Lara Alqasem, a 22-year-old American student, is currently being detained in Ben Gurion Airport because the Israeli government has barred her from entering the Jewish state due to her support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.
Alqasem is enrolled to study human rights law for a year at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University. But the Israeli government has given her an ultimatum – renounce BDS or go back to the United States.
“If Lara Alqasem will tomorrow in her own voice, not through all kinds of lawyers or statements that can be misconstrued, say that support for BDS is not legitimate and she regrets what she did, we will certainly reconsider our position,” Israeli Public Security and Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan told Israeli Army Radio.
Alqasem appealed the government’s actions, claiming before a tribunal that she is not a BDS supporter and won’t visit the Palestinian territories during her time in Israel. The tribunal denied her appeal, but gave her an extension.
“This is a 22-year-old who definitely cannot be in support of an academic boycott,” Leora Bechor, one of Alqasem’s Israeli lawyers, told The New York Times. “She wants to study here.”
Hebrew University has even weighed in and called for the Israeli government to let Alqasem study at their university.
“What’s being done regarding this student hurts our activities against BDS,” Hebrew University President Asher Cohen told Army Radio. “She wants to come here and learn … that activity of hers is against BDS.”
According to Canary Mission, Alqasem was a member of the University of Florida’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter, serving as the chapter’s president and vice-president at one point. The Canary Mission report on Alqasem states that while she was part of SJP, she participated in an event boycotting Sabra Hummus.
During the event, the then-president of UF’s SJP accused Israel of “apartheid” and “ethnic cleansing.”
Also during Alqasem’s tenure with UF’s SJP, the chapter showed support for Rasmea Odeh, who was convicted by an Israeli court for being a key player in a 1969 Jerusalem supermarket bombing that killed two college students. They also showed support for Samer Issawi, who was sentenced to 26 years in prison by an Israeli court for shooting at Israelis and distributing pipe bombs, according to Canary Mission.
Erdan’s ministry has also reportedly said that they are suspicious of Alqasem scrubbing her social media accounts entirely.
In January, Israel blacklisted 20 pro-BDS organizations from entering the country, one of which was SJP.
