(JNS) An Israeli court heard an appeal on Thursday from a BDS activist denied entry into the country. This is the second known such case this month.

Isabel Phiri, a senior official in the World Council of Churches, which represents about 350 churches of various denominations, was rejected in December 2016 from entering Israel to partake in the WCC’s annual Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel.

EAPPI, whose mission is to bring thousands of volunteers to Judaea and Samaria to “witness life under occupation,” receives funds from many European governments and church groups. EAPPI also trains anti-Israel activists.

“Policy-makers and the courts will decide whether Isabel Phiri should be allowed into Israel. But there should be no doubt about the deeply problematic nature of the World Council of Churches, with a long history of antisemitism and anti-Israel hostility,” said NGO Monitor president Gerald Steinberg. “Its most grievous sin is EAPPI, for which this is no parallel anywhere in the world and is a vehicle for training BDS activists.”

This development is amid an Israeli appeals court hearing the case of 22-year-old Lara Alqasem, who was denied entry into the Jewish state earlier this month to do graduate work at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Her case is pending.

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