Israeli Supreme Court suspends deportation of US student detained until Wednesday – Israel News

The Supreme Court froze the deportation of an American student who had been banned from entering Israel because of his alleged links with the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. She filed an appeal for the decision in the Supreme Court earlier Sunday.

The court will meet on Wednesday to decide whether it will allow Alqasem to appeal.

On Friday, the Tel Aviv District Court rejected his previous appeal, saying he could not justify an intervention in the case and that the government's decision to detain her was reasonable. The court echoed an earlier ruling by an administrative court of appeal.

Lara Alqasem, 22, has been arrested at Ben Gurion airport for two weeks.

Alqasem was accepted as a graduate student at the Hebrew University, but was not allowed to enter the country and is held at Ben Gurion Airport since October 2 because the authorities Israeli claim that she supports an anti-Israeli boycott. Alqasem is currently detained at an airport facility while he had obtained a student visa from the Israeli consulate in Miami.

>> Israel has left no choice to the Hebrew University but to oppose the deportation of Lara Alqasem to court | Analysis

A group of about twenty students and professors protested against the detention of Alqasem on the campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which joined his application for appeal. The rejection of Alqasem's entry marks a new step in the deterioration of democracy in the state of Israel, "said one of the demonstrators, David Enoch, of the department. of philosophy and law of the university.

In response to the court's decision, the Hebrew University issued a statement in which it stated "to regret the decision not to allow Lara Alqasem to enter Israel and study for a LL.M. student has decided to come to study and live in Israel despite the principles of boycott and even declared his opposition to the boycott of Israel.We believe that the decision of the ministers, the Minister of Strategic Affairs and the Minister of the Interior, to send it back of Israel is false and does not advance the fight against BDS, on the contrary, it undermines the efforts of the Israeli Academy to attract foreign students and researchers to international programs. "

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– Erdan Alqasem

The Hebrew University continued: "The government has allocated millions of shekels to encourage international programs and research aimed at promoting the public interest and strengthening the image of the State of Japan. 39, Israel in the world.The policy in question goes against this goal. "

The Minister of Strategic Affairs, Gilad Erdan, welcomed the decision, saying: "I welcome the decision of the district court, which has fully and fully accepted our position … The decision explicitly states that the decision is based on the activities and actions of Alqasem against the State of Israel.The court clearly stated that a state has the right to protect itself not only in terms of security, but also to fight against the boycott The judge pointed out that the decision was not made to dissuade visiting students, because not all students are the president of a branch of a major boycott organization and try to hide it by erasing their social networking accounts, this is an important decision that will give us more leeway in our actions towards the BDS movement. "

The deputy Mossi Raz (Meretz), who had been detained in Alqasem, said in response to this decision: "The court's decision to dismiss Lara Alqasem's appeal constitutes a serious infringement of her freedom. of expression, to Israeli universities and to our image in the world. "

On Thursday, the court heard the appeal of the deportation of Alqasem, to which the Hebrew University is attached. Representatives of the Hebrew University told the court that the refusal to allow Alqasem's entry had the opposite effect of fighting the boycott movement.

In March 2017, the Knesset passed a law barring any foreigner from Israel from publicly expressing support for the boycott of Israel. The Minister of the Interior is responsible for enforcing the law. According to the government, decisions are made on a case-by-case basis, usually in accordance with the recommendations of the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, which monitors the international boycott movement.

At the hearing, Ben Hillel said that "the boycott law" deliberately avoids economic, cultural and academic ties because of its association with Israel. "Alqasem came to study at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and was accepted, paid for money and issued a visa.How does it work with a call for boycott? The state has not answered this question.

The revocation of a visa requires strong evidence, said Ben Hillel, "which is not the case here.It has invested a lot of time and money to settle in. Israel: She does not have a job to return to the United States and she can not for the moment start studying in the United States. "

Ben Hillel said that Alqasem was fantastically portrayed as a top BDS leader. "She was a member of a small organization that had eight people at its peak," he said.

>> While Israel holds a US student, it also targets academia | Analysis

"She carried the title of" president "in quotation marks, we brought letters that testify to it.The activity was limited and they did not call for a boycott.All the same battalions of Google researchers at Ministry of Strategic Affairs, grab your hands for a moment on the keyboard and your head on the screen Here is a 22-year-old girl, aged 19 or 20. When did she have time to become a central activist, as the criteria require a "constant and long-term support for a boycott. That's the demon you created, "said Hillel.

In response, Yossi Zadok, the state's attorney, said that attempts to minimize his involvement in invoking the age of Alqasem and the number of members of his organization were without relevance, because campuses are at the center of BDS activity and, by its nature, the movement is directed. by the young people. "The language of the law does not require the success of the activities, but only the participation itself," he said.

The state said the complaint was based on Alqasem's presence regarding Facebook events, adding that, as she had erased her profile, "we have no way to show it as evidence."

Ben Hillel replied, "I'm not a big rat of Facebook, but if someone clicks on" being present "on Facebook, does that mean that he actually participated in the news? "event?" Is this proof that you have?