One of the co-founders of BDS and outspoken mouthpiece for the movement, Omar Barghouti tours the world promoting the movement. He speaks at universities, invited by groups that support the academic boycott of the Jewish State. He speaks at pro-Palestinian events about the merits of boycotting Israeli products. He is an active and vocal proponent of the BDS movement. Unlike his more moderate counterparts, Barghouti is not driven by a desire to see two states living side by side, in peace and security. He wants to wipe Israel off the map. Barghouti wants to transform Israel into a Palestinian state with a Muslim Majority. He plans to do this by calling for individuals, organizations, businesses and countries to boycott, divest from, or sanction Israel. It would seem, however that Omar Barghouti has a hard time abiding by his own guidelines.
Barghouti believes not in a two-state solution, but in a binational state which would effectively replace the State of Israel. He even calls to restore the name to “Palestine” for the entire area from the river to the sea. Omar Barghouti believes that the creation of a Jewish state was a crime and sees all of Israel as having been “ethnically cleansed” by Jews. Barghouti is against the very idea of a Jewish State existing within any borders. He calls for a right of return for Palestinians to lands they abandoned in 1948 during the Israeli war of independence. As he put it, “If the refugees were to return, you would not have a two-state solution, you’d have a Palestine next to a Palestine”. Barghouti’s answer to the problem would be to wipe Israel off the map and create, in its place, the majority Arab state of Palestine. He claims in an interview with pro-Palestinian magazine, +972 that the boycott will not end until the “discrimination” against Palestinians ceases. He claims that Israel discriminates against Palestinians by not letting them “hold government jobs” or land. Barghouti is deceptively leaving out the almost 2 million Israeli Arabs living in Israel. He ignores those Palestinian Arabs who chose to accept the citizenship Israel offered to them upon its founding and their descendants. They are citizens of Israel who hold government office, serve on the Supreme Court, have access to education and jobs like any other citizen. By “discrimination”, Barghouti means Israel’s not granting citizenship to Palestinians who live outside the green line in Judea and Samaria, East Jerusalem, and Gaza When Barghouti talks about Palestinians being denied government jobs, he is talking about Palestinians who have their own elected, albeit only once, governments(Hamas in Gaza or the PA in the West Bank and East Jerusalem). Their governments, collect their own taxes, issue their own passports, and have their own security forces, schools, and hospitals. These Palestinians have their own government and do not want Israeli citizenship. Unfortunately, the Palestinian populations have also been fed incitement by their leaders to murder innocent Israeli civilians in the street. The Palestinians beyond the green line don’t want to live in a state with thei Jewish neighbors. They are taught to hate Jews from the time moment they are born. They have no desire to be Israeli and are, with increasing frequency, hostile towards the Jewish State. His use of the word “discrimination” is purposely deceptive in order to demonize Israel and he exonerates Palestinian leaders and Palestinians themselves of any responsibility in the situation.
Barghouti’s radical stance is what fuels the ideology behind the BDS movement. The same extremist ideas of an acceptable resolution to the conflict, which has claimed so many lives is a driving force behind the movement he helped found. Being one of the founders of the BDS movement, one would think he would be the most strict about avoiding Israeli products and institutions in his own life. But, as is too often the case with pseudo-revolutionaries, Barghouti doesn’t practice what he preaches. He attended Tel Aviv University and holds a PhD from the Israeli academic institution. When questioned about the hypocrisy of calling for an academic boycott of Israel while studying at one, Barghouti said that Palestinians, “have no choice but to use the services of the oppressor.” But Barghouti fails to mention that there are 12 Universities in the West Bank, 1 in East Jerusalem and 9 in Gaza. Seems like Barghouti had a choice and he chose Israel. He also holds a degree from Columbia University. Instead of supporting Palestinian institutions, Barghouti chose to go to foreign schools.
Barghouti also, as pictured above, uses products with embedded Israeli technology and more than likely benefits from Israeli medical and agricultural breakthroughs. When it suits him, Barghouti is willing to bend on his moral outrage. Instead of living up to his own standards, he chooses to abandon his principles and to break his own boycott. However, he expects that other Palestinians boycott Israel. “The biggest challenge now is to explain to the Palestinian people what [the boycott] means and how they themselves can become effective in boycotting Israeli products,” says Barghouti. Maybe it is such a challenge because he is setting such a bad example. Barghouti is a hypocrite and rationalizes his own weak moral standing when it suits him. How anyone can take him seriously is puzzling. If a movement’s own leader cannot adhere to the cause’s core values, perhaps it is time to recognize the impractical, and ultimately pointless, nature of the movement.
