Marwan Barghouti

Marwan Barghouti
Palestinian Legislative Council member
In office 1996–present
Personal details
Born	1959 (1959) Ramallah, Palestinian Territories
Nationality	Palestinian
Political party	Fatah Al-Mustaqbal

Marwan Bin Khatib Barghouti ( مروان البرغوثي born June 6, 1959) is a Palestinian politician and militant leader who gained political authority during the First and Second Intifada. He was captured and detained in 2002 on the charges of resisting the israeli occupation of the Palestinian land. During prisoner exchange negotiations at the end of 2006, Hamas demanded his release, along with that of many other Palestinians, in exchange for the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Biography

Barghouti was born in the village of Kobar near Ramallah, and became active in Fatah at the age of 15. He comes from the Barghouti clan, an extended family from Deir Ghassaneh and should not be confused with fellow Palestinian political figure Mustafa Barghouti, a distant cousin. By the age of 18 in 1976, Marwan Barghouti was arrested by Israel for his involvement with Palestinian militant groups, and learned Hebrew during his time in imprisonment.

First Intifada

Barghouti was one of the major leaders of the First Intifada in 1987, leading Palestinians in a mass uprising against Israel. During the uprising, he was arrested by Israel and deported to Jordan, where he stayed for seven years until he was permitted to return under the terms of the Oslo Accords in 1994. 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 . He was also a strong campaigner against the corruption festering in the Fatah movement, sometimes coming in conflict with Yasser Arafat. The formal position occupied by Barghouti was Secretary-General of Fatah in the West Bank.

By the summer of 2000, Barghouti and Arafat were increasingly at odds with each other, with Barghouti accusing Arafat's administration of corruption and his security services of human rights violations.

Second Intifada

As the Second Intifada raged, Barghouti became increasingly popular as a leader of the Fatah armed branch, the Tanzim seen as one of the major forces fighting against the Israeli 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. When asked which civilians were legitimate targets, he clarified: "And while 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"

Arrest

Barghouti's actions during the Intifada landed him on Israel's most-wanted list, and he escaped an arrest attempt in 2001. However, he was arrested by the Israeli Army in Ramallah, on April 15, 2002 and transferred to the 'Russian Compound' police station in Jerusalem. Several months later, he was indicted in civilian court on charges of murder and attempted murder stemming from attacks carried out by the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades on Israeli soldiers.

Trial

Israel tried Barghouti in an Israeli civilian court, instead of a military court as is often done with Palestinian militants.

Marwan Barghouti refused to present a defense to the charges brought against him, maintaining throughout that the trial was illegal and illegitimate. However, he continued to stress that he supported armed resistance to the Israeli occupation, but condemned attacks on civilians inside Israel.

He was convicted on May 20, 2004 of five counts of murder. He was acquitted of 21 counts of murder in 33 other attacks. On June 6, 2004, he was sentenced to five life sentences for the five murders and forty years imprisonment for the attempted murder.

Candidacy for Palestinian Authority presidency

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 November 26, 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 December 1, Barghouti's wife registered him as an independent candidate.

On December 12, facing pressure from Fatah to withdraw in favor of Abbas, he chose to abandon his candidacy for the benefit of Palestinian unity.

Campaign to release Marwan Barghouti

Since Barghouti's arrest, many of his supporters, Palestinian and otherwise, have campaigned for his release. They include prominent Palestinian figures, members of European Parliament and the Israeli peace bloc.

Some focus on the illegality of Bargouti's arrest, pointing to his diplomatic immunity as a member of the Palestinian Parliament, as well as to the fact that he was arrested in an area over which Israel has no jurisdiction. They also point out that the transfer of a prisoner from occupied territory to the territory of the occupier violates the Fourth Geneva Convention. 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 Yahad leader and 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." [1], [2]

However several MKs, including Kadima MK Meir Sheetrit, have 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. However, despite Peres winning the presidency, the signing of such a pardon has yet to be announced.

In 2008, Hamas presented Israel with a list of 450 prisoners it demands released which includes Marwan Barghouti in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit who was captured in 2006.

Split from Fatah

On December 14, 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 have 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, includes Mohammed Dahlan, Kadoura Fares, Samir Mashharawi and Jibril Rajoub.[3][4]

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.

The National Conciliation Document of the Prisoners

On May 11, 2006, prominent 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.

Involvement in Unity Government negotiations

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Barghouti, although not officially represented in the negotiations of a Palestinian unity government in February 2007, has played a major role in mediating between Hamas and Fatah and formulating the compromise that was reached on February 8, 2007.

Quotes

• "And while 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" (2002 Washington Post op-ed)

• "I am not a terrorist, but neither am I a pacifist. I am simply a regular guy from the Palestinian street advocating only what every other oppressed person has advocated—the right to help myself in the absence of help from anywhere else." (2002 Washington Post op-ed)

Further reading

• William Hughes: Political Show Trial for Marwan Barghouti
• CS Monitor: The 'Palestinian Napoleon' Behind Mideast Cease-fire
• Bitter Circus Erupts as Israel Indicts a Top Fatah Figure The New York Times, August 15, 2002
• Uri Avnery, "Palestine's Mandela", New Internationalist, November 2007

External links

• The Campaign to Free Marwan Barghouti & All Prisoners
• BBC: Marwan Barghouti profile
• Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs page about Barghouti