Israel suspends deportation of U.S. student

The Israeli Supreme Court on Sunday halted the deportation of a 22-year-old American student accused of supporting a Palestinian-led boycott movement. The Supreme Court will hear the appeal of Lara Alqasem later this week after a lower court rejected her case on Friday. Alqasem, whose grandparents are Palestinian, arrived at Ben-Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv on Oct. 2 with a valid student visa to study human rights at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She formerly served as president of the University of Florida chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, a branch of the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. Alqasem insisted she never actively participated in boycott campaigns and promised not to promote them in the future. Israel passed a 2017 law barring any foreigner who “knowingly issues a public call for boycotting Israel” from entering the country.

Alqasem’s lawyer Leora Bechor said she will remain in the country until her Supreme Court hearing, slated for Wednesday. “She feels the court is wrong, the government is misinterpreting the law, and she’ll keep fighting,” Bechor said.