The co-founder of an organization seeking to pressure Israel to comply with international law has accused the United States government of aiding what he describes as Israel’s genocide in Palestine.
Omar Barghouti of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement told Nigeria Info that the US was “enabling every aspect” of Israel’s war on Palestine and “shielding Israel from accountability at the United Nations.”
“The US government, whether it is the White House or Congress, are partners in Israel's genocide,” he said on Borderlines.
Barghouti, a Palestinian human rights activist, berated the West for its “hypocrisy” in imposing tough sanctions on Russia for invading Ukraine but doing nothing to "Israel's colonial regime, which has been going on for 75 years.”
UN Resolution 377
Barghouti, who spoke on the US vetoing UN resolution 377 at the Security Council that seeks to impose a ceasefire in the ongoing war, noted that most of the world recognized that the US, the UK, and the European Union are “wrecking the international legal system that has prevailed since world war two.”
He added that "the ammunition, the aeroplanes, and everything used by Israel to commit genocide in Gaza is supplied by the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Canada."
The activist accused the West of defending Israel from international law while arming its “genocidal war.”
Barghouti pointed out that there was a need for solidarity "in the form of a military embargo, boycott, academic boycott, cultural boycott."
"Israel has to be treated like apartheid South Africa was treated, as the world's pariah," he added.
The October 7 Hamas Attack
Omar Barghouti provided some context to Hamas’ 7 October attack on Israel. He argued that it was a reaction to the Jewish nation’s occupation of Palestinian land over the years.
“It is important where one starts on the timeline of violence,” he said.
“It is very important in every situation of oppression to see the context of oppression as the initiation of violence.
"When you have a system of slavery, and the slaves rebel against the slave master, you may disagree with the tactics used in the slave rebellion but you've got to end slavery, which is the beginning of violence."
He further added that people must first condemn oppression before condemning the reaction of the oppressed.
