In an op-ed published in the Toronto Star on August 12, Faisal Bhahba, a Law Professor at York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School, promotes the morally repugnant belief that Marwan Barghouti, a Palestinian arch-terrorist convicted of five counts of cold-blooded murder, is a “a popular and promising Palestinian politician” who he implies has been wrongly “imprisoned by Israel since 2002.” Contrary to Bhahba’s beliefs, Barghouti was convicted in an Israeli civilian court with primary responsibility for the grisly killing of a Greek monk and four diners in a seafood restaurant. A court ruling found that Barghouti “carried out a series of actions that caused, promoted and enabled the implementation of … acts of terror.”
Barghouti is a “convicted” murderer who under the laws of any democratic society deserves to remain behind bars. Even if Barghouti were to be released at some future that would not diminish his crimes or the legitimacy of putting him behind bars in the first place. That a York University professor would laud a terrorist mastermind with blood on his hands is deeply disturbing and reflects poorly on the academic institution he works for.
