Why I believe the BDS movement has never been more important than now | Omar Barghouti

The most profound ethical obligation in this time of carnage is to act to end complicity

At times of carnage, herd-like agitation and tribal polarization, many may dismiss ethical principles as a nuisance or an intellectual luxury. I cannot and shall not. I desire nothing more than seeing an end to all violence in Palestine and everywhere else, and this is precisely why I am committed to struggling against the root causes of violence: oppression and injustice.

I have dear friends and colleagues in the Gaza prison camp", as former British Prime Minister David Cameron once called it, a modern-day ghetto whose 2.3 million residents are predominantly refugees descending from communities that faced massacres and planned ethnic cleansing during the 1948 Nakba. Israel's illegal 16-year blockade, aided by the US, Europe and the Egyptian regime, has turned Gaza into an unliveable" zone, according to the United Nations, where the healthcare system is near collapse; almost all the water is undrinkable; around 60% of children are anaemic; and many children suffer from stunted growth due to malnutrition. The heart-wrenching stories of death, destruction, and displacement that my friends are currently sharing with me make me simultaneously sad and indignant. But above all they motivate me to contribute even more to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, that I co-founded in 2005, as my modest contribution to our liberation struggle.

Omar Barghouti is a founder of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement