Israeli Court Suspends Travel Ban on BDS Co-Founder Under Investigation for Tax Fraud, as He Prepares to Accept ‘Gandhi Peace Award’ at Yale

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An Israeli court has agreed to temporarily suspend a travel ban on a co-founder of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement as he prepares to receive a “peace award” at a ceremony at Yale University this weekend, the organization granting the prize announced this week.

According to the statement from a group called Promoting Enduring Peace (PEP), Omar Barghouti will be in New Haven on Sunday to get the Gandhi Peace Award in person even though he was initially banned from leaving Israel after being arrested last month on suspicion of dodging some $700,000 in taxes.

PEP said it was “delighted that Omar Barghouti will be able to come to the United States to accept this well-deserved award for his leadership in the non-violent struggle for Palestinian human rights.”

According to a promotional flyer, the PEP ceremony is being co-sponsored by the Yale chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, who have also advertised the event on their Facebook page.

Barghouti, an Arab resident of the Israeli city of Acre, will be introduced at the PEP ceremony by Rebecca Vilkomerson, the executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace — the group that honored Palestinian terrorist Rasmea Odeh at their national conference earlier this month.

Barghouti and Vilkomerson are also set to appear together at Columbia University the day after the PEP event, on a panel titled “The Road to Freedom: The BDS Movement for Palestinian Rights and the Struggle Against Apartheid,” hosted by student groups Columbia University Apartheid Divest and Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine.

The Gandhi Peace Award was conceived of by PEP’s founder, late Yale professor Jerome Davis, and first given to late first lady Eleanor Roosevelt in 1960. Barghouti will be honored at Yale alongside far-left American political activist Ralph Nader.

According to a recent report from a campus antisemitism watchdog, the presence of BDS proponents and activity on a given  campus are “very strong predictors” that there will be anti-Jewish hostilities at the university as well. Earlier this year, a higher education-reform group labeled BDS “one of the greatest threats to academic freedom in the United States today.”

Israeli Court Suspends Travel Ban on BDS Co-Founder Under Investigation for Tax Fraud, as He Prepares to Accept ‘Gandhi Peace Award’ at Yale

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