Omar Barghouti, one of the founders of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, has been arrested by the Israeli police on accusations of tax fraud, according to an Israeli newspaper.
Arutz Sheva reported that police had raided his home in Acre on suspicion that Barghouti had concealed $700,000 of income from the Israeli tax authorities. After being transferred to a police station in Haifa for interrogation, Barghouti was released on bail, the paper said.
The allegations reportedly stem from income received by Barghouti from speaking engagements abroad and involvement in an ATM company in Ramallah.
A request for comment to Barghouti from Al Bawaba had not been returned at the time of publication.
Barghouti had previously been subject to a travel ban by the Israeli authorities. The Minister of Interior has also brought a case against him in which they are seeking to strip him of his permanent residency status in Israel.
At an anti-BDS conference in Tel Aviv in March 2016, Israeli Minister of Intelligence Yisrael Katz called for “targeted civil eliminations” of prominent BDS activists.
The BDS movement describes itself as a Palestinian-led movement aimed at “freedom, justice and equality.”
The Israeli government describes the movement as a “strategic threat” to Israel, and has linked it to antisemitism, a charge the organization denies.
The Israeli parliament, the Knesset, recently passed a law banning foreigners who call for BDS from entering the country.
Also today, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the country’s Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan wants to set up a database of Israeli citizens who are active in the BDS movement. Other government officials are opposed to the database proposal, according to Haaretz.
Jacob Burns
