I am not pariculary Pro-Arab or Pro-Palestinian. But from a human perspective I hope the best for the Israeli, Palestinian, Druze, Bedouin, Egyptian, Lebanese, Syrian and Jordanese people in the Levant and the Middle east. Whether it would be a Two-state or One State solution, Federation, Union, Federal state, Central state or Benelux or EU kind of construction I wish them succes. Israeli's and Palestinians whould accept the presence of the other, understand that the other will stay and should find practical, livable solutions for that fact. I completely understand from a geopolitical, strategic, tactical, ethnic, cultural, social-economical, political and military point of view why the Israeli jews want an Israel with as less Palestinians or Arab Israeli's as possible and as much Israeli jews and Jewish settlers as possible. The Israeli jews want to have their land, their soil, their national sovereignity, their national identity after having being in exile as Diaspora jews for a very long time. But what the early Zionists and later Zionists leaders, activists, ideologues, lobbyists and organisers failed to mention, see and realise that in Ottoman Palestine, Mandetory Palestine, the later British Palestine there were already people, Levantine Muslim and Christian Arabs living in Palestine being called Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs. It is true that there was empty land, but there was also inhabited land, where Palestinian christian and Muslim Arabs lived in cities, towns, villages and Hamlets. The leftwing secular Labour Zionists (Haganah/Palmach and others), de center right General Zionists (Chaim Weizmann), the Revisionist rightwing Zionists of Betar, Irgun and Stern gang failed to see or didn't want to see the Arabs in their land of Israel, which was called Palestine back then. The Balfour declaration of November 2, 1917 was British support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine. The body of Jewish residents in Ottoman Syria until 1917, the Occupied Enemy Territory Administration (OETA) South, joint British and French military administration over Levantine and Mesopotamian provinces of the former Ottoman Empire between 1918–20 and later Mandatory Palestine 1920–1948, prior to the establishment of the State of Israel started to grew as a result of that Balfour declaration. From one side I have my reservations and critical remarks on that European style Jewish nationalism, called Zionism, and from the other side I look critical at the Pan-Arabism, Pan-Islamism, Palestinian nationalism (which I sometimes see as an mirror image of Zionism, due to the Palestinian Diaspora and the presence of Israeli Arabs in Israel and Palestinians in Gaza, the Westbank, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, the Gulf states, Europe, North-America and South-America) of Palestinians and Arabs of the Middle east and North-Africa. I have my objections, criticism and doubts to the stances, policies and measures of Arab rulers, politicians and religious leaders. The heritage, history and examples of Arab leadership in the past and present are not exactly positive or succesfull. The Arabs have been fighting each other for thousands of years and decades. Rivalry between Arab tribes and peoples is the biggest problem for the Arab world. It makes it easier for the non-Arabs in the area's of the Middle East, North-Africa and East-Africa where the Arabs live to compete with, fight with and often to defeat the Arabs. Who am I talking about? The Ottoman Turks, The Persian Iranians, the Kurds of Syria and Iraq, the jewish Israeli's and the proud and powerful Berber and the Tuareg people of the Maghreb and the Sahara desert. The jews of the world have to avoid entering the same division, rivalry and hostility, armed conflict, brother strive, civil wars and wars the Arabs wage to each other. Israeli's and American jews seem to go into different directions. Where the American jews of the West coast and East Coast seem to follow a progressive, liberal democratic course and support the Democratic party and merge more and more with liberal protestants, secular non-Jewish Americans and Roman-Catholic Americans, the more rightwing Israeli jews seem to move towards the European conservatives, rightwing Populists and nationalists. Israel seems to align itself with the Visegrad countries Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. The Austrian rightwing covernment is also close to Israel.
