I have previously criticized U.S. laws barring public contracts or employment with people who support the boycott or boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement. Those laws raise troubling questions under the First Amendment and various courts have pushed back on the constitutionality of such laws. Now Israel is holding an American university student for a week because she supported the BDS movement. Lara Alqasem, 22, was held depending appeal at Ben-Gurion Airport. She has Palestinian grandparents and was told that she could be released if she apologizes and disavows any boycotting of Israel.
Israel has been criticized throughout the world for its policy to bar entry of people who support the boycott as a travel ban based on political viewpoint and expression. A law passed last year bans any foreigner who “knowingly issues a public call for boycotting Israel” from entering the country. As will come as little surprise for those familiar with my views on free speech, I have always opposed such limits in this country and other countries in limiting entry based on political views or expression.
Alqasem lives outside of Fort Lauderdale and was the president of the University of Florida chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. The group supports the BDS movement, including advocating a boycott against Sabra hummus, an Israeli-owned brand of chickpea dip.. Her college association was flagged at the airport.
Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan offered this “compromise”: “If Lara Alqasem will tomorrow in her own voice, not through all kinds of lawyers or statements that can be misconstrued, say that support for BDS is not legitimate and she regrets what she did, we will certainly reconsider our position.”
Alqasem is registered to study human rights at Israel’s Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Her Hebrew professor, Dror Abend-David, has defended his former student as an excellent student and someone who has an “open and positive attitude toward Judaism, Jews, and the State of Israel.”
Few things Americans do are as ignorant and self-destructive as picking sides in the ME. If you think your advice over rides that of G. Washington, please justify it. Ad hominem (“anti-Semite” bomb) only proves beyond any shadow of a doubt you have absolutely no argument contrary to mine.
GW claims in his Farewell Address that “…all foreign entanglements are temporary,” and the word “all” includes Israel, the State most hated by humanity. The reason is that sooner or later, the US’s purposes shall be contrary to those of every other State, and at that moment our relationship must split. The moment US diplomacy with any State causes more harm than good is the moment ties must be cut (not optional).
Beyond that, all US diplomacy with Israel is a felony crime. The US Congress and POTUS signed into law the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which prohibits, I repeat, prohibits all diplomacy between signatories and nuclear armed non-signatories, which sum total list includes Israel, Pakistan, and India. This is a prime reason why Israel does not admit it is nuclear armed.
Omission above: all legally signed US Treaties are equal to the Constitution in their power and breadth.
Sorry for this omission: no State, including Israel and/or the US, has any inherent “right” to exist. The alleged “right to exist” ends the moment humanity determines otherwise and takes successful steps to end the alleged “right.”
Did ancient Rome have a “right to exist?” Nine countries that ceased to exist during the 20th C: https://www.businessinsider.com/countries-that-no-longer-exist
People and borders and nations and countries and races (the latter are a man-made contrivance) come and go all the time. Thinking that any particular people and/or State is “special” (including your own) is ignorant and self destructive. Graveyards are littered with such stupidity.
JJ:
Israel most hated on the planet? By who? You? As for the NNPT prohibiting diplomacy with India, you had best tell the US ambassador to India, Ken Juster, and our ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, about your revelation. Was it a divine or distilled revelation? Surely wasn’t a legal one!
Israel is essentially at war. During WW II would we have let Nazi propagandist and UK subject Lord Haw Haw come to America? No. We would not other than to get the chance to hang him which, in fact, the Brits did when they finally got him close to a rope. I am with Israel on this.
Spoken like a true Israeli-firster.
The sum total value of Israel to the US is nothing.
Joseph Jones, that is your opinion which you are entitled to though we note that many of the opinions you provide are nonsensical. I can understand one that doesn’t believe in the nation state, but then that person has to ask themselves how the world functions without one. Go to Libya to find out.
“Ad hominem (“anti-Semite” bomb) ” stated earlier.
Take note no one called Turley anti-Semite. In fact a lot of various opinions can be raised without that term ever being thought of. However, when logic disappears and one acts in an incredulous fashion denying the truth or creating conspiracies that are totally untrue then under certain circumstances that person may be labelled an anti-Semite just like one would be called a racist if he wore a white gown and a white dunce cap and liked to terrorize blacks. It is all a matter of how one presents himself.
Jones has an objection to the Jews: they’re not dead.
