Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Omar Barghouti (born 1964) is a founding committee member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and a co-founder of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
Barghouti was born in Qatar, grew up in Egypt and later moved to Jaffa in Israel as an adult. He holds a master's degree in electrical engineering from Columbia University. Although Barghouti actively lobbies for worldwide economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel, Barghouti himself is currently studying at Tel Aviv University (TAU). He holds a master's degree in philosophy (ethics) from the university, and is pursuing a PhD. When interviewed regarding his degree from TAU, Barghouti commented: "my studies at Tel Aviv University are a personal matter and I have no interest in commenting." A petition was created that drew over 184,000 signatories asking for the university to expel him, but he was not expelled. In a 2015 interview with the Associated Press, Barghouti said Palestinians "cannot possibly observe the same boycott guidelines as asked of internationals" and that they had the right to use what they can get.
Joel Fishman of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, in reviewing Barghouti's 2010 book, says, regarding the land, that "Barghouti argues that the Palestinians have inalienable rights, while those of the Jews were acquired, even if they received international recognition" which he says "makes the Palestinians more equal than the Jews, and historically is wrong".
After Barghouti published an opinion piece supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement in the New York Daily News in February 2013, the Daily News itself responded with an editorial saying that Barghouti is "skilled as a propagandist" and that "he piles falsehood upon falsehood to present Israel as relentlessly oppressing the Palestinians in violation of human decency, and to hold Israel exclusively responsible for the ills afflicting them." The Daily News says that Barghouti wants a "secular, democratic state built on an influx of Arabs who come to dominate the population and vote an end to Israel as a Jewish nation. That, ultimately, is the nefarious truth behind his libels."
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