Israeli court allows US student to enter country
October 18, 2018
Israel's Supreme Court overturned an entry ban for a US student on Thursday after she was blocked from entering the country due to her alleged support for a boycott campaign against Israel.
Lara Alqasem would immediately be released from detention and allowed to take part in her master's program at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, her lawyers said.
The three-judge panel said that the decision to bar Alqasem from entering the country "was not within the bounds of reason and is revoked."
The 22-year-old, who is reportedly of Palestinian descent, flew to Israel on October 2 on a study visa, but security officials barred her from entering, citing her former role as the president of a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at the University of Florida.
"The Supreme Court's decision is a victory for free speech, academic freedom, and the rule of law," Alqasem's lawyers said in a statement.
Major test of activist ban
Security officials had argued that Alqasem couldn't enter the country due to a 2017 law that bars activists who support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS), which is a global campaign to boycott and sanction Israel.
Although she was free to return to the US, Alqasem decided to challenge the ban and remained in detention at Ben Gurion Airport for over two weeks. She took her case to Israel's Supreme Court on Wednesday after a lower court rejected her appeal of the entry ban.
During her testimony in the lower court, Alqasem said she left the SJP in 2017 and no longer supports the BDS.
The case was one of the first legal tests of the Israeli government's attempts to bar foreigners who "knowingly issues a public call for boycotting Israel."
rs/jm (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)