Omar Barghouti was born in Qatar, moved to Ramallah, Palestine and obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Columbia University, New York. He is a founding member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and writes extensively about the Palestinian cause and human rights (see: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ).
Omar Barghouti on European collusion in the Apartheid Israel’s slow Palestinian Genocide (2008): “Princeton academic Richard Falk considered Israel’s siege a “prelude to genocide,” even before this latest crime of altogether cutting off energy supplies. Now, Israel’s crimes in Gaza can accurately be categorized as acts of genocide, albeit slow. According to Article II of the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the term is defined as:
“[A]ny of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; …”
Clearly, Israel’s hermetic siege of Gaza, designed to kill, cause serious bodily and mental harm, and deliberately inflict conditions of life calculated to bring about partial and gradual physical destruction, qualifies as an act of genocide, if not all-out genocide yet. And the EU is suspiciously silent.” [1, 2].
[1]. Omar Barghouti, “European collusion in Israel’s slow genocide”, The Electronic Intifada, 21 January 2008: http://electronicintifada.net/content/never-against-european-collusion-israels-slow-genocide/7309 .
[2]. Omar Barghouti, “European collusion in Israel’s slow genocide”, republished as Chapter 23 in “The Plight of the Palestinians. A long history of destruction”, edited by Willam Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html .