Minister says he rejected US student’s letter asking to be allowed into Israel

Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan says he rejected a letter he received from US student Lara Alqasem asking to be allowed into Israel.

“It wasn’t written in the letter that she takes back what she did in the past and that she’ll promise not to do this in the future,” Erdan tells Channel 10 news.

“It was written, more or less, that while she is studying in the State of Israel she won’t engage in boycott activity,” he says of the letter.

Erdan says he also must consider Jewish students who have had to deal with the pro-boycott Students for Justice in Palestine. Alqasem was a president of the campus group’s University of Florida chapter.

“I also have to look at the Jewish students who have suffered, and are still suffering, from the SJP movement,” Erdan says.

Alqasem, a 22-year-old American with Palestinian grandparents who has been detained for over a week since arriving in Israel, appeared in court earlier today as part of her appeal to be allowed to study at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.