Last week I reported on an interview that BDS leader Omar Barghouti had with the Lebanese TV channel “Palestine Today TV” in April.
It turns out that the TV station violated Lebanese law against speaking to residents of Israel.
Barghouti was born in Qatar, raised in Egypt and married to an Arab-Israeli woman, so he is a resident, although not a citizen, of Israel.
According to the 1955 Lebanese Boycott Law, it is against the law for Lebanese to speak to or communicate with “institutions or persons having residence in Israel.”
There was some discomfort in Lebanon in 2012 when an Israeli spokesperson was interviewed on a TV station. Legal experts said that Lebanon could have prosecuted the interviewer. Even tweeting to an Israeli is a punishable offense.
However, the law is not limited to dealing with Israelis, but it explicitly says that any entity that “conducts a direct agreement, or through an intermediary, with entities based or people residing in Israel” can be prosecuted.
If Omar Barghouti respects boycott laws against Israel, then he must ensure that he never gets interviewed by Lebanese TV again. And if he wants other Arab states and the PA to pass similar laws – which he apparently does, based on this interview – he must avoid any contact with any non-Israeli Arabs via video, telephone, email or social media.
Barghouti must be boycotted by the people he wants to see boycott Israel.
(h/t David Abrams)
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