Jewish Journal
Aaron Bandler
June 2, 2020
Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, said in a May 21 interview that the Palestinian right of return would end Israel as a Jewish state.
Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) reported Barghouti asked in Arabic on the Gazan Voice Podcast what would be left of Israel if the BDS movement succeeds in its mission of having the world’s Palestinian refugees move to Israel and ending Israeli occupation of the West Bank.
“International law and the right of return?” Barghouti said. “There won’t be any Zionist state like the one we speak about [in present-day Israel]. There will be two states: one democratic for all its citizens here [Palestine] and one democratic for all its citizens there [Israel]. The Palestinian minority will become a Palestinian majority of what is today called Israel.”
Critics of the BDS movement argued that Barghouti’s remarks showed the movement seeks the destruction of Israel as a Jewish state.
“We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: the campaign to boycott Israel, known as the #BDS Movement, openly seeks Israel’s destruction,” the American Jewish Committee (AJC) tweeted. “Don’t believe us? Ask the guy who started it.”
Mike Harris, one of the founders of the StandWithUs San Francisco chapter, similarly tweeted, “Omar said the quiet part out loud, again. Not as if he’s ever denied it, of course.”
Israellycool blogger David Lange sarcastically tweeted, “If Omar Barghouti achieves his goal of the destruction of #Israel, will his Master’s degree in Philosophy from Tel Aviv University still be valid?”
The BDS co-founder previously stated in 2013, “We oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No Palestinian, rational Palestinian, not a sell-out Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”
However, Barghouti has said it’s acceptable for those who support BDS to take an Israeli vaccine for COVID-19.
“If Israel finds a cure for cancer, for example, or any other virus, then there is no problem in cooperating with Israel to save millions of lives,” Barghouti said in an April 5 Facebook live stream.
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