Let Omar Barghouti be heard

EFFECTIVELY CANCELING a planned speaking tour, the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem has inexplicably delayed the granting of a visa for Omar Barghouti, founding member of the Palestinian Civil Society Boycott, Divestment, Sanction (BDS) campaign, due to tour the United States this April for the release of his new book Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights.

Nobel Peace Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu called the book "lucid and morally compelling...perfectly timed to make a major contribution to this urgently needed global campaign for justice, freedom and peace." Former UN General Assembly President Father Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann called it "timely and responsibly written by a man who understands that creative nonviolence is the only way out of the dire situation in Palestine."

In recent years, numerous foreign scholars and experts have been subject to visa delays and denials that have prohibited them from speaking and teaching in the U.S.--a process the American Civil Liberties Union describes as Ideological Exclusion and says violates Americans; First Amendment right to hear constitutionally protected speech by denying foreign scholars, artists, politicians and others entry to the United States.

Foreign nationals who have recently been denied visas include Fulbright scholar Marixa Lasso; Iraqi Dr. Riyadh Lafta, who disputed the official Iraqi civilian death numbers in the respected British medical journal The Lancet; respected South African scholar and vocal Iraq War critic Dr. Adam Habib; and Oxford University's Tariq Ramadan.

For the release of Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions, Barghouti has standing invitations for events in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, and at Harvard, Yale, Brown and Brandeis Universities.

Barghouti studied, lived and worked in the United States for 11 years before permanently relocating to Jerusalem. He attended Columbia University, receiving both bachelor's and master's degrees from the school. His U.S.-born child, whom he needs a visa to visit, currently attends college in Indiana. Between 2005 and 2010, Barghouti visited the U.S. extensively without incident, on a five-year visa, which only recently expired.

Anthony Arnove of Haymarket Books, Barghouti's publisher, stated: "It's essential that authors be able to travel to promote their books and ideas, and as publishers we believe the free exchange of ideas is vital to a democratic culture. We find it frustrating that Omar's visa is being delayed and potentially denied for political reasons."