JTA reports

US student detained in airport can stay in Israel

October 26, 2018, 1:56 pm 0 Edit

Lara Alqasem, a 22-year-old American graduate student, arrives to the courtroom at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem on October 17, 2018. The American graduate student is held in detention at Israel's international airport over allegations that she promotes a boycott against the Jewish state. (Photo by Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Lara Alqasem, the American student detained in Israel’s airport, will be allowed to stay and study in the country, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled.

Alqasem, 22, had been detained at Ben-Gurion Airport since Oct. 2 on suspicion of supporting the boycott, divestments and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. She is enrolled as a student in a graduate program in human rights at Hebrew University. Israel sought to deport her under a 2017 law that allows the country to bar entry to BDS activists.

Alqasem challenged the ban on her entry in Israeli court, and two courts had ruled against her before she appealed to Israel’s Supreme Court last week. The Supreme Court overturned the lower courts’ rulings on Oct. 18 because it found that in seeking to study at Hebrew University, Alqasem was pursuing an increased connection to Israel — rather than a boycott of the country. PJC

Follow the Chronicle on Facebook and Twitter for the latest stories.