U.S. student detained in Israel loses appeal

An Israeli court on Friday rejected the appeal of a 22-year-old U.S. student who has been barred from entering Israel because she supported a Palestinian-led boycott movement against the Jewish state. Israel said it will continue to detain Lara Alqasem until Sunday, when she has to decide whether to appeal her case to the Israeli Supreme Court or leave the country, said her lawyer, Yotam Ben-Hillel.

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 law in 2017 barring any foreigner who “knowingly issues a public call for boycotting Israel” from entering the country.