Hebrew U president says US student held at airport not in Israel to support BDS

Asher Cohen, president of Hebrew University, defends the institution’s decision to aid US student Lara Alqasem who has been held for a week at Ben Gurion airport and faces deportation.

Israel’s universities “are targeted by BDS,” Cohen tells Army Radio, adding that “we’re always against BDS.”

But the university is acting with the student, who has Palestinian origins, in her legal effort against the state because “what’s being done [by Erdan’s Strategic Affairs Ministry] regarding this student hurts our activities against BDS.

“She says she’s coming to study for a year,” he adds. “That activity of hers is against BDS.”

Cohen says the university supports the law that bars BDS activists, “but this is [a legal battle] over the interpretation of the law. The law is intended to stop BDS activists. But that’s not what she’s coming here to do.”