Israel detains U.S. student because she backed boycott

JERUSALEM — Lara Alqasem arrived in Israel last Tuesday, but she still hasn’t visited the sandy beaches in Tel Aviv or the holy sites in Jerusalem. The 22-year-old from Florida, who is hoping to start a law degree at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem next week, hasn’t even made it to the campus.

Instead, she has been held at Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport for the past six days.

Alqasem, whose father is of Palestinian heritage, was refused entry to the country on the basis of a law barring foreign nationals who publicly back or call for any kind of boycott — economic, cultural or academic — against Israel or its West Bank settlements.

Passed in 2017, the goal of the law, Israel says, is to battle the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, which has found growing support in Europe and the United States in recent years.

BDS activities, which range from discouraging the purchase of goods produced in Israeli settlements to pressuring international companies not to conduct business in Israel and urging celebrities not to visit or perform in the Jewish state, are increasingly seen by Israel as a threat.

The law is backed by Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs, which compiles profiles of BDS activists based on public information online, including that published by Canary Mission, an anonymous website that claims to “documents individuals and organizations that promote hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews on North American college campuses.”

“Israel has the right to decide which foreign nationals can enter. Israel’s parliament passed legislation to prevent entry of foreign nationals who seek to harm the state and its security through the anti-Semitic BDS campaign,” said Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan. “Lara served as president of a chapter of one of the most extreme and hatefilled anti-Israel BDS groups in the U.S.”

He said it was “false to describe Ms. Alqasem as incarcerated in Israel — she is free to return to her home in the United States whenever she wishes.”

Alqasem’s profile on Canary Mission shows her main activity was calling for a boycott of Israeli humus when she was a college student.