PA slams Israel’s detention of US student over boycott support

The Palestinian Authority Foreign Ministry lashes out at Israel for detaining a US student of Palestinian descent over allegations that she supports a boycott of Israel.

The PA Foreign Ministry says in a Facebook post that Israel’s refusal to let 22-year-old Lara Alqasem through Ben Gurion International Airport is “the ugliest form of political terrorism.”

Alqasem, who has Palestinian grandparents, was prevented from entering the Jewish state last Tuesday, despite having received a student visa from the Israeli Consulate in Miami to study in a masters program at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

She has been held in an airport detention facility ever since while she appeals to be let in, insisting she does not support a boycott of Israel. Israeli officials say she is not being detained at the airport, as she is free to return to the US at any time.

— Adam Rasgon