Israel boycott campaigner 'prevented from travel'

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israeli authorities have refused to renew the travel documents of a leader of a campaign to boycott Israel, officials said Tuesday.

Omar Barghouti is one of the most prominent campaigners in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which campaigns for a global boycott of Israel until, amongst other demands, the country withdraws from all occupied Palestinian territories.

Israel sees it as a strategic threat and accuses it of “anti-Semitism” — a claim BDS denies.

Barghouti was informed last month that the interior ministry would not renew his travel documents, which are usually granted to permanent residents of Israel who do not have full citizenship.

An interior ministry spokeswoman told AFP that Barghouti could not yet receive his travel documents since Interior Minister Aryeh Deri was considering revoking his permanent residency.

"The minister wants to consider his status. He lives in Ramallah most of the time and part of what determines one's permanent residency is where the centre of life is," she said. "His [BDS] activities are also part of this." 

Barghouti, whose family are Palestinian but who was born in the Gulf state of Qatar, married an Israeli citizen of Arab descent, entitling him to claim permanent residency.

Barghouti denied that he had ever been permanently based in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

"I reside with my family in our home in Acre [in Israel]," he told AFP. "I've had Israeli permanent residency for almost 23 years, in accordance with the law and without any violations."

He said that he had been due to attend two major events in California in recent weeks but had been prevented from doing so, though he did speak to them via Skype.

"Effectively I cannot travel at all," he told AFP.

"Israel is imposing this travel ban on me, demonising me and threatening me to intimidate me into silence," he added, vowing to continue his work.

At a conference earlier this year, Deri announced he had been asked to revoke Barghouti's residency altogether and was "inclined" to do so.

"He uses his citizenship, his permanent residency, to come in and out to the rest of the world and act against Israel in the most severe way," he told attendees at an anti-BDS conference.

Barghouti said he feared this was the ultimate goal of removing his right to travel.

"It is a first step towards implementing Deri's threat to revoke my permanent residency," he said.