By
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli authorities on Thursday deported a prominent French journalist after she was refused entry upon landing at the country’s main international airport the day before, her employer and the Foreign Press Association in Israel said.Alice Froussard, who has worked for years in Israel and the Palestinian territories, arrived at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport on a flight from Paris on Wednesday, according to Radio France Internationale, the public radio news network for which she often reported.Froussard had the required travel authorization and had applied for a press visa to work in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, RFI said. But when she arrived, Froussard was questioned, held and then sent back on a plane to France. “Israeli authorities have not provided RFI with any explanation for the decision,” the network said in a statement.
French Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Pascal Confavreux, said France had mobilized its diplomatic network to support Froussard, but that the decision to deport her “nevertheless falls within the sovereign authority of the Israeli authorities.”
Several Israeli media outlets quoted the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism as saying it recommended Froussard be denied entry for coverage that was critical of Israeli actions in Gaza and the West Bank, including using the word “apartheid” to describe government policies toward Palestinians.
