U.S. student barred by Israel appeals to top court

By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A U.S. student barred from Israel under a law against pro-Palestinian boycotters filed an appeal on Sunday with its top court, which suspended her deportation pending a discussion of the case.

Lara Alqasem, 22, flew to Israel on Oct. 2 on a study visa but was refused entry by security officials who cited her role as president of a small local chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Florida.

In airport detention since then, she has been contesting the exclusion, with the backing of Jerusalem's Hebrew University, where she was due to begin a year-long master's programme on Sunday.

On Friday, Tel Aviv District Court rejected Alqasem's appeal to be allowed in. On Sunday, her lawyers said she filed a dual motion to Israel's Supreme Court to block her looming deportation and consider a last-ditch appeal for entry.

"A stay has been issued against the deportation, and the appeal motion will be heard this week," a court spokesman said.

Her case has touched off debate in Israel over whether democratic values have been compromised by a 2017 law that bars the entry of foreigners who publicly support anti-Israel boycotts, and if a hard line against the student would ultimately harm the country's image.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel's stance was similar to other countries' practices.

"If ... you're virulently against America and you try to come into the United States, there's a good chance you won't be let in," he told visiting Christian journalists. "That's also true of many of the European democracies. It's true of the democracy called Israel."

His government says Students for Justice activities included a campaign to boycott Sabra hummus, made and sold in the United States by a company partly owned by a firm in Israel.

Israel sees such groups, and the wider Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, not only as an attempt to isolate it over its occupation of territory which Palestinians seek for a state, but also as a campaign for its destruction.

Alqasem, who is of Palestinian descent, stopped her activities in the Students for Justice group months before the anti-boycott law came into effect, has pledged not to take part in boycott activities while in Israel and did not plan to visit the West Bank, her attorneys have said.

Israel's Supreme Court rarely agrees to hear appeals over administrative matters ruled on by lower courts, Alqasem lawyer Leora Bechor said. "It needs very unique circumstances," she told Reuters.

Bechor said Alqasem could have opted to fly back to the United States, but had chosen to remain in airport detention, where she had only intermittent access to phone communication and had been denied reading and writing materials.

(Additional reporting by Maayan Lubell; editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)