It’s war, there’s desperation, and no one has a solution. So it’s no wonder that a savior is now being sought in the Middle Eastern turmoil – and that his name quickly comes up: Marwan Barghouti. As the most prominent Palestinian prisoner, he could be released from prison in exchange for the Israeli hostages in Gaza. The Fatah man, who has excellent connections to Hamas, will then not only unite the Palestinians, but also promote peace within the framework of a two-state solution.
Everything in this Barghouti saga still takes place in the subjunctive. There is still no new hostage deal, no one knows yet whether he would actually make it onto the exchange list – and certainly no one can predict what role the 64-year-old could actually play after more than 20 years in prison. But Barghouti’s vita leaves room for both hopes and projections.
For many Israelis, Barghouti may be a terrorist with blood on his hands. For Palestinians across all camps, he is a folk hero and freedom fighter. His story begins in a small village near Ramallah in the West Bank, where he was born in 1959. He joined Yasser Arafat’s Fatah at the age of 15 and ended up in an Israeli cell for the first time at the age of 18. Studying politics at Bir Zait University took a long time because of various prison stays. When the first Intifada broke out in 1987, the Israelis immediately exiled him to Jordan.
In 1994, at the time of the Oslo Accords, he returned home to Arafat’s side. He committed to peace with Israel and the two-state solution. He had a lightning career in the newly established Palestinian power apparatus, becoming secretary general of Fatah, entering parliament as a member and taking over the leadership of the Tansim militia, a paramilitary wing of Fatah.
It didn’t take long for him to clash with the old guard around Arafat. He denounced corruption and became radicalized in the face of the faltering peace process. With the beginning of the second intifada, which was marked by bloody suicide attacks, he quickly found himself in the Israeli sights again. He was arrested in 2002 and sentenced to five life sentences plus 40 years in 2004 as the mastermind of several terrorist attacks.
Is the Palestinian leadership really interested in such competition? In the proceedings, which he described as a “political show trial”, he did not have a defense lawyer. After the verdict, he held his arms up in handcuffs in a victory sign. He then disappeared behind bars, often in solitary confinement for long periods of time, and he also has his wife Fadwa to thank for the fact that he was not forgotten. The lawyer and mother of their four children fights full-time for his release and ensures that his messages from prison do not go unheard.
Barghouti is so undisputed as a leader and bearer of hope that Hamas has been campaigning for his release for years, even though he belongs to Abbas’s rival Fatah. The ongoing talks about a new agreement between Israel and Hamas are also not least about him. According to Israeli media reports, Hamas has submitted a long list of names of imprisoned Palestinians whose release it is demanding in exchange for the release of more hostages. Barghouti’s name is also on it.
It is undisputed that Marwan Barghouti also had and continues to have enormous influence in prison. In 2006, a letter he co-signed from prisoners from several parties – the famous “prisoner document” – provided the impetus for the formation of a unity government between Hamas and Fatah the following year, even if it was short-lived. In 2017 he initiated a successful hunger strike against prison conditions.
Under Ben-Gvir, prison conditions for Palestinians were significantly tightened again. Since October 7th, the situation in the prisons has worsened again. Scores of people were arrested in the West Bank – more than 7,300, according to Abdallah al-Zeghari, president of the Palestinian Prisoners Club. Among them are women, children, journalists and political activists, he says. Many were placed in “administrative detention,” detention without trial or charge that can last months or even years.
In this way he cemented his reputation as an indomitable fighter and bridge builder at the same time. When, after two months of war, the Palestinians were asked to vote in a poll about who they wanted to see as president, Barghouti came unchallenged in first place. Hamas leader Ismail Haniya came second, while incumbent President Mahmoud Abbas came a long way behind in third place. The question now, however, is whether Israel’s right-wing government will release a man who could advance the two-state solution. And whether the Palestinian leadership is really interested in such competition.
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