GW’s text of his Farewell Address is not an opinion. GW mandated that “all foreign entanglements are temporary.” All means all, including future States ala Israel. The text and requirements of the NNPT are not opinions.
If you disagree with my statement that no nation has alleged “right to exist,” please explain. If you state that _od gave Israel the land previously called “Palestine,” please show the deed with _od’s signature, which so far Judaics keep well hidden, for some strange reason.
In the west, land titles are determined by such Land Title documents, not someone’s “say so,” though I know most stupid Westerners seem to ignore normal land title deeds when it comes to magical “Israel,” _od’s alleged gift to the alleged Judaics, who’s DNA traces not to Palestine but to ancient Kazaria.
Wrong about that last bit.
Joseph Jones – George Washington wasn’t God. He had flaws.
“If you disagree with my statement that no nation has alleged “right to exist,” please explain.”
Joseph Jones, I understnd your nihilistic confusion. You seem to live a meaningless life on this blog and probably elsewhere. I am proof of my own existence. All I have to decide is how I wish to live my life. You have chosen the life of a Libyan living in anarchy. That is fine. You should go there, live and be happy. I choose the life of an American with borders and laws upholding the rights of life, liberty and the persuit of happiness. I recognize the right of Israel to be a sovereign nation like all the other nations that reside in the area. You might prefer those other nations where women are treated like chattel, gays thrown off of roofs and where despotism exists so that you are told what to do and cannnot think for yourself. If you wish, go there to live.
“but to ancient Kazaria.”
I assume you mean the Khazars and spelled the words wrong. Once again I will advise you to get your history straight along with your timeline of history which appears to be off. With so much distortion of history that appears to exist in your mind I can’t even tell what your point is. Maybe what DSS (Tabbarok) says “Jones has an objection to the Jews: they’re not dead.” is absolutely true and that hatred has made your brain into a mass of goo that is unable to think clearly.
Go to the net and look up what you are talking about while checking historical guidelines. Then come back and maybe you will be able to provide a better picture of what your problem is.
The notion that contemporary Jews are descended of the ancient Khazars was cooked up (IIRC) by a British academic who had no chops in any subdiscipline with tools to advance and evaluate such a claim. Its a common meme you see among people promoting the Arab cause (as well as among anti-semites). I believe research in genetics on Ashkenazic, Sephardic, and Mizrahi populations has discredited it.
DSS, Joseph Jone’s understanding of history is quite lacking. I wanted to see if he could research the question himself so that he could dispute his prejudices alone in his own mind without anyone watching. He makes too many empty comments which indicate a lack of knowledge of the subject at hand. I have met personally with racists and anti-Semites and found that education frequently helps change attitudes.
I mentioned the “anti-Semite” bomb presuming some ignorant Israeli firster would lob it at me, the tried and true debate stopping practice when there’s no counter argument.
“I mentioned the “anti-Semite” bomb”
What anti-Semite bomb are you talking about. One is either an anti-Semite or they aren’t. The individual in question determines that. No bomb need be delivered. For example a person wearing a KKK outfit is deemed a racsit. No one has to throw a bomb, the individual says it in their words and actions.
Your first objection had to do with the op-ed Truley wrote. No one called him an anti-Semite. That is reserved for the non thinking individual who doesn’t base his words or actions on fact and logic. Some people want Jews dead for stupid nonexistent reasons. They are anti-Semites. Some just want them hurt for the same reasons. They are anti-Semites as well. Some want to lynch blacks for no reaon other than they didn’t like the way a particular black walked down the street. They are racists. Some might refuse to feed them for no logical reason except for the color of their skin. They are racist as well. Do you get the point? No bomb is thrown. The person through words and deeds characterizes his own actions.
Lara Alqasem, the Media’s BDS Victim, Heads the SJP Pro-Terror Hate Group That Defended Stabbing of 15-Year-Old Boy
There are plenty of smiling photos of Lara Alqassem all over the media. Here’s a photo of one of the victims of the terrorism that she and Students for Justice in Palestine support.
Moshe Malka was a 15-year-old Israeli teen stabbed by one of terrorists whom the hate group that Lara leads supports.
The media and the anti-Israel left is trying to turn Lara Alqasem, the head of a campus chapter of a pro-terrorist hate group, into a martyr after being detained at Ben Gurion Airport while trying to enter Israel.
