Minister Chikli bars journalist Alice Froussard from entering Israel, sending her back to France

Zev Stub is the Times of Israel's Diaspora Affairs correspondent.

French journalist Alice Froussard was denied entry into Israel after the Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Ministry deemed statements she made hostile to Israel.

Froussard arrived in Israel this morning for work, but was intercepted and put back on a flight to France, the ministry says. The French Embassy in Israel has expressed outrage over the move, Hebrew media reports.

Froussard is a prominent French journalist who has spent the last six years living and working in the areas of Jerusalem and Ramallah. She reports for broadcasters and newspapers including Radio France (RFI, France Culture), Le Figaro, TV5Monde, and Mediapart.

As she arrived in Israel today for a long-term work posting, investigators determined that she had made a string of anti-Israeli statements, including legitimizing the October 7 massacre, referring to IDF activity in Gaza as a “massacre,” and accusing the State of Israel of apartheid, the ministry says.

The decision is in line with a Diaspora Affairs Ministry recommendation that was accepted by the Population and Immigration Authority. It follows recent decisions to block entry to other figures deemed by Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli as being antagonistic to the Jewish state, including American political activist Linda Sarsour.

“Like Linda Sarsour and other instigators before her, Alice Froussard has also realized that we have changed the rules of the game,” Chikli says in a statement. “Anyone who supports Hamas and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against the State of Israel will not enter it. Bon Voyage!”

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