Opinion

US student strikes fear into Israel

October 13, 2018

LARA Alqasem, a 22-year-old American student, is not the first foreigner to be detained at Ben Gurion International Airport. Over the last several months, many people who are critics of Israel have been forced to make a stopover at the Tel Aviv airport’s detention facility. However, Alqasem who arrived in Israel on Oct. 2, has been detained longer than anyone else. Just as serious, she is the only one who has been asked by the Israeli authorities to renounce her criticism of Israel. Only then, will she be free to enter.

Alqasem landed at Ben Gurion Airport last week with a valid student visa and was registered to study human rights at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University. But she was barred from entering the country based on suspicions that she’s an activist in the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. She appealed her detention on Thursday before an Israeli court in Tel Aviv but the court upheld the entry ban on Friday. It was not clear if she would be deported.

The case highlights Israel’s efforts to block supporters of BDS. A 2017 law allows the Interior Ministry to decide if boycott activists will be granted visas or residency permits. Alqasem is reportedly the 15th person to be denied entry into Israel since the law went into effect.

Israel says the movement masks its motives to delegitimize or destroy the Jewish state. For the record, there is nothing that BDS has ever outlined in its entire history that suggests any hate, any harm, any physical violence or assault on Israel. Launched by 170 Palestinian civil society groups in 2005, the BDS movement seeks to pressure Israel to end its occupation of the Palestinian territories, ensure equal rights for Palestinian citizens of the state, and allow the return of Palestinian refugees.

In urging businesses, artists and universities to sever ties with Israel, BDS supporters are using non-violent means to resist unjust policies toward Palestinians. Members of the Israeli government see BDS as anti-Semitic at its core and a threat to the state. That is not true. The movement is a nonviolent way to change apartheid-like policies towards Palestinians. The BDS movement calls for an international boycott of products from Israel and divestment from Israeli companies in a bid to pressure the country into compliance with international law, particularly as it pertains to illegal settlements and human rights abuses.

In her appeal, Alqasem, of Palestinian origin, had challenged the deportation order against her, saying she no longer supported BDS. But even if she did support it, she would not be the first. US college campuses have emerged at the forefront of a debate on the Palestinian-Israeli issue. Several academic institutions and university student councils have passed resolutions backing various forms of boycotts against Israel.

Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs, which handles BDS cases, called Alqasem a “prominent activist” who met the criteria of being refused entry into Israel. It has put forward a possible compromise, saying if Alqasem would “tomorrow in her own voice... say that support for BDS is not legitimate and she regrets what she did, we will certainly reconsider our position”. The ministry added that Alqasem is free to return to the US anytime.

While Alqasem has yet to respond to the offer, it is unlikely that she will accept it. Her lawyer says she is determined to go through the procedure and would rather spend a few more days incarcerated if it would give her a better chance to enter Israel. Good for her. Alqasem is being treated like a common criminal, forced into signing a confession and promising, upon leaving prison, to behave and not do it again. If this 22-year-old student can strike so much fear into Israel, then the country is neither as strong as it projects nor as democratic as it portrays itself.


October 13, 2018
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