Media stories flash her smiling photo and claims that BDS is a “non-violent” movement. Follow up stories claim that she was targeted by a “secretive blacklist” at Canary Mission.
There’s nothing secretive about it. (Despite claims made by the anti-Israel press at Haaretz and Times of Israel.)
Canary Mission is a Jewish civil rights group that tracks hate speech by anti-Semitic hate groups like SJP. That’s where Lara comes in.
The flood of pro-BDS spin in the media on Lara Alqasem’s case refuses to either link to her listing on Canary Mission or to describe its contents. So, as usual, people who care about the truth have to do the work that fake news media refuses to do.
Lara Alqasem [Lara Lee Alqasem] is the 2016-2017 president and primary contact of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of Florida (UF).
Alqasem has been a member of SJP UF since 2014 and has previously served as the group’s vice president.
SJP UF, as Canary Mission documents, whitewashes and supports Muslim terrorist attacks on Israelis.
On October 13, 2015, SJP UF posted an article titled, “Death-chanting Israeli mob rejoices as Palestinian teen is executed.” The article — from the Electronic Intifada (EI) site — linked to an EI video titled, “Israeli police kill Fadi Alloun in cold blood.”
Fadi Aloon was shot by Israeli security forces after he stabbed a 15-year-old Israeli boy. Several hours before the attack, Aloon posted “Either martyrdom or victory” on his Facebook page.
On October 18, 2015, SJP UF posted on Facebook an image with the misleading caption “Israeli settler, shoots, kills teenage Palestinian boy in Hebron” and linked to an article obscuring the fact that 18-year-old Fadil Qawasmi had been shot while trying to stab an Israeli citizen on the Jewish Sabbath.
The 15-year-old boy was Moshe Malka. That’s a photo of him above. There are plenty of smiling photos of Lara Alqassem all over the media. Here’s a photo of one of the victims of the terrorism that she and Students for Justice in Palestine support.
And yes, SJP UF also straight up supported terrorists.
On March 21, 2013, SJP UF members held a protest and a “24-hour solidarity hunger strike” at UF to support Samer Issawi, who received a 26 year prison sentence in 2002.
Samer Issawi received a twenty-six year prison sentence in 2002 for manufacturing and distributing pipe bombs and shooting at Israeli civilians and police during the second intifada. He is a member of theDemocratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP).
In November 2014, SJP UF took part in a national day of action for terrorist Rasmea Odeh.
Odeh was a key military operative with the terrorist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). In 1969, Odeh masterminded a PFLP bombing that killed two college students in a Jerusalem supermarket. Odeh also attempted to bomb the British consulate.
This is support for terrorism. It’s not non-violent. And any country targeted this way has the right to detain and expel foreigners who support terrorist violence against their citizens.
The media needs to stop lying. And people who support Israel need to stop utilizing fake news sites like Haaretz and Times of Israel.
And the lefty supporters of Lara Alqasem effectively support the stabbing of a 15-year-old Israeli boy.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/271582/lara-alqasem-medias-bds-victim-heads-sjp-pro-daniel-greenfield
Leftists and the Obama administration permitted terrorism to get out of hand. When someone offered the US help this is what happened. See the video.
https://clarionproject.org/you-wont-believe-what-happened-to-the-man-who-helped-get-bin-laden/
Israel,: The green line to the Mediterranean sea is 9.3 miles wide. I believe Washington DC’s width averages somewhere in the vicinity of 5 miles and likely more in some places. How would anyone feel living in DC with the enemy on its borders attempting to kill everyone in it? That plus the rest of the nation being surrounded by hostile nations where somewhere between 100,000 and 150,000 missiles are pointed at their population centers where those missiles are supplied by a rogue state, Iran, that soon may nave a nuclear weapons. Missile attacks attempted air and sea invasions (small) and terrorists digging tunnels or otherwise crossing the border to kill are common situations. The strange thing is that instead of criticizing the violations of Israel’s borders the terrorists or their families are paid large amounts of money by EU nations and previously the US.
The US is a big nation so it can withstand the stupidity of some of our leaders.
U.S. Democratic Senate hopeful Kyrsten Sinema promoted events at Arizona State University featuring a lawyer convicted for aiding an Islamist terror organization whose member was convicted for attempting to blow up the United Nations, an FBI building, two tunnels and a bridge in New York City.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/senate-dem-hopeful-kyrsten-sinema-promoted-events-featuring-convicted-terror-lawyer
Israel doesn’t issue visas nor stamp passports as the traveler may be going to other countries where such a stamp proves the traveler may be a ‘spy.’ Or some such logic.
