Israel defends barring of U.S. student

JERUSALEM — Israel defended on Wednesday its handling of the case of an American graduate student detained at the country’s international airport for the past week over allegations that she supports a boycott against the Jewish state.

Lara Alqasem, a 22-year-old American citizen with Palestinian grandparents, landed at Ben-Gurion Airport last week with a valid student visa and was registered to study human rights at Israel’s Hebrew University in Jerusalem. But she was barred from entering the country and ordered deported, based on suspicions that she supports the Palestinian-led boycott movement.

An Israeli court has ordered that she remain in custody while she appeals, although Israel says she can leave the country. The weeklong detention is the longest anyone has been held in a boycott-related case. Her case is set to be heard at a Tel Aviv court today.

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

His remarks come after the The New York Times published an opinion piece by columnist Bret Stephens and editor Bari Weiss critical of Israel’s handling of Alqasem’s case. More than 300 academics penned a letter Wednesday in the British Guardian calling the case “an attack on academic freedom.”