Gazan student accused of anti-Semitic remarks leaves France for Qatar

The Gazan student who arrived in France on a scholarship before old anti-Semitic posts on her social media were revealed left France on Sunday, August 3, for Qatar, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced.

"The Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël 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 [Sunday] to go to Qatar to continue her studies there," the Quai d'Orsay wrote in a press release.

The ministry "thanks the Qatari authorities for their decisive cooperation." "Nour Attaalah has left the national territory. She had no place there. I said it, we did it," Jean-Noël Barrot said in a message on the social network X.

The young woman, who received a student visa and a government scholarship as part of a program for Gazan students, was due to join Sciences Po Lille in the fall. She arrived in France on July 11, according to a French diplomatic source.

But the discovery of social media posts calling for the killing of Jews over the past two years, which have since been deleted, led to his deregistration, a judicial investigation for condoning terrorism, and an inquiry into why this had not been detected in the first place.

Agence France-Presse (AFP) was unable to confirm the screenshots attributed to the student by internet users and media outlets. Sciences Po Lille said Wednesday that "the young woman's comments on social media are confirmed," without providing further details.

The heated controversy surrounding this affair led Jean-Noël Barrot to announce on Friday that France was freezing all its evacuation programs from Gaza pending the outcome of an investigation into the flaws that prevented the detection of these publications. When contacted by AFP, the Quai d'Orsay did not specify how many people were affected by this decision, citing confidentiality reasons.