Omar Barghouti

Don't deny our rights: open letter to Mahmoud Abbas

Saleh Abdel-Jawad, Abdul-Rahim Al-Shaikh, Naseer Aruri, Mourid Barghouti, Omar Barghouti, Ramzy Baroud, George Bisharat, Haidar Eid, Samera Esmeir, Wael Hallaq, Nadia Hijab, Jamil Hilal, Islah Jad, Hatem Kanaaneh, Ghada Karmi, Nur Masalha, Joseph Massad, Jean Said Makdisi, Saree Makdisi, Zakaria Muhammad, Karma Nabulsi and Eyad al-Sarraj 29 July 2010


No Palestinian institution or leader has ever accepted an exclusive Jewish claim to Palestine, which is irreconcilable with the internationally recognized rights of the Palestinian people. Our rights inhere in us as a people; they are not yours to do with as you please. 

UN must act on Goldstone and the PA must be dissolved

Omar Barghouti 5 October 2009


Succumbing to US pressure and unabashed Israeli blackmail, Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the Ramallah Palestinian Authority (PA), was reportedly personally responsible for the decision to defer UN Security Council consideration of the Goldstone report. This dashed the hopes of Palestinians everywhere as well as those of international human rights organizations and solidarity movements, that Israel would finally face a long overdue process of legal accountability and that its victims would have a measure of justice. 

United for freedom and universal justice

Omar Barghouti and Sid Shniad 31 July 2009


For years, many people who might have played an active role in striving for an end to Israeli occupation and other violations of Palestinian rights, have stayed silent, loathe to be attacked for criticizing Israel lest they be vilified as anti-Semites. All over the world, people are breaking free of this fear, including significant numbers of Jews, and uniting to support boycott, divestment and sanctions. Omar Barghouti and Sid Shniad comment. 

Putting words of support into boycott action

Adri Nieuwhof and Omar Barghouti 5 May 2009


The Derail Veolia and Alstom Campaign, operating in full coordination with the leadership of the Palestinian Boycott Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), is in full swing. After Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad criticized Israel in Geneva, the BNC called on Iran to cut its business ties with Veolia Environment and Alstom. The French transportation giants are involved in the Israeli light rail project in occupied Jerusalem, linking the city with the illegal settlements on Palestinian land. Adri Nieuwhof and Omar Barghouti comment for The Electronic Intifada. 

Is the UN complicit in Israel's massacre in Gaza?

Omar Barghouti 1 January 2009


The UN’s complicity in Israel’s propaganda war is the latest, albeit hardly ever mentioned, dimension of the international organization’s utter failure in defending its principles, foremost among which are the prevention of war and the promotion of peace, when performing such a duty is expected to stir the wrath of the US master and the uniquely influential Israel lobby. Not only has the UN Secretary-General betrayed the very Charter of the UN and all relevant international law principles by failing to even condemn Israel’s massacre of civilians and targeting of civilian institutions and residential neighborhoods. Omar Barghouti comments for The Electronic Intifada. 

Boycotting Israeli settlement products: tactic vs. strategy

Omar Barghouti 11 November 2008


There has been a spate of recent news reports on international companies moving out of the Occupied Palestinian Territories to locations inside the internationally-recognized boundary between Israel and the West Bank. The impression is made that boycotting products originating in Israel’s illegal colonies in the West Bank is on its way to becoming mainstream, handing the growing boycott, divestment and sanctions movement with a fresh, substantial victory. The Electronic Intifada contributor Omar Barghouti comments. 

What we really need! A response to anti-boycott arguments

Omar Barghouti 23 October 2008


Since the launch of the Palestinian boycott movement a few years ago, we have experienced an awkward phenomenon that demands urgent comment. Several organizations known for years — in some cases, decades — for their tireless Palestine solidarity work stood firmly against the Palestinian civil society Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, issued on 9 July 2005, for various reasons. EI contributor Omar Barghouti responds to their arguments against the boycott campaign. 

Don't dance for apartheid

Omar Barghouti 15 September 2008


Israeli security officers at Ben-Gurion Airport last week forced an African-American member of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater to perform twice for them in order to prove he was a dancer before letting him enter the country. Abdur-Rahim Jackson felt humiliated and “deeply saddened,” particularly because his Arab/Muslim sounding first name was the reason that he was the only member of his company subjected to this typical Israeli ethnic profiling. Omar Barghouti comments. 

The most reliable path to freedom

Omar Barghouti 8 June 2008


For cynics who still consider the above too little progress for the given timeframe, I can only reiterate what a South African comrade once told us: “The [African National Congress] issued its academic boycott call in the 1950s; the international community started to heed it almost three decades later! So you guys are doing much better than us.” EI contributor Omar Barghouti argues that boycott, divestment and sanctions are the most reliable and moral path to freedom, justice, equality and peace in Palestine and the entire Middle East.