Omar Barghouti

Barghouti has spent his career opposing Israel and supporting Palestinians’ right to return to a single state where “Jews are a minority.” ^{3  4} He is the author of BDS: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights. His commentaries and views have appeared in many prominent outlets including the New York Times, The Guardian, MSNBC, CNN, Le Monde, and more. ⁵ On several occasions, Barghouti has argued for violent resistance against Israel. He has also expressed the broader BDS movement’s support for political violence by Palestinians against the State of Israel, including after the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack against Israeli civilians which the group justified and supported. ^{6  7}

In 2019, the first Trump administration refused Barghouti entry into the United States, keeping Barghouti from attending a speaking tour across American college campuses. The Trump administration justified Barghouti’s bans by citing his BDS activities. ¹ Also in 2019, Israel announced its plan to revoke Barghouti’s residency status, which placed him at risk of deportation. Several prominent pro-Palestinian organizations rallied the international community in support of Barghouti. Israel did not revoke his status. ^{8  9}

Barghouti has expressed his opposition to President Donald Trump’s proposals for peace in the Middle East both in the president’s first and second administrations. ^{10  11}

Political Writing

Omar Barghouti frequently publishes and offers media interviews and quotes to major publications on the topic of pro-Palestinian boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) activism. In a 2017 opinion editorial in Al-Jazeera, Barghouti argued that Palestinians should expect “nothing good” from the Trump administration because it was “a White House more pro-Israeli than ever.” Barghouti characterized President Donald Trump as having a bias “towards Israel’s far-right regime of occupation and apartheid.” He also cited a “morally corrupt PA [Palestinian Authority]” for his lack of optimism. Still, he suggested that his BDDS movement was the only way forward for Palestinian progress against Israel. ¹⁰

In 2020, an Electronic Intifada article cited Barghouti, who defended the actions of BDS activist Mahmoud Nawajaa. Barghouti claimed Nawajaa was being unjustly imprisoned in Israel for his activism and that the military detention of Nawajaa “followed precisely the Israeli Shin Bet playbook of repression, which is reminiscent of apartheid South Africa’s.” He continued, accusing the Israeli government of imprisoning “Palestinian human rights defenders” in prison “[w]ithout charges or a shred of evidence.” Israeli sources allege that Nawajaa is not an innocent human rights activist but rather was involved with an illegal pro-Palestinian group which he “had provided services to” and “communicated with” to “carry out attacks” in Israel. ¹²

In a 2023 Al-Shabaka column and accompanying podcast appearance, Barghouti offered advice on how to most effectively pressure both American and international corporations to divest from Israel. He spoke about divestment efforts related to Ben and Jerry’s, Veolia, and Pillsbury pulling their products and services from Israeli markets. ¹³

In a 2024 opinion-editorial in The Guardian, Barghouti argued that the United Nations had failed to protect Gaza and Palestinians more broadly from what he called “Israel’s ongoing genocide.” In the piece, he called for “decolonization and democratization” in Gaza. ¹⁴

In another Guardian opinion piece from February 2025, Barghouti expressed opposition to President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan, which he described as a plan to “‘take over’ and ‘own’ Gaza after forcibly displacing millions of Palestinians,” citing President Trump’s words from a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Barghouti argued that President Trump’s plan would continue an alleged genocide rather than promote peace in Gaza. ¹¹

In 2025, left-of-center publication Mondoweiss interviewed Barghouti to discuss the 20-year history of the BDS movement. He used the interview to reaffirm BDS’s three central demands: “[a]n end to the military occupation, an end to the system of racial domination, segregation and apartheid, and the right of refugees to return and receive reparations.” Despite allegations of advancing antisemitic conspiracy theories, Barghouti expressed his and the BDS movement’s opposition to “racism of all forms, and therefore it opposes anti-Palestinian racism, anti-Arab, anti-Muslim, anti-Jewish, anti-Black, anti-Indigenous racism.” ³

Positions

Endorsement of Violence

In 2001, during the Second Intifada campaign of armed Palestinian militancy, Omar Barghouti wrote a chapter for a book, The New Intifada: Resisting Israel’s Apartheid. The book’s description referred to “the heroism and costs of the resistance,” and Barghouti’s chapter glorified the Intifada, describing it as the “tell-tale heart of the old Palestine.” ^{15  16}

In a 2010 interview on the history of the BDS movement, Barghouti said, “in the BDS movement we don’t say we’re against violent resistance.” ⁶

