Occupied Jerusalem: In a first-of-its-kind case, the Israeli regime has held an American graduate student at its international airport for a whole week, accusing her of supporting a Palestinian-led boycott movement against the regime.
Lara Al Qasem, a 22-year-old American citizen with Palestinian grandparents, landed at Ben-Gurion Airport last Tuesday with a valid student visa.
But she was barred from entering the country and ordered deported, based on suspicions that she supports a campaign that calls for boycotts, divestments, and sanctions against Israel.
An Israeli regime court has ordered that she remain in custody while she appeals. The week-long detention is the longest anyone has been held in a boycott-related case, and it was not immediately clear on Tuesday when a decision would be made.
Al Qasem is a former president of the University of Florida chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, a group that supports the boycott movement.
The grassroots boycott campaign, known as BDS, has targeted Israeli businesses, cultural institutions and universities in what it says is non-violent resistance to unjust and racist Israeli policies.
Israel enacted a law last year banning any foreigner who “knowingly issues a public call for boycotting Israel” from entering the country.
The ministry says that during Al Qasem’s involvement with Students for Justice in Palestine, the club advocated a boycott against Sabra hummus, an Israeli-owned brand of chickpea dip.
In her appeal, Al Qasem has argued that she never actively participated in boycott campaigns, and promised the court that she would not promote them in the future.
“We’re talking about someone who simply wants to study in Israel, who is not boycotting anything,” said her lawyer, Yotam Ben-Hillel. “She’s not even part of the student organisation anymore.”
Al Qasem is registered to study human rights at Israel’s Hebrew University in occupied Jerusalem. The university has thrown its support behind her, announcing Monday that it would join her appeal.