I am highly critical of the corrupt, nepotist, fraudulent, brutal, vicious, egocentric, typcical tribal, Arab clan wise and fractional thinking of Arab Palestinian leaders of
Fatah (the
PLO and
Palestinian Authority),
Hamas, the
Islamic Jihad, the Palestinian Liberation Front (
PLF), the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (
PFLP), the
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (
DFLP), the
Arab Liberation Front,
As-Sa'iqa ( a Palestinian Ba'athist political and military faction created and controlled by Syria), the
Democratic Alliance List (due to the participation in this coalition of the
PFLP and the
DFLP), the
Palestinian Arab Front,
the Palestinian Communist Party,
the Palestinian People's Party ( Due to it's cooperation with the
DFLP in
Al-badeel [
The Alternative] an electoral alliance of several socialist Palestinian groups) and
the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front. Non of these political parties, movements, fractions or armed groups have found a solution for the problems of the Palestinians or managed to achieve political, financial-economical or cultural goals in the strategic, tactical, geopolitical sense. Oaky
Fatah gained some respect with the Peace negotiations, in
Oslo,
Camp David,
Sharm el Sheikh, it's decades of struggle and that is has established
the Palestinian Authority on
the Westbank and ruled
Gaza for some time during the nineties and early this century, before
Hamas took over.
Hamas gained the respect of
the Palestinians and some foreign
Arab and
non Arab Muslim peoples and
regimes due to it's
armed struggle and
terrorism against
Israel. But
Hamas didn't improve the living conditions (Life standard), employement position and safety (security) of the Gazan Palestinian people inside
Gaza, nor
the Westbank or
Lebanon. Hower
Hamas is a more disciplined organization and has excellent tactical and strategic skills and is a huge threat to the influence, power and rule of
Fatah (the
PLO lead
Palestinian Authority).
Hamas, a Palestinian Sunni-Islamist fundamentalist organization was founded in 1987 soon after the First Intifada broke out, as an offshoot of
the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, which in its Gaza branch had been non-confrontational towards Israel, refrained from resistance, and was hostile to the PLO. Co-founder
Sheik Ahmed Yassin stated in 1987, and the
Hamas Charter affirmed in 1988, that
Hamas was founded to liberate Palestine, including modern-day Israel, from Israeli occupation and to establish an Islamic state in the area that is now
Israel,
the West Bank and
the Gaza Strip. Hamas showed and showed unresponsible behaviour by using
Palestinian citizens in
Gaza as
human shield for their armed operations. In this they show the same behaviour as some Arab despotic authoritarian leaders, sheikhs, clan leaders, tribal leaders, Mullah's, Monarchs (not the Jordanian by the way, he is an excelllent British trained chap, and someone with rational-analytical and logic thoughts policies, diplomacy and rule), dictators and presidents who don't care about the consequences of their actions for their peoples, regional stability, peace and economical progress and civilization.
A moderate Palestinian political party I endorse and support however is The Third Way of the former Palestinian Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority and Finance Minister Salam Fayyad and Palestinian legislator, activist, and scholar Hanan Daoud Khalil Ashrawi.
The Third Way is a small centrist Palestinian political party active in the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). Founded on 16 December 2005, the party was led by Salam Fayyad and Hanan Ashrawi. The party presents itself as an alternative to the two-party system of Hamas and Fatah.
In the January 2006 PLC elections the party received 2.41% of the popular vote and won two of the Council's 132 seats. After the disappointing election results, the party disappeared from the Palestinian arena, but in July 2015 party leaders held a series of meetings in Ramallah and Hebron to discuss the party's ability to reactivate its platform and return.
MembersSalam FayyadParty founder Salam Fayyad served as Finance Minister in the Palestinian Authority Government of February 2005, but resigned late 2005, to run for the 2006 elections. On 15 June 2007, Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas named Salam Fayyad Prime Minister of the new emergency government, following Hamas' takeover of Gaza.
Hanan AshrawiHanan Daoud Khalil Ashrawi (Arabic: حنان داوود خليل عشراوي; born October 8, 1946) is a Palestinian legislator, activist, and scholar. She was a protégée and later colleague and close friend of Edward Said. Ashrawi was an important leader during the First Intifada, served as the official spokesperson for the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East peace process, and has been elected numerous times to the Palestinian Legislative Council. Ashrawi is a member of former Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's Third Way party. She is the first woman elected to the Palestinian National Council.
