BICOM

Israel’s High Court ruled yesterday that US student Lara Alqasem can enter Israel after border authorities denied her entry because she supports the Israel boycott movement.

Alqasem had been held at Israel’s Ben-Gurion Airport for over two weeks since arriving from the US to begin a master’s degree in human rights at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She was granted a visa at the Israeli consulate in Miami.

“The inevitable impression is that invalidating the visa given to her was due to the political opinions she holds,” the justices wrote. “If this is truly the case, then we are talking about an extreme and dangerous step, which could lead to the crumbling of the pillars upon which democracy in Israel stands.” The Court added that if Alqasem “returns to her old ways” and promoted a boycott while she was in Israel, then her stay could be cancelled and she could be deported.

“The Supreme Court’s decision is a victory for free speech, academic freedom, and the rule of law,” Alqasem’s lawyers said.

The Minister of Strategic Affairs, Gilad Erdan, whose officials first flagged up Alqasem’s activity as president of Students for Justice in Palestine, a US campus group that advocates for a boycott of Israel, said the Supreme Court had given the Israel boycott movement “a great victory”. “I deeply regret the Supreme Court’s decision today, which indicates a basic lack of understanding of the nature and methods of the boycott campaign. It has compromised the power of the state to fight back against the boycott activists that harm us,” he said.

Erdan added that: “According to the ruling and the logic of the judges, Omar Barghouti, the founder of the global boycott movement who studied at Tel Aviv University and who currently disseminates hatred against Israel throughout the world, should have turned into our fervent supporter merely due to the fact that he had studied an at an Israeli academic institution.”

Alqasem’s lawyers argued that her activities in Students for Justice in Palestine did not meet the legal test for the boycott law and that, in her role as president, she did not actively promote a boycott. They also argued that she was no longer involved in the group.

The Israeli Government argued the Boycott Law also applies to people who until recently were members of organisations that boycott Israel, and that the law only makes exceptions for people who were activists in such organisations in the distant past.