Israel deports French journalist over coverage critical of its policies in Gaza and the West Bank

Audio By Carbonatix

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.

In a post on X, Israel's Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, Amichai Chikli, celebrated her deportation. “I am pleased to announce that at this very moment, Alice Froussard, a French journalist who supports Hamas, and who claims that the October 7 massacre must be viewed ‘in context,’ is making her way from Ben Gurion Airport back to Paris,” he wrote.

The Foreign Press Association, a nonprofit representing journalists who work for international outlets in Israel and the Palestinian territories, called the allegations against Froussard “outrageous.”

“This is not the first case in which the Israeli government decides that the journalist coverage is ‘one-sided,’” the FPA said in a statement.

While not unprecedented, the deportation of a foreign journalist from Israel is unusual. Press freedom groups have condemned Israel for its attacks on journalists since the start of the Gaza war on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas and other militant groups attacked Israeli communities, killing around 1,200 people and abducting 251 others.

Since then, Israeli forces have killed 259 media workers and journalists, mostly in Gaza but also in conflicts in Iran, Lebanon and Yemen, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a nonprofit promoting press freedom worldwide.

___

Sylvie Corbet contributed reporting from Paris.