George Bisharat
Overview
George Bisharat has whitewashed terrorism and spread anti-Israel conspiracy theories. He has accused Israel of violating international law and contributed numerous articles to the anti-Israel website The Electronic Intifada.Bisharat has also demonized Israel and suggested that the source of Arab hostility towards the United States is the U.S.-Israel relationship which, according to Bisharat, motivated the terror attacks of September 11, 2001.
He is also a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Bisharat is the Honorable Raymond L. Sullivan Professor of Law at the University of California, Hastings (UC Hastings).
Whitewashing Terrorism
On January 10, 2009, Bisharat published an article titled: “Israel is Committing War Crimes.” In the article, Bisharat described Hamas rockets shot at Israeli population centers as “Minor border skirmishes,” which he argued did not give cause for Israel “to launch wars of aggression.”Bisharat continued: “Hamas's ideology -- which employees may or may not share -- is abhorrent, but civilized nations do not kill people merely for what they think.”
On October 1, 2009, Bisharat wrote an article describing Palestinian terrorism as “armed, and sometimes crude, popular resistance” to be expected by “Colonial powers that displace indigenous peoples, as Israel does regularly in Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank”.
Bisharat went on to claim that “Israel’s war against the Palestinians shares more with the French in Algeria than it does with our fight against al-Qaeda.”
Conspiracy Theories
In an article published on July 20, 2006, Bisharat argued that the 2006 Lebanon War was not a legitimate response to the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers, but rather “Israel’s lethal tantrum” whose primary motive was “exacting revenge.”On August 3, 2006, Bisharat published an article in which he condemned Israel for bringing “its iron fist down on Lebanon.” Bisharat claimed that “The blow had been planned for at least a year, awaiting only the pretext of Hizbullah’s capture of two Israeli soldiers.”
Bisharat then argued that even “If Hizbullah indeed attacked inside Israel - some reports initially located the skirmish in Lebanon - it... did nothing to justify the destruction of a country.”
In that same article, Bisharat alleged that “Israel has a long history of violence against Arab civilians, displacing or otherwise harming two million over sixty years.”
On January 30, 2007, Bisharat wrote an article alleging a conspiracy whereby “the pro-Israel lobby, joined by the Israeli government, sustains a systematic campaign to shape American public opinion.”
In the same article, Bisharat claimed that people "exploit economic clout" and run intimidation campaigns with the goal of "silencing dissent." Bisharat suggested that this is "coordinated with, if not directed by right-wing Israeli governments" and suggested Israel advocates "threaten, bully, discredit and harass opponents."
He went on to say "Americans are shielded from diverse perspectives about a pivotal conflict, and are thus hampered in critically evaluating U.S. policies."
Accusing Israel of Violating International Law
In the spring of 2013, Bisharat published a scholarly article which, according to his abstract, provided “a study of Israel’s campaign to transform international humanitarian law (IHL) by systematically violating it.”The abstract went on to claim that “Israel has a long history of ad hoc “legal entrepreneurialism,” but its current effort, launched during the second intifada, is institutionalized, persistent, and internally coherent.”
On April 2, 2009, Bisharat published an article accusing Israel of “brutalizing international law.” Bisharat went on to allege that “Israel’s campaign to rewrite international law to its advantage is deliberate and knowing.”
Bisharat repeated his accusations that Israel violates international law in a June 5, 2010 article, in which Bisharat charged Israel with “serial lawlessness” and suggested that “Israeli impunity from international law” is what will ultimately prevent any resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Demonizing Israel
On September 3, 2010, Bisharat published an article in which he compared Israel to South Africa and describing the Israeli government as a “discriminatory regime.”In the same article, Bisharat went on to suggest that Israel cannot survive as a Jewish state, citing “Jim Crow laws and South African apartheid” as comparable examples in which “ethnic privilege” was defeated.
In an article published on May 13, 2007, Bisharat compared the Holocaust to Palestinian “Nakba Day,” commemorating when “Jewish forces expelled, or intimidated into flight, an estimated 750,000 Palestinians.”