Ashrawi serves on the Advisory Board of several international and local organizations including the World Bank Middle East and North Africa (MENA), United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) and the International Human Rights Council.
She received her bachelor's and master's degrees in literature in the Department of English at the American University of Beirut. Ashrawi also earned a Ph.D. in Medieval and Comparative Literature from the University of Virginia.
Ashrawi was born to Palestinian Christian parents on October 8, 1946 in the city of Nablus, British Mandate for Palestine, now part of the West Bank. Her father, Daoud Mikhail, was a physician and one of the founders of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and her, mother Wadi’a Ass’ad Mikhail, was an ophthalmic nurse.
www.middleeastmonitor.com/20150729-palestinian-politics-to-see-re-emergence-of-the-third-way/I hope that reasonable, wise, patient, strong, sincere, charismatic, realistic and rational and logical thinking Palestinian leaders will replace the present day Palestinian leadership. It is extremely difficult to find a right solution to the problems, suffering, hardship and dual occupation of the Palestinians by the Israeli occupation and the terrible Hamas and Fatah leadership in Gaza and the Westbank. It is for the Palestinians to choose their leader.
I am afraid that only strong leaders can lead the Palestinian cause and that thus old blokes like these:
Mahmoud al-AloulVice Chairman of the Central Committee of Fatah and former governor of the Palestinian Authority's Nablus governorate in the Central Highlands of the West Bank
Mahmoud al-Aloul ((Arabic: محمود العالول) (b. 1950) is widely discussed in 2018 as the likely successor to Mahmoud Abbas as President of the Palestinian Authority.
Gen.
Majid Faraj, head of the Palestinian Preventive Security (PPS) (Arabic: الأمن الوقائي; Al-'amn al-wiqa'i), also known as Preventive Security Force (PSF), Preventive Security Service (PSS), one of the security apparatus of the State of Palestine. Majid Faraj joined the PSF from 1994, when the Preventive Force was established, and headed by Jibril Rajoub. In 2000, he was in charge of the Bethlehem district. In 2006, Faraj was promoted to the head of military intelligence in the West Bank. Abbas appointed him chief of the General Intelligence Service in 2009.
Majid Faraj, second to the right next to Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat and the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shakes hands with Saeb Erekat in Jerusalem, April 2012. Netanyahu aide Yitzhak Molcho is at left, and PA security chief Majed Faraj is at second left. (Amos Ben Gershom /GPO/Flash90))Saeb ErekatSaeb Muhammad Salih Erekat (also Erikat or Erakat or Arekat; Arabic: صائب عريقات Ṣāʼib ʻUrayqāt or ʻRēqāt; born 28 April 1955) is a Palestinian diplomat who served as chief of the PLO Steering and Monitoring Committee until 12 February 2011. He negotiated the Oslo Accords with Israel and remained chief negotiator from 1995 until May 2003, when he resigned in protest from the Palestinian government. He later reconciled with the party and was reappointed to the post in September 2003.
The people surrounding Abbas are led by Gen.
Majid Faraj, head of the intelligence service, and
Saeb Erekat, secretary-general of the PLO’s steering committee.
Erekat, the Palestinians’ chief negotiator, although 20 years younger than
Abbas, is reliably reported to be suffering from pulmonary fibrosis and in need of a lung transplant. He is therefore scarcely in the running.
Peace negotiators Tzipi Livni and Saeb Erekat at the State Department in Washington, July 30, 2013 (photo credit: AP/Charles Dharapak)Yasser Arafat and Saeb Erekat meet with Benjamin NetanyahuJibril RajoubJibril Rajoub (Arabic: جبريل رجوب, born 1953), also known by his kunya Abu Rami, is a Palestinian political and militant figure.[2] He was the head of the Preventive Security Force in the West Bank until being dismissed (along with the force's chief in Gaza, Ghazi Jabali) in 2002. He had been a member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council until 2009 and was elected to the Fatah Central Committee at the party's 2009 congress,[6] serving as Deputy-Secretary until 2017, before being elected Secretary General of the Central Committee in 2017.
