A Gazan scholarship recipient bound for Sciences Po Lille has left France under an expulsion order after officials uncovered anti-Semitic remarks on her social-media accounts, the French Foreign Ministry said Sunday.
According to a ministry statement, Digital Affairs Minister Jean-Noël Barrot deemed the comments posted by Nour Attaalah “unacceptable,” adding that their gravity made her continued stay “impossible.” Attaalah departed for Qatar earlier in the day, where she intends to resume her studies.
Attaalah’s lawyer, Ossama Dahmane, insisted she “categorically denies” the accusations but opted to relocate “to calm tensions and ensure her safety.”
The 22-year-old student arrived in France on 11 July with a government scholarship under a program that has brought several hundred Gazan students to French universities since the Gaza war began. Soon after, social-media posts from the past two years—allegedly advocating violence against Jews—surfaced online. The posts, since deleted, triggered:
- A criminal probe for condoning terrorism.
- An internal investigation into how the remarks escaped vetting during her visa process.
While AFP could not independently verify the screenshots, Sciences Po Lille said Wednesday that Attaalah’s posts had been authenticated.
Barrot has now suspended all student-evacuation schemes from Gaza pending the outcome of the investigation. The Foreign Ministry declined to reveal how many other students might be affected, citing privacy rules.