Pirate's Cove

The NY Times’ Michelle Goldberg should have done a little research, but, it’s fashionable among liberals to believe that those involved in the BDS movement are just protesters, rather than virulent Jew haters who want to see Israel wiped off the map

Anti-Zionists Deserve Free Speech

The Palestinian activist Omar Barghouti, one of the founders of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, was supposed to be on a speaking tour of the United States this week, with stops at N.Y.U.’s Washington campus and at Harvard. He was going to attend his daughter’s wedding in Texas. I had plans to interview him for “The Argument,” the debate podcast that I co-host, about B.D.S., the controversial campaign to make Israel pay an economic and cultural price for its treatment of the Palestinians.

Yet when Barghouti, a permanent resident of Israel, showed up for his flight from Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport last week, he was informed that the United States was denying him entry. When I spoke to him on Sunday, he still didn’t know exactly why the country where he went to college and lived for many years wasn’t letting him in, but he assumed it was because of his political views. If that’s the case, Barghouti said, it was the first time someone has been barred from America for B.D.S. advocacy. He has proceeded with his public events, but he’s been appearing at them via Skype.

In recent years, the American right has presented itself as a champion of free expression. Conservatives are constantly bemoaning a censorious campus climate that stigmatizes their ideas; last month, Donald Trump signed an executive order on campus free speech, decrying those who would keep Americans from “challenging rigid far-left ideology.” The president said, “People who are confident in their beliefs do not censor others.”

First, people who supported Obama in denying a German family which wanted to homeschool their kids the right to stay in the U.S., also because they were Christians, shouldn’t be casting stones. Second, the U.S. has barred many people over the years. Third, the U.S. often bars Islamic extremists

OMAR BARGHOUTI: A MAN WITH TWO FACES

In 2005, Omar Barghouti founded the infamous boycott, divest, and sanction (BDS) movement; a movement which on its surface appears to promote the rights of Palestinians by pursuing economic, academic, and cultural boycotts of Israel. Beneath the surface, however, it becomes clear that this movement’s true goal is to bring an end to the State of Israel and replace it with a sovereign Palestinian state.

BDS is an extremist, anti-Zionist movement masked as human rights activism. It should thus come as no surprise that Barghouti also aims to portray himself with the same kind of mask. However, if we take a closer look at his actions and beliefs, we see a very different picture. Who, then, is the man behind the movement?

BDS, Barghouti claims, is a “non-violent human rights movement that seeks freedom, justice and equality for the Palestinian people” and is against the oppressive Israeli regime, not against individuals. However, the BDS movement boycotts Israeli individuals based on their nationality, and Barghouti himself refuses to work with Israelis – even those sympathetic to his cause. A true activist puts the movement above his own personal bias. Yet Barghouti goes so far as to say that Palestinians who engage with Israelis are “clinically delusional,” once again undermining his own movement by placing more significance in his personal prejudice than in achieving the goals of his movement.

Further, Barghouti doesn’t support a two state solution. He wants it replaced with a fully Palestinian state, with all Jews gone. The BDS movement has many links to Islamic terrorist groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

(Times Of Israel) Barghouti’s Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement addresses “not only the disputed territories but opposes the very existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish state in its entirety and in any kind of borders,” the communal leaders wrote.

You don’t have to be a Jew hater to be an Israel hater. But, most who seem to be leaders in this do hate Jews, and those who join along very much seem to end up being Jew haters. The NY Times should really consider who they are backing. Sure, Barghouti should be allowed to speak: it doesn’t mean an Islamic extremist and Jew hater should be allowed in to the U.S.

Read: NY Times Seems Rather Upset That Guy Who Wants To Destroy Israel Is Barred From U.S. »