The Israeli Supreme Court ruled that American student Lara al-Qassem will be allowed to remain and study in Israel overturning a lower court decision to ban her entry.
Twenty-two-year-old American student Lara al-Qassem was granted an A/2 Student Visa for her master’s degree at the Hebrew University by the Israeli consulate in Miami United States for an entire year.
However she was refused entry under an Israeli law against BDS activists and was held in detention at the Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv for over two weeks due to her “boycott activity.”
Al-Qassem appealed the decision to bar her from entering the country but the Tel Aviv district court upheld the ban in a ruling.
In March 2017 Israel’s parliament passed a law banning the entry of supporters of BDS a movement inspired by an international campaign against apartheid in South Africa.
Al-Qassem’s Lawyer Ben Hillel said he hoped that the authorities would reconsider its policy.
Israel has the right to control its borders but that right does not give the ministry of the interior unchecked power to turn away anyone it deems unwanted” he wrote in a statement.
“Lara’s case proves that thought-policing has no place in a democracy.”
