Deri moves to deport BDS founder Barghouti
Interior Minister Arye Deri took the first steps toward revoking the permanent resident status of Omar Barghouti, founder of the antisemitic and anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
“I plan to act quickly to revoke Omar Barghouti’s resident status in Israel,” Deri said on Sunday. “He is a person who is doing everything to hurt the country, and therefore, he cannot enjoy the privilege of being a resident of Israel.”
Deri instructed the legal department of the Population, Immigration and Borders Authority to prepare the legal framework to revoke Barghouti’s resident status over breach of trust.
The interior minister’s decision came after Deputy Attorney-General Dina Zilber said he has the authority to do so.
A 2018 amendment to the residence law allows the interior minister to cancel resident status over breach of trust, without approval from the Attorney-General’s Office.
In this case, the breach of trust is that Barghouti is promoting boycotts against Israel from within Israel, Deri’s spokesman explained.
Barghouti resides in Acre, having moved to Israel in 1993 after marrying an Israeli-Arab woman. He has a PhD in ethics from Tel Aviv University, despite calling for an academic boycott of Israel.
Barghouti opposes “a Jewish state in Palestine in any shape or form,” he said in a talk to the Dag Hammarskjold Society in 2013.
He does not speak to Israeli media and therefore was unavailable for comment.
“Barghouti led a determined battle against the occupation and settlements,” said Joint List MK Ahmed Tibi. “He received his resident status legally, and did not commit a crime other than expressing clear and determined stances here in Israel and in the world against the occupation and colonialism and used the same methods the blacks used in South Africa.
“Boycott is a legitimate nonviolent mode of struggle,” he added. “Deri’s intention is arbitrary, and an attempt to silence all actions against the occupation even if they are nonviolent.”