Security is serious business. We took our ship into the harbor nearest Tel Aviv to off load having come their from Turkey via Crete, Greece. Had to arrive at dusk and be gone by dawn. BUT they did set up a sort of booth for food, beverages, and souvenirs. And the booth operators did wear sabra shorts. Not a burkha to be seen. Went from their back to Crete and not a stamp in the passport that said anything.
In Long Beach, CA we tied up with one mostly asleep in a little shed gate guard who left the gate wide open.
An Israeli stamp on one’s passport can mean significant problems for a traveller and I think that is one of the reasons the Israeli’s don’t stamp passports. At least in the past if a passport contained an Israeli stamp visitors were denied entry. Those wanting a souvenir of their visit used to get a stamp on a seperate piece of paper.
One should look at the problems Israel faces with terrorism. There is a film of a woman who had severe difficulty with her first baby and Israel let her be admitted to one of their major hospitals saving her and her babies life. There is a video of her returning to Israel and being kept in a secure outdoor area until she could be cleared. She blew herself up in an attempt to kill those same Israeli’s that saved her life and the life of her child. There are many videos of this nature that demonstrate Arab terrorism where the terrorist had previously been helped by the Israeli’s.
I did not see a complaint when Lauren(sp?) Sothern (sp?) was held in customs in the UK and not allowed to enter the country plus being questioned at great length for a couple for days, before being kicked out of the country permanently. There is nothing unreasonable about this. You don’t want a rabble-rouser in your country, do you?
Their country, their laws and they do protect their borders. Unlike the USA where we have a rather large group that states ‘come on in’ large baggage and bombs to the left. Nor sells the manuals to make such devices for 99 cents. Think not? Available on Kindle and has been for years.
” I have always opposed such limits in this country and other countries in limiting entry based on political views or expression.”
Professor Turley I would love to agree with you. It is nice living where you are safe, but too many times incidents of this nature have led to violence leading the death of the individual involved, Palestinian activists and Israelis. How many of your four children and which ones are you willing to put on the line to demonstrate your opposition? Sometimes it is better to be practical than to be a frequent visitor to the graveyard.
The fault lies with those who commit violence, not with those who simply express disagreeable views.
For example, if you don’t like the Danish cartoons, boycott the paper. But if someone physically targets the cartoonists because he or she was “offended” or “incited”, then *that* person is the threat: not the original expression.
And you can make your point without invoking anyone’s specific family.
“And you can make your point without invoking anyone’s specific family.”
That is not true. It is easy to send another person’s child into battle than sending one’s own.
“The fault lies with those who commit violence”
That is absolutely true but unfortunately the outlook (or similar outlooks) of that woman can (and have) provided the source for increasing violence from others that are NOT citizens. She is a visitor, not a citizen . One need not permit non citizens entrance to one’s country when one believes that will stir violence and death by the country’s enemies.
” if you don’t like the Danish cartoons, boycott the paper.”
The problem is that those that didn’t like the Danish cartoons created violence and death. They don’t simply boycott. That girl stimulates that type of person that doesn’t boycott rather kills so I can easily understand why the Israeli government wishes to keep her out.
This article is a bit misleading. She is free to return to America at any time. Israel is only demanding this statement from her if she would like to enter Israel, and study at Hebrew University. Seems pretty reasonable to me.
If she is anti Israel why does she wish to ‘study’ at their University? Bit of a red flag especially from known activist.
“…she could be released if she apologizes and disavows any boycotting of Israel.”
That response certainly doesn’t echo a Taliban/IS tactic: just convert and submit, and then you’ll be free.
I thought the United States was spending billions every year to support a democracy, which protects disagreeable opinions and the right to protest.
‘support a democracy’ What Democracy is that? In case you haven’t bothered to read our basic law and contract/constitution we are a representative Constitutional Republic which includes some basic democratic principles but…
We are in no way a Democracy so I wondered where is this place some keep referring to without explanation.
(Founders openly rejected ‘democracy’ nine times during their two years of deliberation – who are you to state differently without offering an amendment?”)
The so called Democrats are themselves not democratic if they ever were and very very far from it.
