Omar Barghouti. Photo: usacbi.org

The New York Daily News published an op-ed Monday by BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) founder Omar Barghouti—and then summarily debunked and bashed the piece in its own editorial.

“BDS proponent Omar Barghouti writes of the movement’s motivations and goals. We recommend that you read his piece and then return here for the truth,” the article by the New York Daily News’s editorial staff begins. Then it proceeds to clarify many of the distortions of Barghouti’s article, but not before first stating that Barghouti’s main aim is to “effectively dismantle the Jewish state” through methods that “verge on anti-Semitism while claiming respectability” with his skill “as a propagandist.”

The editorial concludes that “The unifying theme is that Barghouti merely seeks Palestinian civil rights. This, too, is a falsehood — his ultimate falsehood.

“…He states that he wants Israel to cede occupied territories to Palestinians and grant Palestinians a right of return to land once theirs. Both notions are central to attempts to negotiate a two-state solution between the Israelis and Palestinians.

“But his definition of the terms, unspoken on the opposite page [of his editorial], is the creation of a single ‘secular, democratic state’ built on an influx of Arabs who come to dominate the population and vote an end to Israel as a Jewish nation.

“That, ultimately, is the nefarious truth behind his libels. It is also why many New Yorkers rose up in proper protest after Brooklyn College’s political science department endorsed Barghouti’s campus lecture.”