France expels Gaza student Nour Attaalah over alleged antisemitic posts
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Sunday that Nour Attaalah, a Palestinian student from Gaza, left France for Qatar after alleged antisemitic posts linked to her social media account were discovered.
In a ministry statement, Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot “stressed the unacceptable nature of the comments made by Ms. Nour Attaalah, a Gazan student, before she entered French territory.”
"Nour Attaalah has left the national territory. She had no place here. I said it, and we did it," Barrot said on X.
Nour Attaalah a quitté le territoire national. Elle n’y avait pas sa place. Je l’avais dit, nous l’avons fait. Ce départ n’aurait pas été possible sans la mobilisation décisive des agents du Quai d’Orsay, et de ceux qui les ont appuyés : je les en remercie.
— Jean-Noël Barrot (@jnbarrot) August 3, 2025
Attaalah had arrived in France on July 11 with a study visa and a government scholarship to attend the Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) in Lille starting this September. The scholarship is part of a program launched a year ago aimed at supporting students from Gaza.
However, posts from a now-closed social media account attributed to Attaalah, allegedly calling for "violence against Jews" over the past two years, led to the cancellation of her enrollment and a judicial investigation on charges of glorifying terrorism. Another inquiry was opened to determine why these posts were not flagged earlier.
The Lille Institute of Political Studies confirmed on Wednesday that the comments attributed to Attaalah on social media were verified, without providing further details.
Attaalah’s lawyer, Ossama Dahmane, stated that she chose “in consultation with the Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs” to continue her studies elsewhere, “in a spirit of calm and to preserve her safety,” while strongly denying the accusations. He explained that the allegations are mainly based on tweets she reshared that were taken out of context.
The controversy has prompted Minister Barrot to suspend all evacuation programs from Gaza pending the results of an investigation into the failure to detect the posts earlier.
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs also thanked Qatari authorities for their decisive cooperation in facilitating Attaalah’s transfer.