He served as head of the Preventive Security Force until 2002, and Yasser Arafat appointed him as his national security advisor in 2003. During his tenure, he was accused of using the force to quash political dissent and harass political opponents of Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian National Authority, including the use of torture.
Dr. Mohammad ShtayyehDr. Mohammad Shtayyeh (Arabic: محمد اشتية) is a Palestinian politician and economic expert born in Tell/Nablus in 1958. Served as minister of public works and housing, and minister of the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction and holds a doctorate in economic development from the University of Sussex, UK He worked as a professor and dean at Birzeit University and has published several books on economics, politics and history.
Negotiations ProfileDr. Shtayyeh's experience in Palestinian-Israeli negotiations spans two decades beginning with
the 1991 Madrid Talks in which
he headed the advance team to establish the parameters for negotiations with Israeli counterparts.
Dr. Shtayyeh has been a member of the Palestinian delegation during
the Washington Talks,
the talks on the interim agreements, and
all final status negotiations including the talks initiated by former Secretary
John Kerry during his term in office.
Dr. Shtayyeh has also participated in
the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee to coordinate
donor support for Palestine and is
the head of the delegation for multilateral talks with
the Regional Economic Development Working Group concerned with
problem-solving regional trade,
finance and
infrastructure issues. As
Secretary-General of the Palestinian Central Elections Commission,
Dr. Shtayyeh concluded
an agreement with
Israel concerning cooperation with the conduct of
Palestinian presidential and
legislative elections and
he negotiated,
with others,
the text agreement on elections with Israel.
Dr. Shtayyeh continues to act as
a senior advisor to President Mahmoud Abbas on
negotiations with
Israel.
Mohammad Shtayyeh with former US-president Jimmy Carter, a suppoter of the Palestinian cause.Tawfik al-Tirawi Brigadier-General
Tawfik Mohammed Hussein al-Tirawi (Arabic: توفيق الطيراوي) is a Fatah official who led the investigation into the death of former President Yasser Arafat. He served as the head of Palestinian Authority Intelligence in the West Bank from 1994 to 2008.
Tirawi, the head of Fatah's Commission for Intellectual Mobilization and Studies, was elected to the Central Committee at the sixth Fatah convention in 2009.
Political activismTawfik al-Tirawi joined
Fatah in
1967 while attending
Beirut Arab University. He headed the Lebanese branch of
the General Union of Palestinian Students from
1969 to
1971 and in
1970 he was head of
the secret Student Office of the Secretariat of Fatah. In
1978 he became a member of
the executive body of the General Union of Palestinian Students and a member of
the Palestinian National Council.
The Syrian security services arrested him on
23 July 1985. He was
tortured for
four days by
the intelligence services and then
kept in solitary confinement for months. He was imprisoned in various locations in
Syria until his release on
2 November 1989.
IntelligenceHe helped create
the Palestinian General Intelligence Service on
7 June 1994. Years later, he stayed with
Arafat when his compound came under
Israeli siege. President
Mahmoud Abbas appointed
Tirawi his
security adviser as well as
head of the Palestinian General Intelligence on
28 August 2007. He served as
intelligence head until
21 November 2008 and
security adviser until
he was elected to the Central Committee of Fatah on
8 December 2009. He served as
general of the Popular Organizations commissioner of
Fatah from
2009 to
2011. In
2013, he became the general intellectual mobilization and studies commissioner.
This man will know what danger, tension and pressure is. With his experience with Israel, Palestine, Libanon and Syria. Sometimes a danger with former prisoners who were tortured or got a chance to organise themselves in prison is that they became brutal leaders. I think about Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler. Tawfik al-Tirawi is not Stalin, nor Hitler and he isn't Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi, Pol Pot or Mao Zedong either, but his Syrian experience could make him a tough and ruthless man.
Tirawi is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of Independence.
