A US Citizen Of Palestinian Heritage Has Been Detained At The Airport In Tel Aviv

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I thought Israel was a parliamentary democracy with freedom of speech rights. I guess I was wrong. In reality they've been doing this for a while but now they are detaining American citizens.
Israel has detained a Palestinian American college student for a week because of her alleged support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. The government will not let her enter the country, despite her student visa.

While security officials at Israeli borders have subjected several foreign activists and intellectuals—including American Jews—to extensive questioning and detention, the Associated Press described the case of Lara Alqasem, who is a U.S. citizen, as “first-of-its-kind.” She has been held at Ben-Gurion Airport since last week, the AP reported, “but she was barred from entering the country and ordered deported,” which the news agency described as “the longest anyone has been held in a boycott-related case.”
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/201 ... pport.html

Re: A US Citizen Of Palestinian Heritage Has Been Detained At The Airport In Tel Aviv

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Growing up, I felt like Israel was kind of our 51st state, one Jewish kids could be proud of. It was run by Social Democrats, with social welfare programs, and not a very influential, right-wing, orthodox factor in politics. Now they are in a hammer-lock by extremist right-wing ultra-orthodox fanatics who don't believe in Democracy but in Theocracy, a Theocracy utterly and as ruthlessly controlled by the Ultra-o rabbis as Iran is controlled by the mullahs.

It is no longer a place where I would feel welcome, much less belonging. My marriage, by a Conservative rabbi, would not be recognized as a Jewish marriage, only a civil one, because, he, and we, are not Jewish enough for those mamzers. It seems every nation on earth is having a giant rise of nationalist bigotry and intolerance. Israel is no exception.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: A US Citizen Of Palestinian Heritage Has Been Detained At The Airport In Tel Aviv

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Netanyahu got into bed with the Orthodox parties who are the power brokers that keep him in office. Gone are the days when social democratic parties dominated Israeli politics, hope they eventually return. The website Forward followed the money, from a link in the original story.
Now, for the first time, the Forward has definitively identified a major donor to Canary Mission [targets protesting students]. It is a foundation controlled by the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, a major Jewish charity with an annual budget of over $100 million. The federation’s support of Canary Mission connects the American Jewish establishment itself to a website that is facing increasing criticism from young Jews.

Canary Mission has been controversial since it appeared in mid-2015, drawing comparisons to a McCarthyite blacklist. While some of those listed on the site are prominent activists, others are students who attended a single event, or even student government representatives suspected of voting for resolutions that are critical of Israel. In recent months, it been the subject of growing backlash from pro-Israel Jewish students and local Hillel professionals, who say it is damaging to their own work. Mainstream American Jewish leaders have claimed not to know who funds Canary Mission. As it turns out, a big chunk of the money came from within their own ranks.

In late 2016 or early 2017, the Helen Diller Family Foundation earmarked $100,000 for Canary Mission. It made the donation to the Central Fund of Israel, a New York-based charity that serves as a conduit for U.S. taxpayers seeking to make tax-exempt donations to right-wing and extremist groups in Israel. In its tax filings, the Diller Foundation listed the purpose of the grant as “CANARY MISSION FOR MEGAMOT SHALOM.”
Though it does fund a number right-wing causes, the Diller Foundation is known mostly as a provider of well-regarded Jewish teen programming. It runs a yearlong Jewish leadership program for teenagers from around the world, and sponsors the Diller Tikkun Olam awards, which honor young Jewish volunteer workers with $36,000 cash prizes.

The president of its board, real estate developer Jaclyn Safier, sits on the board of visitors of the University of California, Berkeley, and is a distinguished director of a foundation that supports the University of California, San Francisco. Another board member, Richard Rosenberg, is the former chairman and chief executive of Bank of America.

The Diller Foundation is organized as a supporting foundation of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, an arrangement that confers certain regulatory benefits. The San Francisco federation, according to its website, appoints the majority of members of the boards of directors of its supporting foundations. The Diller Foundation says in its tax returns that it operates by “conducting or supporting activities for the benefit of” the San Francisco federation. Two federation staff members sat on the Diller Foundation’s board during its 2016 fiscal year, including the federation’s number two executive, chief philanthropic officer Joy Sisisky.

The federation is among the largest and most influential in the U.S., with net assets of more than $800 million and two seats on the board of the Jewish Federations of North America. Neither the Diller Foundation nor the San Francisco federation responded to multiple requests for comment.
https://forward.com/news/national/41135 ... 6-headline
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: A US Citizen Of Palestinian Heritage Has Been Detained At The Airport In Tel Aviv

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For nine days, Lara Alqasem, a 22-year-old American college student, has been detained at Israel’s international airport by officials barring her from entering the country to study because of her activism in boycott activities.On Thursday, the Florida resident appeared in Tel Aviv District Court to appeal the decision to block her entry into Israel, where she had been accepted into a master’s degree program.The case of Alqasem, who does not deny having been active in the past with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, is the first test of a 2017 Israeli law aimed at banning any foreign activist who advocates for a boycott of Israel. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has supported her appeal, asking the court to rule against the Interior Ministry’s interpretation of the law. A lawyer representing the university said that permitting Alqasem to attend the Hebrew University would send a message that “Israel is a democracy and not an apartheid state” as the BDS movement claims.