Following the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack, the pro-Israel Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) criticized Barghouti and his BDS movement for its long track record of condoning violence against Israel. FDD argued that BDS’s endorsement of the Hamas attack–which BDS lauded as the “justified use of armed resistance against the oppressors’ military and civilians”–would “taint the BDS brand.” FDD blamed Barghouti for contributing to an environment of terrorism against Israel, citing his longtime advocacy for “resistance by any means.” FDD argued that commitments like this “means promoting” what it called the “butchery” of October 7, 2023. ⁷

Antisemitic Conspiracies

Barghouti also has a history of spreading what some consider antisemitic conspiracy theories. During a 2014 talk at Wayne State University, Barghouti claimed that “Israel has a hold on [the U.S.] Congress” and accused Israel of knowing “how to bully, how to intimidate” the U.S. Congress. He said the U.S. Congress is “bought and paid for by the Israel lobby.” ¹⁷

While speaking at Portland State University in 2015, Barghouti insinuated that Israel and the United States created several terrorist organizations. He stated, “[t]he U.S. and Israel are benefiting a lot from this ISIS phenomenon… they created Taliban, they created Al-qaeda… so why not ISIS?” ¹⁸

Opposition to the Israeli State

In a 2009 interview with Electronic Intifada , Barghouti stated that “a return for refugees would end Israel’s existence as a Jewish state, and that “[t]he right of return is a basic right that cannot be given away; it’s inalienable.” ¹⁹ In 2016, Barghouti argued “the need for the right of return of the refugees” was the “most important” of BDS’s goals. ²⁰

In 2003, Barghouti expressed his support for a one-state Palestinian solution in the Middle East, advocating for “a unitary state, where, by definition, Jews will be a minority.” ⁴ In 2007, he was one of the authors of the “One State Declaration” that called for “The implementation of the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees in accordance with UN Resolution 194.” ²¹

During a 2024 webinar panel for “Nakba Day,” Barghouti spoke about “Israel’s regime of oppression being an enemy to humanity.” ²²

Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement

Boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) is an international campaign to delegitimize the State of Israel by isolating the country economically through consumer boycotts, business and government withdrawal of investment, and legal sanctions. Critics accuse the group of crossing the line from opposition to Israeli policy or the administration of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into open antisemitism. ²³ Omar Barghouti is credited as the founder of the BDS movement. ¹

The official goal of BDS is to force Israel to recognize the rights of Palestinian Arabs living in Israel and to allow Palestinians who fled Israeli land beginning in 1948 when Israel was created and their descendants to return to their lands in Israel’s internationally recognized territory. The movement also argues for Israel to withdraw from the land it seized after the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, including the West Bank. ²³

Controversies

United States Travel Ban

In 2019, the first Trump administration refused Barghouti entry into the United States. Barghouti was told that United States immigration officials had ordered the U.S. Consul in Tel Aviv, Israel to deny him permission to enter the United States. Barghouti had scheduled a United States speaking tour that included events at Harvard and New York University, meetings with Washington policymakers, and other opportunities for Palestinian advocacy. The Trump administration cited Barghouti’s BDS activities as justification for the ban. ¹

Several pro-Palestinian entities accused the Trump administration of violating Barghouti’s freedom of speech and expression in banning him for his political views and activism. A 2019 opinion-editorial from the right-of-center publication Tikvah Ideas argued that Barghouti was not banned from entering the United States for his ideas but rather for his actions, namely his support for Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. ²⁴

Israeli Residency Status and Deportation Controversy

In 2016, Israel placed a de facto travel ban on Barghouti by refusing to renew his residency status documents. An Israeli court eventually ruled the government had to renew his documents, which ended the threat of deportation. ⁹ However, in 2017, Israel passed a law that banned entry to any foreign activists who supported a boycott of the country. ²⁵ In October 2019, then-Israeli Interior Minister Arye Deri announced a new effort to revoke the residency status of Barghouti which placed him at risk of deportation. Barghouti had received his Israeli resident status in 1994 following his marriage to an Arab citizen of Israel. ⁸

Several pro-Palestinian and BDS groups criticized the Israeli government’s actions against Barghouti, writing a joint letter demanding his residency status remain intact. PEN International wrote the letter which was signed by Al-Haq, Addameer, the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies (ACDHRS), the BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem (CCPRJ), CIVICUS, the Community Action Center at Al Quds University, the Defense for Children International, Palestine, the Hurryyat’s Center for Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights, the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PNGO), and others. The groups objected to the revocation of Barghouti’s residency status on the grounds of free speech and free expression and called on the international community and United Nations member states to apply pressure on Israel. ^{8  26}