[3] 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.

As a consequence, proposing practical measures to punish Israeli institutions for their role in the racist and colonial policies of their state will no longer be considered beyond the pale."

"[17] He refers to Israeli practices using comparisons to Nazi Germany: "Many of the methods of collective and individual “punishment” meted out to Palestinian civilians at the hands of young, racist, often sadistic and ever impervious Israeli soldiers at the hundreds of checkpoints littering the occupied Palestinian territories are reminiscent of common Nazi practices against the Jews.

"[18] He believes that "Israeli society is shifting very far to the right, with ethnic cleansing becoming a mainstream term that's used in academia, in the media, in parliament, in conferences.

In response, Samir El-Youssef states that "Barghouti's 'true peace based on justice' is that Israel must be punished, brought down to its knees before a Palestinian is allowed to greet an Israeli in the street".

[26] In March 2016, at an anti-BDS conference in Jerusalem, several Israeli ministers made threatening remarks directed against Barghouti and other BDS leaders.

Yisrael Katz, Israeli Minister of Transport, Intelligence and Atomic Energy called on Israel to engage in "targeted civil eliminations" of BDS leaders.

[28] In response, Amnesty International in April issued a statement expressing its concern about "the safety and liberty of Palestinian human rights defender Omar Barghouti, and other Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activists, following calls alluding to threats, including of physical harm and deprivation of basic rights, made by Israeli ministers".

In March 2016, Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri was quoted as saying: "I received information that his life is in Ramallah and he is using his resident status to travel all over the world in order to operate against Israel in the most serious manner.

[31] Subsequently, Barghouti traveled to the United States where he received the Gandhi Peace Award, presented at a ceremony held at Yale University.

[33] After Barghouti published an opinion piece supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement in the New York Daily News in February 2013,[2] the Daily News itself responded with an editorial saying that Barghouti is "skilled as a propagandist" and that "he piles falsehood upon falsehood to present Israel as relentlessly oppressing the Palestinians in violation of human decency, and to hold Israel exclusively responsible for the ills afflicting them."

The Daily News says that Barghouti wants a "secular, democratic state built on an influx of Arabs who come to dominate the population and vote an end to Israel as the Jewish nation.