Israel says Alqasem, who was issued a student visa by the Israeli Consulate in Miami, served as president of the University of Florida branch of Students for Justice in Palestine, a BDS-affiliated organization, during the 2016-17 school year.In an affidavit filed Thursday, Alqasem said that her thinking has changed in recent years and that she has moved away from espousing an anti-Israeli ideology. She mentioned her enrollment in the Hebrew University graduate program in transitional justice as evidence of her change of heart.Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan, who leads the government’s efforts against BDS, said in a radio interview that “the Hebrew University is working together with the extreme left here.”Erdan added, however, that “if Lara Alqasem, in her own voice, not through all kinds of lawyers or statements that can be misconstrued, says that supporting BDS is illegitimate and she regrets what she did, I will consider letting her in.”

Alqasem been held since Oct. 2 in a dorm-like facility at Ben Gurion International Airport and is allowed outdoors several times a day. Authorities say she is not under arrest and is free to leave Israel at any point if she accepts deportation back to the United States.The situation has provoked outrage across the board, even from some of Israel’s most fervent supporters, both in the country and abroad.Writing for Bloomberg View, author Zev Chafets said that “the Alqasem case is an example of what happens when cynicism meets moral panic.”Yes, he acknowledged, “BDS does, indeed, hate Israel and the Jews who support it … but the minister wildly exaggerated the danger, not surprisingly given it’s an election year in Israel.”The Assn. of Israeli University Heads also criticized the government’s action, saying that the ministry reneged on a commitment to consult the local academic institution before any action was taken against a student.

“The damage caused to Israel and Israeli academia as a whole, to the Israeli universities and particularly to Israeli scientists and researchers abroad by decisions of this kind could well exceed the potential damage, if any, of permitting her to enter Israel,” wrote Tel Aviv University President Joseph Klafter on behalf of the organization.Alqasem’s contention that her political thinking has evolved was supported in letters from Florida academics, including Eric Kligerman, a professor of Jewish and German studies who taught two seminars she attended. Kligerman attested that Alqasem, who graduated in May, was “one of the most gifted and promising undergraduate students I have had the pleasure of working with at the University of Florida.” “Far from being an advocate of BDS or a proponent of suppressing dialogue and the intellectual exchange between peoples,” he wrote, “Lara is one of the most engaging and thoughtful students I have had in my seminars on Jewish culture and thought. If anything, her presence in Israel would lead to fruitful paths of communication among its distinct and vibrant cultures.” State attorney Yossi Tzadok countered in court that Alqasem remains a proponent of BDS and that her social media platforms were erased before she arrived in Israel to conceal such beliefs.

As evidence, Tzadok presented a screenshot of Alqasem’s former Facebook page, including an “attending” click on an April 2016 event advocating a boycott of hummus brand Sabra, which is partially owned by an Israeli concern.On Wednesday, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said that "we value freedom of expression … also in cases where people don't agree with local policies or even United States policies.”But “ultimately,” she said, “it is up to the government of Israel to decide who it wants to let into the country.”
http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-isra ... story.html
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: A US Citizen Of Palestinian Heritage Has Been Detained At The Airport In Tel Aviv

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Israel's Supreme Court has overturned a ban on a US student from entering the country over her alleged support of an anti-Israel boycott campaign. Lara Alqasem travelled from Florida to Tel Aviv on a student visa on 2 October and has since been held at an airport detention centre pending her appeals. Her lawyers called the court's ruling a victory for free speech, academic freedom and the rule of law.

Israeli ministers, however, called the decision "a disgrace" and "shameful". "The decision to allow the student who openly acts against the state of Israel to stay in country is a disgrace," said Israel's Interior Minister Arieh Deri following the Supreme Court decision. "Where is our national dignity? Would she in the United States act against the state and demand to stay and study there?" The government had argued it had the right to prevent Ms Alqasem from entering based on a controversial 2017 law which bars entry of foreign nationals who support boycotts against Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians.

The authorities cited Ms Alqasem's leadership of a Pro-Palestine university society in Florida, but her lawyers said she was no longer involved in any boycott movements and simply wanted to come to Israel to study. The 22-year-old of Palestinian descent was accepted as a graduate student at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and obtained a student visa from the Israeli consulate in Miami.

When she was barred entry at Ben Gurion airport, Ms Alqasem decided to stay and overturn the decision through legal appeals. Two lower courts had upheld the ban, but the Supreme Court's three-judge panel said on Thursday that cancelling Ms Alqasem's visa and deporting her did not serve the fight against international anti-Israel boycotts. It accepted the student's claim she had ended pro-boycott activity in April 2017 and noted she had since engaged in Holocaust studies.

Israel has always insisted that she was not detained or under arrest, and free to return to the US at any time.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-45906370
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: A US Citizen Of Palestinian Heritage Has Been Detained At The Airport In Tel Aviv

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I just wonder when Israel is going to demand that all Palestinians and those of Palestinian Heritage wear a Crescent shape visible on the garments at all times?

I am happy their Supreme Court ruled as they did.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

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