Mustafa Barghouti (in tie)
Mustafa Barghouti (in tie)Flash 90

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is continuing its efforts to initiate an international boycott against Israel so as to force the Jewish state to unconditionally withdraw to the 1949 Armistice lines, giving up its Biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria as well as eastern Jerusalem.

Mustafa Barghouti, the general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative (PNI) movement and a leading figure in the movement to boycott Israel, called for the international solidarity movement supporting the Palestinian Arabs to strengthen their economic attack on Israel.

He also called for the pro-Palestinian movement to work to bring about sanctions against Israel, and to cause financial investments to be pulled from the Jewish state.

Speaking at a press conference at Oxford University in London this Wednesday, Barghouti said the boycott is targeting the "occupation" and the "racist separation regime."

The boycott "is the greatest expression of the human struggle in peaceful ways supported by the right of peoples to freedom, as it was in South Africa," said Barghouti, airing the apartheid claim against Israel which has been thoroughly debunked.

Commenting on the Israeli focus on French telecoms giant Orange's decision last week to cut business with Israel after months of boycott pressure, Barghouti claimed the boycott effort is effective.

Orange's move came last week a day after the company's CEO said in Cairo he would "dump" Israel "tomorrow" if he could without taking a financial loss. The CEO is currently in Israel for a damage-control visit and is to meet Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday.

"The hysterical propaganda of the Zionist parties in Israel confirms the effectiveness of the boycott and the alternative national strategy which combines a popular struggle and the boycott movement to bring a change in the balance of power, instead of relying on methods that have failed throughout the years that have passed," said Barghouti, evidently referencing terrorist violence.

He concluded, "the Palestine problem is the most important human problem in the world and the freedom of South Africa won't be completed until the freedom of Palestine."