Can Barghouti be asset for Israel-Hamas deal?
He has also published an essay in the US daily paper The New York Times and released a book about his experiences in jail
Marwan Barghouti
ISRAEL: Any deal between Israel and Hamas including the possible release of Marwan Barghouti, arguably the most famous Palestinian prisoner at present, as part of cease-fire negotiations has yet to be approved by the warring sides.
However, earlier this week, Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official, put Barghouti’s name on a list of demands. Barghouti, 64, is regarded as one of the leaders of the first intifada, from 1987 to 1993, and was accused by Israel of also having a leading role the second intifada, the Palestinian uprising that ran from September 2000 to February 2005.
Currently behind bars in Israel, Barghouti is a member of the executive arm of Fatah, a Palestinian nationalist political party, and, in absentia, one of several members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, the legislature of the Palestinian Authority. “Barghouti is regarded as the most popular Palestinian politician and as a political leader who could overcome the internal Palestinian divide and unite many Palestinians behind him,” said Simon Engelkes, the head of the Ramallah office of the German Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
“For many Palestinians, Marwan Barghouti combines charisma and political clout with credibility as a leadership figure due to his experiences in exile, imprisonment and his role during the second intifada.”
In 2004, Israeli courts sentenced Barghouti to the maximum punishment of five life sentences for the murders of five people, including a Greek Orthodox monk, and an additional 40 years for attempted murder and activity in a terrorist organisation. Despite these sentences, Barghouti registered his own list for the 2021 Palestinian parliamentary election, which were later cancelled.
In 2017, he led a 41-day hunger strike of more than 1,500 prisoners in a bid to improve conditions in the prison, such as better visitation rights and access to education and to curb medical neglect toward prisoners as well as the practice of solitary confinement.
He has also published an essay in the US daily paper The New York Times and released a book about his experiences in jail.
Barghouti, who is married to high-profile lawyer and politician Fadwa Barghouti and has four children, also completed his doctorate at the Institute for Research and Arab Studies of the Arab League in Cairo from behind bars.
Various sources state that his book and his doctorate were smuggled out of jail one page at a time.
Barghouti’s image as a national hero is seen in the form of murals in many places across the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
“His history has earned Barghouti the nickname ‘the Palestinian Nelson Mandela,’” said Engelkes.
His standing was recently confirmed in a poll by the Ramallah-based think tank Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research. It showed that if elections had been held in December 2023, a majority of 55% of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank would have voted for Barghouti as successor to the unpopular 88-year-old Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Qatar-based Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh ranked second.
In turn, Hamas, which Germany, the European Union, the US and some Arab states have classified as a terrorist organisation, could benefit from Barghouti’s release in various ways. Barghouti could be an “acceptable national consensus figure who could forge a reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas in the future,” said Hugh Lovatt, Middle East expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Fatah is the ruling party in the occupied West Bank, while Hamas is in control of Gaza, currently under Israeli siege.
Furthermore, Lovatt believes Hamas wants to demonstrate that it is not only fighting for its own interests but also for those of other Palestinian factions. “This would further boost Hamas’ own popularity,” he added.
However, if a release were to take place, “it could jeopardise the Palestinian Authority as well as President Abbas’ position of power, and Barghouti would most probably have to make political concessions to Hamas, such as participation in a unity government, should he end up in political responsibility,” Engelkes added.
A potential release of Barghouti would be supported not only by Hamas and the Palestinian population but could also find conditional favour in Israel.
