JERUSALEM: A US 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, 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 program on Sunday.
On Friday, a 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.
Students for Justice activities, the government said, 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 (BDS) movement, not only as a bid to isolate it over its occupation of territory which Palestinians seek for a state, but also to 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.
“If she boards a plane the case loses its urgency. If a person is not physically here, it becomes more abstract,” Bechor said. “From her perspective, she’s a 22-year-old, young woman, she’s not receiving financial assistance, and she can’t afford another ticket.”
US student barred by Israel appeals to its top court
US student barred by Israel appeals to its top court
- Lara Alqasem, 22, flew to Israel on Oct. 2 on a study visa but was refused entry by security officials
- In airport detention since, 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 program
Around 180 Gazans have left via Rafah crossing since reopening
- “Official statistics on the movement at the Rafah crossing from Monday, February 2, 2026, until Thursday, February 5, 2026, show a severe restriction on travel,” Thawabteh said
RAFAH, Palestinian Territories: Around 180 Palestinians have left the Gaza Strip since the limited reopening of the Rafah crossing with Egypt a week ago, according to officials in the territory.
The Rafah crossing, the only gateway for Gazans to the outside world that does not pass through Israel, reopened for the movement of people on February 2, nearly two years after Israeli forces seized control of it during the war with Hamas.
Between Monday and Thursday, 135 people crossed into Egypt from Gaza through the crossing, mostly patients and their companions, according to Ismail Al-Thawabteh, head of the Hamas-run media office in the Palestinian territory.
“Official statistics on the movement at the Rafah crossing from Monday, February 2, 2026, until Thursday, February 5, 2026, show a severe restriction on travel,” Thawabteh said.
He said the crossing was also closed on Friday and Saturday.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society confirmed that 135 Gazans had left through the crossing between February 2 and 5.
On Sunday, another 44 people left the Gaza Strip through the crossing to Egypt, Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of the territory’s main Al-Shifa Hospital, told AFP.
They included 19 patients, while the rest were their companions, he added.
A source at the border on the Egyptian side also confirmed the figure for travelers passing through the gateway on Sunday.
It brought the total number to 179 people entering the Gaza Strip.
“My son was injured during the war and a metal plate was inserted in his leg for a year and a half,” Rajaa Abu Al-Jadian told AFP as she prepared to leave through the crossing earlier on Sunday.
“They told us it had to be removed to prevent further damage.”
Travel through the crossing is also taking place in the opposite direction, with dozens returning to Gaza during the same period.
Thawabteh told AFP that 88 people entered the Gaza Strip from Egypt since the crossing reopened, often meeting their families in tearful reunions.
Israel allowed the reopening of the Rafah crossing on Monday, reportedly following US pressure, but has so far restricted passage to patients and their accompanying relatives.
The reopening of Rafah has long been demanded by the United Nations and aid organizations, and forms a key element of US President Donald Trump’s truce plan for Gaza, where humanitarian conditions remain dire.
For thousands of sick and wounded Palestinians, the crossing’s reopening offers a rare chance to seek medical treatment in Egypt or elsewhere.
Abu Salmiya said last week that around 20,000 patients in Gaza urgently require treatment, including 4,500 children.
