Lara Alqasem’s lawyers hail Supreme Court decision as ‘victory for free speech’

US student Lara Alqasem’s lawyers, Yotam Ben Hillel and Leora Bechor, say the Supreme Court’s decision to let her into Israel in a “victory for free speech, academic freedom, and for the rule of law.”

Israel’s top court ruled that the student can study a semester at the Hebrew University, concluding that she isn’t a BDS activist, but added that if Alqasem participates in boycott activities she will be deported immediately.

“Israel has the right to control its borders, but that right does not give the Ministry of Interior unchecked power to turn away anyone it deems unwanted,” the lawyers say in a statement, adding that the ruling ensures that “no one else should be denied the right to enter Israel based on sloppy Google searches and dossiers by shadowy smear groups.

“Lara’s case proves that thought-policing has no place in a democracy.”