Israel defends actions against detained US student as international criticism rises

JERUSALEM – Israel defends its treatment of the case of a graduate American student who has been detained at the country's international airport for a week, about allegations, she is supporting a boycott against the Jewish state.

Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan said on Wednesday that Israel had the right to protect itself and to decide who would come to its borders despite growing criticism from the international community.

"We are doing everything we believe to be right for the security of the state of Israel and it is more important than anything the New York Times or other newspapers in the world will say about our policy, "said Erdan.

Lara Alqasem, a 22-year-old American citizen and accompanied by Palestinian grandparents, landed at Ben Gurion Airport last week on a valid student visa and registered to study rights. of man at the Hebrew University of Israel in Jerusalem. She was prevented from entering the country and ordered her deportation, on the basis of suspicions that she was supporting a Palestinian-led boycott movement.

An Israeli court ordered that she remain in detention while she is appealing, although Israel says she can leave the country.

While waiting for his call to be heard, Alqasem spent his days in an enclosed space with little access to a phone, the internet and a bed infested with bedbugs, according to people who would have spoken to him.

The detention of one week is the longest in a boycott case. His case is to be heard Thursday by a court in Tel Aviv.

On Wednesday, the New York Times Times published an opinion piece written by columnist Bret Stephens and editor Bari Weiss, criticizing Israel's handling of the case of Alqasem.

More than 300 academics also wrote a letter in the British Guardian newspaper Wednesday, calling the case "an attack on academic freedom".

"As professors attached to academic freedom and human denying any form of racial profiling, we call on the Israeli authorities to allow Lara Alqasem to enter Israel and continue her studies," the letter said.

Alqasem, of the suburbs of Fort Lauderdale in the Southwest Ranches, Florida, is a former president of the Florida University section of Students for Justice in Palestine. The group is a branch of the BDS movement, whose name comes from its calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel.

BDS proponents said that by urging companies, artists and universities to break ties with Israel, they used non-violent means to resist unfair policies against Palestinians. Israel says the movement is hiding its motives for delegitimizing or destroying the Jewish state.

On Tuesday, Erdan proposed a compromise, stating in an interview on the radio that he would rethink his decision to deport her if she apologized and give up her support for the BDS.

In her appeal, Alqasem asserted that she had never actively participated in boycott campaigns and had promised the court not to promote them in the future.

"We are talking about someone who just 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."