Tawfiq Tirawi speaks during a news conference in the West Bank city of RamallahMarwan BarghoutiMarwan Barghouti with his armed men of the Tanzim (Arabic: تنظيم Tanẓīm, "Organization"), a militant faction of the Palestinian Fatah movement. Marwan Hasib Ibrahim Barghouti (also transliterated al-Barghuthi; Arabic: مروان حسيب ابراهيم البرغوثي; born 6 June 1959) is a Palestinian political figure convicted and imprisoned for murder by an Israeli court. He is regarded as
a leader of the First and Second Intifadas.
Barghouti at one time
supported the peace process, but later
became disillusioned, and
after 2000 went on to become a leader of the Second Intifada from the West Bank.
Barghouti was a leader of
Tanzim, a
paramilitary offshoot of Fatah.
Tanzim militants, well-armed and prepared to use their armoury if given the order.Israeli authorities have called Barghouti a terrorist, accusing him of directing numerous attacks, including suicide bombings, against civilian and military targets alike.[4] Barghouti was arrested by Israel Defense Forces in 2002 in Ramallah. He was tried and convicted on charges of murder, and sentenced to five life sentences. Marwan Barghouti refused to present a defense to the charges brought against him, maintaining throughout that the trial was illegal and illegitimate.
Barghouti still exerts great influence in Fatah from within prison. With popularity reaching further than that, there has been some speculation whether he could be a unifying candidate in a bid to succeed Mahmud Abbas.
In the negotiations over the exchange of Palestinian prisoners for the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, Hamas insisted on including Barghouti in the deal with Israel. However, Israel was unwilling to concede to that demand and despite initial reports that he indeed was to be released in the 11 October 2011 deal between Israel and Hamas, it was soon denied by Israeli sources.
In November 2014, Barghouti urged the Palestinian Authority to immediately end security cooperation with Israel and called for a Third Intifada against Israel.
Marwan Barghouti in Israeli custodyBiographyBarghouti was born in the village of
Kobar near
Ramallah, and comes from
the Barghouti clan, an extended family from
Deir Ghassaneh.
Mustafa Barghouti, a fellow Palestinian political figure, is
a distant cousin.
Barghouti was one of seven children, and
his father was a migrant worker in Lebanon. His younger brother
Muqbel described him as "
a naughty and rebellious boy".
Barghouti joined
Fatah at age
15, and he was
a co-founder of the Fatah Youth Movement (
Shabiba) on
the West Bank. By the age of
18 in
1976,
Barghouti was arrested by
Israel for his involvement with
Palestinian militant groups. He completed his secondary education and received a
high school diploma while
serving a four-year term in jail, where
he gained fluency in Hebrew.
Barghouti enrolled at
Birzeit University (
BZU) in
1983, though arrest and exile meant that he did not receive his
B.A. (
History and Political Science)
until 1994.
He earned an M.A. in International Relations, also from
Birzeit, in
1998. As
an undergraduate,
he was active in student politics on
behalf of Fatah and
headed the BZU Student Council. On
21 October 1984, he married a fellow student,
Fadwa Ibrahim.
Fadwa took
bachelor's and
master's degrees in law and
was a prominent advocate in her own right on behalf of
Palestinian prisoners, before becoming
the leading campaigner for her husband’s release from his current jail term. The couple has a daughter,
Ruba (born
1986), and three sons,
Qassam (born
1985),
Sharaf (born
1989) and
Arab (born
1990).
Marwan Barghouti (left) with Yasser Arafat. Photo: IDF.First Intifada, the Oslo Accords and the aftermathBarghouti became
one of the major leaders in the West Bank of the First Intifada in
1987, leading
Palestinians in
a mass uprising against Israeli occupation. During
the uprising,
he was arrested by Israel and deported to Jordan for
incitement, where he stayed for seven years until he was permitted to return under
the terms of the Oslo Accords in 1994.
Although he was a strong supporter of the peace process he doubted that Israel was committed to land-for-peace deals. In
1996, he was elected to
the Palestinian Legislative Council, following which he began
his active advocacy of the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Barghouti campaigned
against corruption in Arafat's administration and
human rights violations by its security services, and
he established relationships with a number of Israeli politicians and members of Israel's peace movement.[1] The formal position occupied by
Barghouti was
Secretary-General of Fatah in the West Bank. By
the summer of 2000, particularly after
the Camp David summit failed,
Barghouti was disillusioned and said that popular protests and "
new forms of military struggle" would be features of the "
next Intifada".
