Omar Barghouti

Omar Barghouti (Arabic: عمر البرغوثي, born 1964) is a founding committee member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and a co-founder of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. He received the Gandhi Peace Award in 2017. Barghouti was born in Qatar to a Palestinian family from the Barghouti clan, and at a young age moved to Egypt, where he grew up. In 1982, he moved to the United States, where he lived for 11 years and earned bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from Columbia University. At Columbia, he was president of the Columbia Arab Club. In 1993, he moved to Israel following his marriage to an Israeli-Arab woman. He holds Israeli permanent residency status and lives in Acre. He holds a master's degree in philosophy (ethics) from the Tel Aviv University (TAU), and is pursuing a PhD.In March 2017 Barghouti was arrested in Israel on suspicion of tax evasion of about $700,000, but as of June 2021 has not been charged with any offence with regard to this arrest.