Israel Deports And Smears French Journalist Who Has Long Covered The West Bank

After Israeli authorities questioned French journalist Alice Froussard at the airport in Tel Aviv, she was barred from entering the country and deported on June 11. 

Amichai Chikli, a minister of “diaspora and combating antisemitism,” posted on social media, “I am pleased to announce that at this very moment, Alice Froussard, a French journalist who supports Hamas, and who claims that the October 7 massacre must be viewed ‘in context,’ is making her way from Ben Gurion Airport back to Paris.” 

He added that Froussard was the latest person to learn that Israel “has run out of patience for Hamas supporters and for those who support sanctions and boycotts against it.”

Of course, this is a smear on the part of Chikli and any other Israeli official. It is another example of why Israel is ranked 116 out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) global press freedom index.

The Foreign Press Association in Israel condemned the deportation and pointed out that Froussard’s “digital entry authorization to Israel” had been approved. She also had long worked in “Israel and the Palestinian Territories for RFI [Radio France Internationale] and Radio France for many years, and the allegations made against our colleague are outrageous.”

“We find it especially alarming that a government minister would boast about this on social media to his supporters,” the association added, demanding that the Israeli government immediately reverse the decision to ban Froussard. 

Jonathan Dagher, who is the head of RSF’s desk in the Middle East, praised Froussard for being one of the few “courageous foreign journalists” willing to cover “the occupied Palestinian territories alongside her Palestinian colleagues despite the growing security risks.”

“Preventing her from doing her job shows just how far the Israeli authorities are willing to go to deprive the global public of news coming out of Palestine,” Dagher declared. “They’ve imposed a media blackout on Gaza for nearly three years and now they’re further restricting reporting from the West Bank. We stand in solidarity with Alice Froussard, condemn her expulsion, and call on the Israeli authorities to immediately lift this absurd ban, which violates all norms of international law.”

“RSF had already warned in recent weeks of growing Israeli pressure on international media, citing the entry ban imposed on Spanish journalist Queralt Castillo, as well as the revocation of the visas of French journalist Khadija Toufik and Italian journalist Alessandro Stefanelli,” the press freedom organization further emphasized.

Chikli, as Le Monde noted, justified labeling Froussard a “Hamas supporter” by pointing to social media posts from her that said that the Israeli military had committed massacres in Gaza. She also appropriately referred to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank as apartheid.

Previously, Chikli, known for engaging in virulent anti-Muslim racism, was accused of making a terrorism threat against the president of the Hind Rajab Foundation when he posted on January 6, 2025, “Hello to our human rights activist. Watch your pager.” 

Chikli was referring to the violence carried out by Israeli intelligence in September 2024, where more than 5,000 pagers were detonated in Lebanon. It killed 12 people and injured more than 2,800 people. (Hind Rajab was a five-year-old Palestinian girl who died after the Israeli military wounded her and blocked emergency medical crews from rescuing her.)

RSF posted further details about Froussard’s deportation, indicating that she landed at 10 p.m. on June 10. Border officers detained her and held her in custody for more than 10 hours. She was headed to Ramallah for an “official reporting assignment” for RFI. 

“The official entry denial order, issued by Israel’s Border Control Administration and seen by RSF, cited ‘public security or public safety, or public order considerations’ as well as “prevention of illegal immigration considerations,’ according to RSF. “Yet the journalist was carrying all required documentation, including a valid visa and an official contract with RFI.”

It is possible that Froussard was singled out for retaliation after France barred Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich from visiting France for “incitement to violence” and advocating for the “annexation of the West Bank.” (Smotrich called for further genocide in April 2024, saying that there were “no half measures.” Palestinians deserved “total annihilation. 'Thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.' There is no place for them under heaven.”)

Maliciously labeling Froussard a "Hamas supporter" is standard for the Israeli government when it intends to suppress speech or freedom of the press. For example, in October 2024, the Israeli military insisted Anas al-Sharif was tied to Hamas in a fabricated dossier. He was singled out along with Al Jazeera journalists Hossam Shabat, Ismail Abu Omar, and Talal al-Arouqi. Months later, the Israeli military targeted and killed al-Sharif and Shabat, and Abu Omar and al-Arouqi barely survived bombings.

The Israeli government has prohibited at least 2,800 international journalists from entering Gaza for the past two and a half years. Only reporters, who agree to embed with the Israeli military and subject themselves to interference from military officers, are permitted access. 

On April 1, 2024, Israel’s legislative body known as the Knesset passed a law that gave Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu the authority to ban any media organization that the government designated as a “national security threat.” The law was explicitly adopted to ban Al Jazeera. 

Groups like RSF, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Freedom of the Press Foundation, Amnesty International USA, and PEN America have spent the last few years demanding that United States officials confront the Israeli government over its blockade against international journalists entering Gaza. They have also challenged Israel over the staggering number of press that the country has killed.

As of June, the Israeli military, which is armed and fully backed by the U.S. government, has killed over 250 journalists, earning Israel the distinction of “worst enemy” of the press.