Paris (AFP) – A student from Gaza who had been studying in France on a scholarship left for Qatar Sunday, ordered out over anti-Semitic comments found on her social media accounts, the foreign ministry said.
Foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot "stressed the unacceptable nature of the comments made by Nour Attaalah, a Gazan student, before she entered French territory", said the ministry statement.
"Given their seriousness, Ms Attaalah could not remain on French territory. She left France today to go to Qatar to continue her studies there," it added.
The student's lawyer, Ossama Dahmane, said Attaalah had chosen to "pursue her studies in another country in a spirit of appeasement and to guarantee her security", even if "she firmly denies the accusations made against her".
The young woman, who had received a student visa and a government scholarship as part of a program for Gazan students, had been due to join Sciences Po Lille in the autumn.
She arrived in France on 11 July, according to a French diplomatic source.
But social media posts from the past two years calling for the killing of Jews, since deleted, were discovered.
France halts Gaza evacuations over antisemitic posts by Palestinian student
Judicial probe
That led to a judicial investigation for condoning terrorism, and an inquiry to determine why the posts had not been detected in advance.
AFP was unable to confirm the screen shots attributed to her by internet users and media outlets, but Sciences Po Lille said Wednesday that her social media comments had been confirmed, without elaborating.
Dahmane, the lawyer, said the "alleged facts are largely based on shared tweets, taken out of context".
Barrot said Friday that France was freezing all its student evacuation programs from Gaza pending the outcome of the investigation into how the posts had been missed.
The foreign ministry would not say how many students have been affected, citing privacy reasons.
France has allowed in several hundred students from Gaza since the start of the war between Israel and the Hamas movement.
