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Israel looks to wall in the BDS movement

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(Image: Carlos Latuff)

Israel has imposed a travel ban on BDS movement co-founder Omar Barghouti:

Israel has officially refused to renew the travel document of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement co-founder Omar Barghouti in a move that amounts to a travel ban and is an escalation of its attacks on Palestinian human rights defenders who nonviolently advocate for Palestinian rights under international law.

Barghouti, who lives with his family in Acre, has Israeli permanent residency and requires an Israeli travel document to be able to travel in and out of Palestine/Israel. His immediate reaction was: “I am unnerved but certainly undeterred by these threats. Nothing will stop me from struggling for my people’s freedom, justice and peace”.

Israel’s decision not to grant a renewal of the travel document on baseless bureaucratic pretenses is being viewed by human rights experts as the first step towards revoking Barghouti’s permanent residency.

Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri had threatened as much at a recent anti-BDS conference held in Jerusalem when he disclosed that he was “inclined to fulfill” a request he had received from a far-right Israeli member of parliament to revoke Barghouti’s permanent residency.

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Another brilliant cartoon. Wish there was a compendium I could buy . No doubt if Carlos was living in JSIL he would be banned from doing everything and anything by the Yahoo despite the latter`s “I am Charlie – look I am right of the front of the march” credentials.

Travel bans though may simply be the tip of the iceberg for undesirables in JSIL and the Stolen Territories if Shake Head and co get their way which no doubt they will. Perhaps they are working from a previous schedule:
http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/voices/info/decrees/decrees.html

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Great cartoon and title to this piece. You’re spot on!

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They are losing billions of valuable dollars because of the BDS movement. Despite the bravado shown by their paid trolls here, it must be hitting them hard. They may try to wall in this movement in the US and some parts of the EU, but they cannot succeed. The Palestinians have sympathy from most people of the world, and if BDS tapped it the right way, Israel will find this effort harder than they expect. BDS needs more publicity, to make the people around the world be more aware of what is being done to help the long suffering Palestinians.

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Today at the daily briefing at the State Dept, it was Ms Trudeau’s turn to be clueless.

QUESTION: Okay. The Israelis have imposed a travel ban on the BDS, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions founder, or co-founder, Omar Barghouti.

MS TRUDEAU: Yeah.

QUESTION: Do you have any comment on that, they’re preventing —

MS TRUDEAU: So we’ve seen the reports. We would refer you to the Israelis for comments.

QUESTION: Okay. Well, I tell you what, because last month, earlier last month, there was a conference to – actually to counter BDS, a conference that was attended by the American ambassador and so on. And in fact, one of those present giving speeches by – from the Israeli side basically threatened Mr. Barghouti directly, and he implicitly called that maybe they ought to be targeted and assassinated and so on. Do you – you don’t find this a bit disturbing that Israel is using – uses whatever tactics to prevent this activism that is largely peaceful?

MS TRUDEAU: So I can’t speak to those comments. I haven’t seen those specific comments. I know we talked about this conference before.

QUESTION: Right.

MS TRUDEAU: I would say, as a general principle, we support freedom of movement for Palestinians and permanent residents of Israel.

QUESTION: Okay. Because Israel seems to be doing this against journalists, against activists and so on. Do you call on them not – to sort of cease and desist?

MS TRUDEAU: I don’t think anyone should question the U.S. Government on freedom of expression.

QUESTION: Okay. I have to a couple more. Sorry, I have a couple more questions on Palestinian-Israeli issue.

MS TRUDEAU: Of course.

QUESTION: Also —

QUESTION: Can you just stay with Barghouti for one second?

MS TRUDEAU: Yeah, of course.

QUESTION: So when you say that you – in principle, you support – what was it you said?

MS TRUDEAU: It was freedom of movement for Palestinians and permanent residents of Israel.

QUESTION: Including Mr. Barghouti?

MS TRUDEAU: As a general principle.

QUESTION: Yeah, but you don’t have —

MS TRUDEAU: I can’t speak specifically to this case. For that, I’m going to refer to the Israelis. However, I would say as a general principle, yes.

QUESTION: Well, I mean, is this something that you’ve brought up with the Israelis?

MS TRUDEAU: To my knowledge, at this —

QUESTION: Or is this only something that you’re responding to Said’s question with? I mean, I’m just trying to figure out —

MS TRUDEAU: At this stage, I don’t know if we’ve raised it with the Israelis.

QUESTION: I’m just trying to figure out if this is an issue that the U.S. is concerned about.

MS TRUDEAU: So freedom of movement for Palestinians —

QUESTION: Yeah, yeah.

MS TRUDEAU: — and permanent residents is a concern. I don’t know if we’ve raised this specific issue.

QUESTION: And is it – would it be possible to find out?

MS TRUDEAU: Yeah, I can definitely check.

QUESTION: Because, I mean, there’s two arguments here. One is from the Israeli perspective that this guy is running a campaign that basically – that they see as a threat. But then there’s the other side —

MS TRUDEAU: Which is freedom of movement.

QUESTION: Right, and whether – and you oppose – you say you oppose the BDS tactics. You don’t like boycotts; you think that they’re – you’re – you think that they’re bad, and so the question is: If you basically agree with the Israelis on this —

MS TRUDEAU: We support freedom of movement.

QUESTION: Yeah, I know, but in this specific case —

MS TRUDEAU: But let me check and see if we’ve raised this specific case.

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Israel’s endless violation of the Human Rights Declaration article 13,2:

(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

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