Consequences for BDS

Regarding “High Court freezes deportation of Alqasem” (October 15), the true face of Lara Alqasem is that she is the leader of the anti-Israel Students for Justice in Palestine organization in Miami that demonstrated last year to prevent the deportation from the US of Palestinian terrorist Rasmea Odeh, who placed a bomb in a Jerusalem supermarket in 1968 that killed Hebrew University students Eddie Joffe and Leon Kanner,

Strange that there was no outcry when Maccabi Haifa’s star basketball player Romann Sorkin, who plays for the University of Oregon and holds a valid student visa was recently denied entry into USA for Maccabi Haifa’s US tour! The decision US Immigration was respected.

Alqasem evidently has ulterior political motives and Israel has the right to refuse her entry into the country for her anti-Israel activism. MICHAEL JANKELOWITZ

Jerusalem

Preventing Lara Alqasem from studying here is a lost opportunity. Here she would have learned the truth about Israel. She would have seen that both justices and injustices exist here, that everything is not black and white, just like in every other country in the world.

When I was her age, my friends and I passionately debated and demonstrated against what we felt were injustices both in our own and in other countries, without actually examining the problems to discover the truth. I don’t think much has changed since then.

If she wants to study here, why not let her? The authorities are only reinforcing the BDS ideology by sending her home. ELAINE GOLDSTEIN

Zippori

According to MK Michael Oren, detaining an admitted and allegedly former BDS activist is causing political damage to Israel. Well, what doesn’t cause political damage to Israel?

Some people maintain that deporting BDS activists only reaffirms their view that Israel is a “discriminatory police state.” Would it be legitimate criticism to point out that “discriminatory police state” perfectly describes the Palestinian Authority and the shocking treatment of Palestinians who sell property to Jews?

One often hears about “legitimate criticism” of Israel, but where does one encounter legitimate criticism of Palestinians? Oh, wait! That would be colonial-racist Islamophobia. Oren is right about one thing: Israel has the right and the duty to prevent the entry of those it has reasons to believe might want to destroy it. JULIA LUTCH

Davis, CA