Making false claims
Doesn’t win the game
But fits the name
Of the left wing so lame
If she is a bright college student, why would she choose to visit an apartheid terrorist cult that has engaged in ethnic cleansing for 75 years? It is unfortunate that her grandparents cannot live peacefully in their homeland.
Your mom want’s you out of the basement today.
TTP:
She does not. Her bridge club is upstairs.
Ahhh that explains it Palestine including Gaza have no airport so she chose the one most conveniently located. Why not just say so?
“I’m on my way to Gaza to help support apartheid terrorist cults engaged in ethnic cleansing.”
Thanks for the assist it makes things much clearer and the University ruse more understandable.
Problem is under our laws put in place by ONE circuit court judge with no votes nor dissent allowed we will probably have to let her back in but then why isn’t she on the no fly list for starters?
Sam, look around the region and tell us what you see other than the ethnic cleansing of anyone not Muslim. Take note how any other religion is prevented, any alterative ideas are prevented, gays are thrown off of roofs, women are mistreated, torture is the norm. Are you blind?
Then look at Israel where Muslims are in its Knesset and on its Supreme Court and where other religions are permitted to pray and citizens can advocate their positions that can even be the same as that girl being denied entry.
Tell us where the ethnic cleansing has occurred. The ethnic cleansing occurred in the countries that surround Israel where 700,000 – 800,000 had to leave under the threat of death. They had to leave all their posessions. You have a warped view of history.
“We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.” ― Golda Meir
I’m not a fan of Israel, a country that is using the same colonial tactics on the Palestinians that the Europeans used on the people they came across in the Western Hemisphere, Australia, New Zealand, etc. Israel is at war and you don’t complicate stuff when you are at war. You just slaughter ten + of the other side for every one you lose, bulldoze their villages, discriminate at the building department, etc. You don’t let enemy combatants in to infiltrate your universities.
Works for me. Those of the NYC faction seem to think differenty and California even more so “Come bomb my city.” seems to be a fashion statement for the extremists. Hmmmm whose gaurding Pelosi and Feinsteins and Schumers houses? No matter they wanted open borders let them suffer the consequences.
“NYC faction”
They talk the story but those people seem to protect themselves with people that carry guns and have all sorts of assault weapons at their disposal. They are absolute hypocrites that desire power, wealth and safety.
I would not want her coming to Ferguson and stirring up a mob from nearby Dellwood to burn stores or defame Ferguson. Michael Brown’s mom needs to be shotgunned off the pulpit.
You mean the mother of the unarmed 18 year old who was killed by an officer who claimed the boy looked like a demon to him? So by responding by running for office when she gets no justice you think she should be likewise killed unarmed? I wonder if you’d feel the same where she not AA…
He had two arms, which he used to throttle a convenience store owner.
If you’d like to avoid being shot dead by a police officer, it helps to avoid attacking him, trying to take his duty gun away from him, and charging him when he tells you to stop in place and continuing to charge him when he puts a bullet in your deltoid muscle to emphasize the point.
Don’t see the problem. She has no right to enter Israel. A reasonable condition on any alien visitor is that they not harbor ill-will towards the host country. It’s it a First Amendment issue. From the article: “Lara served as president of a chapter of one of the most extreme and hate-filled anti-Israel BDS groups in the U.S.,” said Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan, who spearheads the Israeli government’s efforts against the boycott. “Israel will not allow entry to those who work to harm the country, whatever their excuse.” Seems prudent for a country surrounded by Arab enemies.
She’s an enemy alien and properly deported. Detaining her and insisting on canned apologies is taking advantage, and American consular personnel need to wail on Israel’s security services.
Except that Israel is at war and could reasonably construe this person as an enemy combatant.
She’s not a combatant. She’s a public nuisance. Send her on the next plane to Miami and don’t give her any more visas.
It’s ‘whale on’ meaning a massive hit. not ‘wail’ a feeble basement ‘but but but.’
The “D” in BDS is for “divest,” but is really a euphemism for “destroy.” How might she be treated for similar association in, say, Iran? Might the “D” then stand for “disappeared”? She should have avoided Ben Gurion Airport and flown instead from Amman.
1. Why was she issued a visa?
2. Why didn’t they just deport her?
(Parenthetically, if she’s a BDShole, why is she traveling to Israel?)
Tabarrok, I can’t answer #2 for you, but I can answer #1. Americans don’t need to obtain a visa in advance to visit Israel. We can just go there. I took my mother and daughters there this past August.