Golbarg Bashi

Overview

Golbarg Bashi is the author of the anti-Israel children’s book “P is for Palestine.” She has also demonized Israel and is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

As of May 2019, Bashi was an instructor of Middle Eastern Studies at Rutgers University (Rutgers).

Anti-Israel Children’s Book

In November 2017, Bashi published an anti-Israel children’s alphabet book, titled: “P is for Palestine.”

Controversy surrounded the publication of Bashi’s book, specifically because of its failure to mention Israel and its reported glorification of “intifada.”

Since the early 2000s, the term “intifada,” which translates from Arabic as “uprising” or “insurrection,” has carried the connotation of violence.

As controversy mounted, Golbarg displayed, on her personal website, the outrage her book generated and provided links to multiple articles chronicling the negative response.

On May 7, 2019, Highland Park Public Library in New Jersey posted a message on Facebook announcing that they had postponed a scheduled talk by Bashi, due to the “extraordinary public response” to her book.

An article published by the Times of Israel on May 9, 2019, reported: “Following complaints by members of the Central Jersey town’s Jewish community that the book promotes violence, the library issued a statement saying the matter had been referred to the library’s board of trustees.”

Golbarg responded to the backlash in a tweet, published on May 11, 2019, writing: “By banning @PIsForPalestine & forcing the cancellation of my book readings through sheer lies/harassment even at US libraries (bound by #FirstAmendment laws), bullying #Zionist vigilantes w/ a false claim on #America, think this country is also #Palestine that they have stolen.”

According to a video published on October 10, 2018, Bashi is planning to publish another children’s book, similarly demonizing Israel. Bashi promoted the upcoming book in a post on Instagram on April 27, 2019.

The second book was also promoted in an article, published by the anti-Israel publication, Mondoweiss, on September 10, 2018. After praising “P is for Palestine,” the article went on to report that “now Bashi is working on what promises to be an absolutely delightful complementary book...which teaches numbers in a context of resistance to the destruction of that most symbolic icon of Palestine: the olive tree.”

Demonizing Israel

In a tweet published on May 9, 2019, Bashi slammed the Israeli publication, Haaretz, as “the chief organ of liberal #Zionism published from the heart of a racist fascistic settler colony built on the stolen land of another people. #PIsForPalestine.”

On May 14, 2018, Bashi tweeted at former U.S. presidential candidate, Mitt Romney: “neither do European Zionists or the US government have any moral (or international mandate) to use and abuse the #Bible to fulfill their agenda. Your shameless support of the genocidal #apartheid state of #Israel is the epitome of #bigotry, Sir! #MittRomney.”

On the same day, Bashi wrote another tweet, stating: “TODAY! “As of writing this, 52 #Palestinian unarmed protesters in #Gaza have been shot dead by Israeli snipers, and 2,238 have been wounded, over 1,000 by live ammunition...” #Jerusalem #Genocide”

In a tweet published on July 25, 2014, Bashi wrote: “Ending #Zionism is a #feminist issue.”

On October 11, 2013, Bashi tweeted: “Iranians deserve FULL human rights! No apartheid racist state lke Israel can abuse our JUST LEGIT causes 2 further their occupying thievery!”

On November 18, 2012, Bashi tweeted a link to a February 9, 2008, Daily Telegraph article purporting that an Israeli official had threatened to commit a Holocaust against the Palestinians.

Per the Daily Telegraph article, then-Israeli deputy defense minister, Matan Vilnai, said during an Army Radio interview: "The more qassam fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they [the Palestinians] will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves." In January and February 2008, just prior to Vinai’s interview, Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza had fired hundreds of rockets at Israeli population centers.

Supporting BDS

As of June 2019, Bashi’s personal website displayed a BDS logo on the home page that linked to the movement’s official website.

On February 1, 2019, Bashi tweeted: “I am a proud Persian mama and I boycott Israel-supporting #SADAF as part of my commitment to Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement.”

In June 2016, Bashi twice signed a letter to the United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights, calling upon him to publicly defend and protect the BDS movement and its activists.

The letter also called on the High Commissioner to “[a]ctivate relevant special UN mechanisms, including the UN special rapporteurs on the right to freedom of expression and opinion, and on human rights defenders, to investigate, intervene privately and issue similar public statements.”

On July 12, 2013, Bashi signed an open letter to Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, condemning him for participating in the Jerusalem International Film Festival and calling on him to join the BDS movement.

Signatories of the letter charged Israel with “the ethnic cleansing of 1948, the occupation of Palestinian lands since 1967, and the current implementation of an apartheid system.”

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.