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat holds a poster of jailed leader of the Fatah movement in the West Bank Marwan Barghouti during a ceremony in his office in of Ramallah, February 12, 2004. Jamal Aruri, AFP Second IntifadaIn
September 2000,
the Second Intifada began.
Barghouti became
increasingly popular as a leader of the Fatah armed branch,
the Tanzim, seen as
one of the major forces fighting against the Israel Defense Forces.
Barghouti led
marches to Israeli checkpoints, where
riots broke out against Israeli soldiers and
spurred on Palestinians in speeches at funerals and demonstrations, condoning the use of force to expel
Israel from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He has stated that, "
I, and the Fatah movement to which I belong, strongly oppose attacks and the targeting of civilians inside Israel, our future neighbor, I reserve the right to protect myself, to resist the Israeli occupation of my country and to fight for my freedom" and has said, "
I still seek peaceful coexistence between the equal and independent countries of Israel and Palestine based on full withdrawal from Palestinian territories occupied in 1967."
As
the Palestinian death toll in
the Second Intifada increased,
Barghouti called for
Palestinians to
target Israeli soldiers and
settlers in the West Bank and
Gaza. During the second intifada
Barghouti was accused by
Israel of being a senior member of
the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades,
an organization which conducted numerous attacks and suicide bombings on civilians both within and outside of Israel proper,[18] and has been accused of
having directed some of these bombings personally. While some
Palestinian militants advocated adopting tactics based on those used by
Hezbollah to drive
the Israeli army out of
Lebanon,
Barghouti was seen as
less radical,
supporting violent actions based on popular movements but exclusively within the Palestinian territories.
According to National Public Radio,
Barghouti "
cut his ideological teeth as the political leader of Fatah's armed militant wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades."
Marwan Barghouti on a mural at the separation wall between the Westbank and Israel. He is a popular leader amongst the Palestinians of the Westbank.Israeli trial and imprisonmentIsrael accused him of founding
the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and attempted
to assassinate him in
2001. The missile hit his bodyguard's car, killing the bodyguard.
Barghouti survived but was arrested by
the Israeli Army in
Ramallah, on
15 April 2002 and transferred to the '
Russian Compound'
police station in
Jerusalem.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the "military wing" of Fatah that operates mostly in Gaza but that sometimes shows up in full armed glory in the West Bank, called on Palestinians "to engage with the Israeli occupation forces in Palestinian towns and villages in all legitimate and especially armed ways."Amos Harel wrote in
Haaretz that
Barghouti was arrested by soldiers of the
Duchifat Battalion who had approached the building hidden in an ambulance to avoid detection: "
The Duchifat soldiers were squeezed into a protected ambulance in order to arrive as quickly as possible at the house where Barghouti was hiding, and to seal it off."
Several months later, he was indicted in
an Israeli civilian court on
26 charges of murder and attempted murder stemming from attacks carried out by
the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades on
Israeli civilians and soldiers.
Marwan Barghouti refused to present a defense to the charges brought against him, maintaining throughout that the trial was illegal and illegitimate.
The Israeli verdict against him in effect
removed Arafat's only political rival.
Barghouti stressed that
he supported armed resistance to the Israeli occupation, but
condemned attacks on civilians inside Israel. According to the case argued by
Israel at his trial,
he had supported and authorized such attacks. On
20 May 2004, he was convicted of five counts of murder: authorizing and organizing the murder of
Georgios Tsibouktzakis, a shooting adjacent to
Giv'at Ze'ev in which a civilian was killed, and
the Seafood Market attack in Tel Aviv in which three civilians were killed.
