even destroy the country.
Israel enacted a law last year that prohibits any foreigner from "knowingly issuing a public call to boycott Israel" to enter the country.
"Lara served as chair of a chapter of one of the most extreme and hateful anti-Israel BDS groups in the United States," said Minister of Strategic Affairs Gilad Erdan, who is responsible for the Israeli government's efforts against the group. Boycott "Israel will not allow entry to those who work to harm the country, whatever their excuse."
On Tuesday, Erdan presented a possible compromise and said in a radio interview that he would stop trying to expel her if he apologizes and renounces his support of BDS.
The ministry says that during Alqasem's participation with Students for Justice in Palestine, the club advocated a boycott against hummus from Sabra, an Israeli-owned chickpea sauce brand.
In his appeal, Alqasem argued that he never actively participated in boycott campaigns, and promised the court that he would not promote them in the future.
"We are talking about someone who simply wants to study in Israel, who is not boycotting anything," said his lawyer, Yotam Ben-Hillel. "She's not even part of the student organization anymore."
Alqasem is registered to study human rights at the Hebrew University of Israel in Jerusalem. The university has left behind its support and announced on Monday that it would join its appeal.
She also received a boost from her former Hebrew professor at the University of Florida, who described her as an exceptional and curious student. In a letter to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Dror Abend-David said that Alqasem had an "open and positive attitude toward Judaism, the Jews and the state of Israel."
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SOURCE LINK ERESVIRAL.COM https://www.beviral.online
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