The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by defining it as a catastrophe.
On January 2, 2007, Bisharat wrote an article applauding former U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s anti-Israel book “Palestine: Peace not Apartheid.” In his article, Bisharat claimed: “Israel is seizing land and water from Palestinians for Jews” and “The Star of David on Israel’s flag symbolically tells Palestinian citizens: “You do not belong.”
In an article published on December 4, 2004, Bisharat condemned U.S. support for Israel and claimed that it was a major motivation behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Bisharat wrote: “I wouldn’t cite Osama bin Laden as authority for much. But on his own motivations, there’s no better source. Per his recent video, bin Laden first envisioned ‘towers falling’ in the United States during Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon.”
In an article published on January 28, 2004, Bisharat recounted the establishment of Israel as “one desperate people seeking sanctuary from murderous racism decimated another - and continue to oppress its scattered survivors to this day.” Bisharat went on to rhetorically ask: “Why should Palestinians pay for a European holocaust? “
Bisharat was an initial signatory to an open letter to Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, condemning Abbas’s recognition of “a Jewish right to the land of Israel.”
Signatories of the letter slammed the PA president for acknowledging “a central tenet of Zionism,” which they argued amounted to “a grave betrayal of the collective rights of the Palestinian people… tantamount to a surrender of the right of Palestinian citizens of Israel” living under “apartheid regime imposed on them for decades.”
Supporting BDS
On January 30, 2014, Bisharat published an article titled: “Applause for the Academic Boycott of Israel,” in which he expressed support for the BDS movement in general and specifically for the American Studies Association’s (ASA) decision to join the academic boycott of Israel.In an article published on September 17, 2007, Bisharat condemned the U.S. for its “policy double standard — complete indulgence of Israel on the one hand, and indifference to violations of Palestinian rights on the other hand.” Bisharat then went on to endorse the BDS movement as an effective tool of resistance against Israel.
On August 16, 2007, Bisharat wrote an article endorsing the BDS movement. In his article, he explained that “A dense web of economic and cultural relations also ties it [Israel] to the West. That — and its irrefutably documented human rights violations — render it ripe for boycott.”
Bisharat went on to write: “How does Israel’s behavior toward Palestinians compare to former South Africa’s treatment of blacks? It is similar or worse.”
According to Bisharat: “If boycotting apartheid South Africa was appropriate, it is equally fair to boycott Israel on a similar record.”
Bisharat concluded his article by stating that “boycotting Israel has become both necessary and justified.”
BDS
The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by Omar Barghouti in 2005 to challenge “international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.” BDS is an allegedly “Palestinian-led movement,” although leading BDS activists have admitted [00:01:01] this is not true.
One of the demands of BDS includes [point 3] what is generally known as the “right of return,” a demand discredited as a way to eliminate Israel. Barghouti said the “right of return” is a means to “end Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.”
Barghouti has said that BDS “aims to turn Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.”
In his activism, Barghouti has also said [00:05:55] regarding Israel: “Definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No…rational Palestinian, not a sellout Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”
The movement has been linked to numerous terrorist organizations and received a public endorsement from Hamas in 2017.
BDS initiatives include calling on institutions and individuals to divest from Israeli-affiliated companies, promoting academic and cultural boycotts of Israel, and organizing anti-Israel rallies, protests and campaigns.
The movement’s most notable achievement has been the infiltration of university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments and student groups, backed by their own anti-Israel members and affiliates, have proposed resolutions on some form of boycott of, or divestment from, Israel and Israeli-affiliated entities.
Boycott resolutions, although non-binding, have been passed by student governments on numerous North American campuses.
BDS activity is often aggressive and disruptive. It has been noted that universities that pass BDS resolutions see a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents on campus. On one campus, when the student government debated a BDS resolution, reports emerged of violent threats against those opposing it.
Social Media and Weblinks
University Website: https://www.uchastings.edu/people/george-bisharat/
- Status:
- Professor
- University:
- California-Hastings-Law
- Organizations:
- BDS
- Related Profiles:
- Last Modified:
- 05/04/2026
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