Israel’s high court orders release of detained US student

Israel’s high court on Thursday ordered the immediate release of detained U.S. student Lara Alqasem.

In a unanimous 3-0 decision, Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled the state must release Alqasem, who has been detained for over two weeks at a Tel Aviv airport pending possible deportation, the Jerusalem Post reported. She was being held over her alleged support for a Palestinian-led boycott against the country. 

{mosads}22-year-old Alqasem during her trial said she no longer supports the pro-Palestinian boycott, divest, sanction (BDS) movement, adding her decision to attend an Israeli university for graduate school shows that she has changed her position on the country.

She was held under a new law that bans foreign citizens from entering Israel if they have participated in or supported a boycott against the country or its West Bank settlements. 

Her lawyer said the state’s decision to detain her sets a dangerous precedent that precludes any critics of Israel from entering the country. He emphasized that she was not a leader in the BDS movement at any point.

Alqasem, who has Palestinian grandparents, was part of pro-Palestinian group, Students for Justice in Palestine, on the University of Florida’s campus. Students for Justice in Palestine publicly supports the BDS movement, which they call a nonviolent protest against human rights abuses by the Israeli government. 

Pro-Palestinian activists and free speech advocates around the world have rallied behind her case as the Israeli government, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, backed the decision to detain her. 

“Lara Alqasem is another victim of Israel’s campaign against dissent,” said IfNotNow, an activist organization opposing Israeli policy toward Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in a statement to The Hill. “We are outraged that Lara was forced to sit in detention for 16 days and go all the way to the Supreme Court simply to study.”

“And we are outraged that our communal institutions played an active role in this attempt to silence dissent to Israeli policies as part of their ongoing support for the moral disaster of Occupation,” the statement adds.

Her release would allow Alqasem to follow through on plans to attend a graduate program at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.