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dir="ltr"> <font size="-2"><a id="reader-domain" class="domain"
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/video-bds-challenges-israel-and-partners-crime-says-omar-barghouti">https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/video-bds-challenges-israel-and-partners-crime-says-omar-barghouti</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">Video: BDS challenges Israel and "partners
in crime," says Omar Barghouti</h1>
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<div id="reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr" style="text-align:
left;">April 25, 2017<br>
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<p>On Sunday, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/omar-barghouti">Omar
Barghouti</a> was presented with the <a
href="http://www.gandhipeaceaward.org">Gandhi Peace
Award</a> at a ceremony in New Haven, Connecticut.</p>
<p>He was recognized for his role as a human rights
defender and co-founder of the boycott, divestment and
sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian freedom,
justice and equality.</p>
<p>Barghouti was introduced by Rebecca Vilkomerson,
director of <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/jewish-voice-peace">Jewish
Voice for Peace</a>, who cited his role in pushing her
organization to fully endorse the Palestinian call for
BDS.</p>
<p>“Twelve years ago, we were called romantic dreamers or
worse,” Barghouti said in his acceptance speech,
recalling the beginnings of the BDS movement. “Today,
our fast-growing movement is recognized as being so
strong as to be fought by the full force of Israel’s
regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid,
and by its partners in crime in the United States,
Europe, Canada and Australia, among others.”</p>
<p>Dedicating the award to <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/israel-punishes-hunger-strikers-demanding-their-rights">hunger-striking
Palestinian prisoners</a> and Palestinian refugees,
Barghouti said the monetary sum that comes with it would
be equally divided among Black Lives Matter and four
other US organizations that work for Palestinian rights.</p>
<p>Watch the whole speech in the video above.</p>
<h2>Israel lobby upset</h2>
<p>In a sign of how fearful major US institutions remain
of offending Israel’s powerful lobby, Yale University,
where the ceremony took place, issued what a local
newspaper <a
href="http://www.nhregister.com/general-news/20170423/nader-israel-critic-barghouti-given-gandhi-peace-awards-in-new-haven-yale-disavows-views">called</a>
“an unusual statement distancing the university from
endorsing the Gandhi event.”</p>
<p>By contrast, the university has <a
href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3787486,00.html">openly
honored</a> Israeli leaders such as Tzipi Livni, who
is <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/did-war-crimes-summons-force-tzipi-livni-cancel-brussels-trip">wanted
for questioning by prosecutors</a> in several
countries over her role in war crimes in the Gaza Strip.</p>
<p>On Monday, <em>The New Haven Register</em> published
an <a
href="http://www.nhregister.com/opinion/20170424/forum-honoring-those-like-barghouti-will-make-enduring-peace-much-less-attainable">article</a>
by leaders of local Israel lobby groups attacking
Barghouti and smearing the BDS movement.</p>
<h2>Israeli harassment</h2>
<p>Barghouti’s attendance at the Yale ceremony had been in
doubt. As part of its effort to crush the BDS movement,
Israel has targeted him for harassment.</p>
<p>In the past year, Barghouti has been subjected to a <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-temporarily-lifts-travel-ban-bds-co-founder-omar-barghouti">travel
ban</a> and open threats by Israel’s top ministers.</p>
<p>During a “Stop the Boycott” conference held in
Jerusalem last year, Gilad Erdan, Israel’s public
security and strategic affairs minister, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/eu-envoy-refuses-condemn-israeli-threats-against-bds-activists">vowed</a>
that BDS activists “will know they will pay a price for
it.”</p>
<p>Singling out Barghouti, Erdan, who is responsible for
spearheading Israel’s assault on the global BDS
movement, added, “We will soon be hearing more of our
friend Barghouti.”</p>
<p>During the same conference, which was attended by EU
and US diplomats, Israel’s intelligence minister Yisrael
Katz called for the thwarting of the BDS leadership,
using the same Hebrew term used by the military for
“targeted killing,” or extrajudicial execution.</p>
<p>In the latest chapter of that campaign, in mid-March,
Israeli authorities <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israeli-allegations-against-omar-barghouti-fabricated-boycott-movement">detained
and interrogated Barghouti</a> over several days in a
tax fraud investigation.</p>
<p>Barghouti has <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/under-israeli-gag-order-omar-barghouti-urges-more-bds">condemned</a>
the investigation as part of Israel’s “McCarthyite witch
hunt” and denounced the “vicious lies published by
Israel’s regime against me.”</p>
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