June 12, 2001 - Father Georgios Tsibouktzakis, 34, a Greek Orthodox monk from St. George's Monastery in Wadi Kelt near Jericho, was shot and killed while driving on the Jerusalem-Ma'ale Adumim road.In addition,
Barghouti was convicted of attempted murder for a failed car bomb attack near
Malha Mall that exploded prematurely, resulting in the deaths of two suicide bombers, and for membership and activity in a terrorist organization. He was acquitted of 21 counts of murder in 33 other attacks as no proof was brought to link
Barghouti directly with the specific decisions of
the local leadership of the Tanzim to carry out these particular attacks. On
6 June 2004, he was sentenced to the maximum possible punishment for his convictions: five cumulative life sentences for the murders and an additional 40 years, consisting of 20 years each for attempted murder and for membership and activity in
a terrorist organization.
The Inter-Parliamentary Union reviewed the case and released a report that
criticized Barghouti's arrest, treatment while in detention, and trial. It said his rights were violated and international treaties and norms were contravened.
Campaign for releaseA portrait of Marwan Barghouti at a demonstration at Beit Ummar.Since
Barghouti's arrest, many of his supporters have campaigned for his release. They include prominent
Palestinian figures, members of
European Parliament and
the Israeli group Gush Shalom.
Reuters reported that some see
Barghouti "
as a Palestinian Nelson Mandela, the man who could galvanize a drifting and divided national movement if only he were set free by Israel".[31] According to
The Jerusalem Post, "
nlike many in the Western media, Palestinian journalists and writers have rarely - if ever - referred to Barghouti as...the 'Palestinian Nelson Mandela.'"
Another approach is to suggest that
Israel's freeing of
Barghouti would be
an excellent show of good faith in the peace process. This view gained popularity among
the Israeli left after
the 2005 Disengagement from
the Gaza Strip. Still others, operating from a realpolitik perspective, have pointed out that allowing
Barghouti to re-enter
Palestinian politics could serve to bolster
Fatah against gains in
Hamas' popularity. According to
Pinhas Inbari of
the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs,
"
Hamas understands it needs to provide its supporters with some comfort, especially seeing the suffering of the Palestinian people. For this reason, Hamas is willing to accept Barghouti's release and to deal with him after he is free. Without the severe state of the Palestinian people, Hamas would object to the release of Barghouti."
Following Barghouti's January 2006 re-election to the Palestinian Legislative Council, a debate over Barghouti's fate began anew in Israel, ranging from former MK Yossi Beilin's support for a Presidential pardon to the total refusal of any idea of early release. Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom stated,
"
We must not forget that he is a cold-blooded murderer who was sentenced by the court to five life sentences… It is out of the question to free an assassin who has blood on his hands and was duly sentenced by a court."
However several MKs, including Kadima MK Meir Sheetrit, suggested that Barghouti will likely be released as part of future peace negotiations, although they did not specify when. In January 2007, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres declared that he would sign a presidential pardon for Marwan Barghouti if elected to the Israeli presidency.[37] However, despite Peres winning the presidency, a pardon was not issued.
Split from FatahOn
14 December 2005,
Barghouti announced that he had formed
a new political party,
al-Mustaqbal ("
The Future"), mainly composed of members of
Fatah's "
Young Guard", who repeatedly
expressed frustration with the entrenched corruption in the party. The list, which was presented to
the Palestinian Authority's central elections committee on that day, included
Mohammed Dahlan,
Kadoura Fares,
Samir Mashharawi and
Jibril Rajoub.
The split followed
Barghouti's earlier refusal of
Mahmoud Abbas' offer to be second on the Fatah party's parliamentary list, behind Palestinian Prime Minister
Ahmed Qurei.
Barghouti had actually topped the list, but this had not become apparent until after the new party had been registered.
Reactions to the news was split. Some suggested that the move was a positive step towards peace, as Barghouti's new party could help reform major problems in Palestinian government. Others raised concern that it could wind up splitting the Fatah vote, inadvertently helping Hamas. Barghouti's supporters argued that al-Mustaqbal would split the votes of both parties, both from disenchanted Fatah members as well as moderate Hamas voters who do not agree with Hamas' political goals, but rather its social work and hard position on corruption. Some observers also hypothesized that the formation of al-Mustaqbal was mostly a negotiating tactic to get members of the Young Guard into higher positions of power within Fatah and its electoral list.
