Israel prevents prominent BDS campaigner from travel

Israeli authorities have refused to renew the travel documents of a prominent Palestinian leader in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, officials said Tuesday.

Omar Barghouti is one of the most prominent campaigners in the BDS movement, which campaigns for a global boycott of Israel until it withdraws from all occupied Palestinian territories and affords Palestinians their rights.

Barghouti was informed last month that the Israeli 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, a Palestinian who was born in the Gulf state of Qatar, married a Palestinian citizen of Israel, 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.

"Effectively I cannot travel at all," said Barghouti.

"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.

Israel sees the BDS movement as a strategic threat and has accused it of anti-Semitism in an attempt to undermine it - a claim BDS denies.

Barghouti said he feared that Israel wants to strip him of his residency.

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