A student from Gaza who had been granted a scholarship to study in France was expelled from the country on Sunday due to virulently antisemitic content found on her social media accounts, France’s foreign ministry announced, reported the AFP news agency.
According to the ministry, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot "stressed the unacceptable nature of the comments made by Ms. Nour Attaalah, a Gazan student, before she entered French territory."
"Given their seriousness, Ms. Attaalah could not remain on French territory. She left France today to go to Qatar to continue her studies there," the statement added.
Attaalah, who had received a government scholarship as part of a program for students from Gaza, was scheduled to begin studies at Sciences Po Lille in the upcoming academic term. She arrived in France on July 11, according to a diplomatic source.
However, previously deleted posts from the past two years were discovered on her social media accounts, including calls for violence against Jews. A judicial investigation has since been launched, examining possible incitement to terrorism and probing how the inflammatory content escaped detection prior to her entry.
While AFP was unable to independently verify the screenshots circulated online, Sciences Po Lille confirmed that her social media posts had been authenticated.
In response, Barrot announced on Friday that France is suspending all student evacuation programs from Gaza pending the outcome of the investigation.
France has seen a sharp rise in antisemitism since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 massacre in Israel and the war in Gaza which followed.
In late July, dozens of anti-Israel activists staged a demonstration in Dieulefit, a southeastern French town recognized as a "Town of the Just" for sheltering Jews during World War II. The protest coincided with the Tour de France peloton passing through the town.
Demonstrators waved Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) flags, held signs, and chanted slogans such as "Free Palestine" along the race route. A banner reading "Affamer c’est tuer" ("Starving is killing") was prominently displayed. One house was draped in PLO flags.
That incident came a week after a man was arrested in Toulouse after running onto the race course wearing a T-shirt reading "Israel out of the Tour" and waving a black and white keffiyeh. He is set to stand trial for endangering riders and refusing to provide identification.
At the start of June, French Rabbi Elie Lemmel revealed he had been attacked twice within a single week.
According to testimonies brought forward during a recent Knesset discussion, antisemitic incidents in France have surged by a whopping 185%.
In late May, four sites connected to the Jewish community were vandalized in the Marais district of central Paris.
The sites included a Holocaust memorial, the Tournelles Synagogue, the "Chez Marianne" restaurant, and the Agoudath HaKehilot Synagogue; all were defaced with green paint.
A month prior, a 70-year-old Jewish man was brutally attacked in the town of Anduze, near Alès in France.
The elderly man, wearing a kippah and tzitzit, was feeding cats in the street when a drunk man approached him, demanding money. When the victim refused, the attacker punched and kicked him, while calling him a "dirty Jew" repeatedly, eyewitnesses said.