RAMALLAH, March 23, 2017 (WAFA) – The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) National Committee (BNC) said Thursday that Israeli allegation of tax evasion against its co-founder Omar Barghouti is part of a smear and intimidation campaign against him and the movement.

Israeli tax officers raided Barghouti’s home on Sunday and interrogated him for 16 hours about his income and taxes before detaining him. He was released but banned from leaving the country.

The BNC said in a statement that Barghouti has for years been subjected to intense threats and intimidation by the far-right Israeli government, but after failing to intimidate him into stopping his BDS work, the Israeli authorities reverted to a more dramatic act such a accusing him of not reporting his income nor paying taxes.

“After failing to intimidate him through the threat of revoking Omar’s permanent residence in Israel, and after the effective travel ban imposed on him proved futile in stopping his human rights work, the Israeli government has resorted to fabricating a case related to Omar’s alleged income outside of Israel to tarnish his image and intimidate him,” said the BNC.

“The fact that this investigation includes a travel ban and that it comes a few weeks before Omar Barghouti is scheduled to travel to the U.S. to receive the Gandhi Peace Award jointly with Ralph Nader in a ceremony at Yale University proves its true motive —repression.”

The BNC said that “the fact that the Israeli government publicized the inflammatory fabrications against Omar just 24 hours after he was taken in for investigation shows beyond doubt that the investigation’s real goal is to tarnish his reputation.”

It said, however, that no matter what extreme measures Israel will take against the BDS movement, its human rights defenders and vast network of supporters, “it cannot stop this movement for human rights.”

The Israeli parliament passed a law recently banning BDS supporters from entering the country.

One British activist was turned back at the airport on allegation he supports the BDS.

M.K.