Barghouti eventually was convinced that the idea of leading a new party, especially one that was created by splitting from Fatah, would be unrealistic while he was still in prison. Instead he stood as a Fatah candidate in the January 2006 PLC elections, comfortably regaining his seat in the Palestinian Parliament.
Political activity in prison
In late 2004, Barghouti announced from his Israeli prison his intention to run in the Palestinian Authority presidential election in January 2005, called for following the death of President Yasser Arafat in November. On 26 November 2004, it appeared he would withdraw from the contest following pressure from the Fatah faction to support the candidacy of Mahmoud Abbas. However, just before the deadline on 1 December, Barghouti's wife registered him as an independent candidate. On 12 December, facing pressure from Fatah[39] to withdraw in favor of Abbas, he chose to abandon his candidacy for the benefit of Palestinian unity. On 11 May 2006, Palestinian leaders held in Israeli prisons released the National Conciliation Document of the Prisoners. The document was a proposal initiated by Marwan Barghouti and leaders of Hamas, the PFLP, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the DFLP that proposed a basis upon which a coalition government should be formed in the Palestinian Legislative Council. This came as a result of the political stalemate in the Palestinian territories that followed Hamas' election to the PLC in January 2006. Crucially, the document also called for negotiation with the state of Israel in order to achieve lasting peace. The document quickly gained popular currency and is now considered the bedrock upon which a national unity government should be achieved. According to Haaretz, Barghouti, although not officially represented in the negotiations of a Palestinian unity government in February 2007, played a major role in mediating between Hamas and Fatah and formulating the compromise reached on 8 February 2007. In 2009, he was elected to party leadership at the Fatah Conference in Bethlehem.
In April 2017 he organized a hunger strike of Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli jails. He laid out the motivation behind the strike in an op-ed in the New York Times. On 7 May, the Israel Prison Service released a video allegedly showing Barghouti secretly eating snacks in his prison cell, once on 27 April and again on 5 May. According to Haaretz, anonymous sources in the prison service said food was made available to Barghouti as part of a setup to check his adherence to his hunger strike. Barghouti's wife said that the video was faked and was intended to undermine the hunger strike.
PopularityDespite being out of the public eye for a few years, Marwan Barghouti remains a popular leader among the Palestinian people. According to polling data in mid-2012, 60% of Palestinians would vote for him for president of the Palestinian Authority if they were given that chance, and he would beat both Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh for the top post.
Marwan Barghouti on a flag of Fatah supporters during a confrontation with Israeli soldiers.Muhammad DahlanMohammad Yusuf Dahlan (Arabic: محمد دحلان) born on September 29, 1961 in
Khan Yunis Refugee Camp,
Khan Yunis,
Gaza Strip also known by the kunya or nom de guerre
Abu Fadi (Arabic: أبو فادي) is a Palestinian politician,
the former leader of Fatah in Gaza.
Dahlan was born to a refugee family from
Hamama (now in
Israel), the youngest of six children.
Dahlan became politically active as a teenager and in
1981 helped to establish the Gaza branch of
the Fatah Youth Movement Fatah Hawks in
the Gaza Strip. Between
1981 and
1986, he was arrested by
Israel 11 times for his leading role in the movement. During his time in prison, he learned to speak
Hebrew fluently. Following his release from prison,
Dahlan completed a
BA in Business Administration at
the Islamic University of
Gaza.
Palestinian supporter of former head of Fatah in Gaza, Mohammed Dahlan, holds a poster depicting Dahlan during a protest against Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Gaza City December 18, 2014. (photo credit: MOHAMMED SALEM/REUTERS) Sources: Wikipedia, Encyclopedia Britannica, Israel Times, Haaretz, Al Jazeera, ANP, Reuters, CDN AZ Media, Getty images, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Birzeit university, Middle east monitor, blogspot.com, Electronic intifada, the Jerusalem Center For Public Affairs, The Algemeiner, Brabosh, IDF, Newswweek, Desert Peace, The national (
www.thenational.ae/international ), and the Jerusalem Post (
www.jpost.com/ ).