Marwan Barghouti: Will Palestinian Prisoner Pursue an Agreement with Israel?
Andrew McGregor
Marwan Barghouti. (Source: Al Jazeera)
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Executive Summary
Marwan Barghouti is a Palestinian leader serving multiple life sentences in Israeli prison for his role in the second intifada. Hamas has included his name at the top of their list of prisoners to be exchanged for hostages taken in the October 7, 2023 attack.
Barghouti has been a prominent figure in Palestinian politics since the first intifada in the late 1980s, and his philosophy combines peace negotiations with armed resistance against Israeli occupation.
While some compare him to Nelson Mandela, others criticize Barghouti for advocating violence. He is widely popular among Palestinians. His release is complicated by concerns from Fatah and Hamas about his potential political influence over the Palestinian movement.
In the midst of the war in Gaza, Israel’s political factions are once again consumed by the debate over the release of a Palestinian leader who may negotiate a lasting peace with Israel or ignite a third Palestinian intifada (uprising). Successive Israeli governments have discussed Marwan Barghouti’s release, but none have had the willingness to do so because some believe he continues to represent a threat to Israel. Now, however, Hamas has included his name at the top of their list of prisoners to be exchanged for hostages (Times of Israel, February 2).
According to Barghouti, violent resistance must exist side-by-side with peace negotiations: “We’ve tried a struggle without negotiations, and negotiations without a struggle, and it didn’t help. Only negotiations and a struggle will assure the liberation” (Haaretz [Tel Aviv], July 5, 2016).
After more than two decades in Israel’s toughest prisons serving five life-terms on murder and terrorism charges, Israeli and even Palestinian authorities both continue to fear the influence of Barghouti. He was the leader of the second intifada before his arrest in 2002. As international and domestic pressure grows for his release, Barghouti is being shifted from one solitary confinement cell to another to prevent communication with the outside world. The latest transfer in mid-February came when Israel reported information regarding Barghouti’s role in “a planned uprising” (Palestine Chronicle, February 18).
Internally, Barghouti is viewed as a challenger to octogenarian Palestinian Authority (PA) leader Mahmud Abbas. Abbas is a relic of Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and is regularly accused of being both corrupt and compromised by Israeli security forces. Abbas is in ill health and is now in the 18th year of the four-year term he won in the 2005 Palestinian elections—the last to be held. Barghouti’s popularity in Palestine could make him successor to Abbas as PA leader.
Barghouti’s Background
Marwan Hasib Ibrahim Barghouti (alias Abu al-Qassam) was born in 1959 to a family of modest means in a Palestinian village north of Ramallah in the West Bank. A Fatah member by age 15, Barghouti was arrested four years later and served a two-year sentence for terrorism-related activities. Barghouti began pursuing education by earning a high school diploma behind bars.
By 2010, he had earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Cairo Institute of Arab Research and Studies. His doctoral thesis, like his most recent book, was smuggled out of jail one page at a time over a period of years. He is an emotional speaker and is fluent in Hebrew and English, which he learned in prison. Further, as a father of three boys and one daughter, he is known to be an advocate of women’s rights (The National [Abu Dhabi], April 19, 2017).
The First Intifada: 1987–1993
Barghouti was a prominent organizer in the first Palestinian intifada. Deported to Jordan by Israeli authorities in 1987, he remained there for over six years until the signing of the first Oslo Accord allowed his return to the West Bank in 1993. Barghouti was at first enthusiastic about the promise of the Oslo Accords and associated with many people on the Israeli left who were of a like mind.
However, Barghouti became critical of the conduct of PLO officials returning from Tunis, which was the PLO headquarters from 1982 to 1994, after the signing of the second Oslo Accord in 1995. This made him an enemy of the PLO for his opposition to corruption. Meanwhile, the continuing expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the rule of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon eventually led him to reject the Oslo Accords altogether.
The Second Intifada: 2000–2005
The second intifada began in September 2000 when many Palestinians became convinced the “peace process” was only a means of expanding Israeli settlements in the occupied territories. Violence erupted following a provocative visit by Ariel Sharon and an Israeli military detachment to Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque. Bargouthi described this as “the straw that broke the camel’s back” (The National [Abu Dhabi], April 19, 2017). Opponents of Barghouti’s release often cite his declaration in the intifada’s opening days: “We must take revenge. We must kill Israelis. Yes. We have bullets. We have rifles, and they will be aimed at the occupation” (Haaretz [Tel Aviv], July 5, 2016). At the same time, then-chief of the IDF’s Central Command, Moshe Ya’alon, described Barghouti as a useful tool for Arafat, who was “rearing him as a tiger he could unleash when necessary.” [1]
Barghouti directed armed “resistance” operations in the West Bank by two Fatah-related militant groups, the Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade and Tanzim. The latter had many young members who felt similarly alienated from the “Tunis” Fatah leaders as Barghouti. Israeli authorities even tried to assassinate Barghouti in 2001 but succeeded only in killing his bodyguard (Haaretz [Tel Aviv], April 18, 2002).
Conviction and Imprisonment
Barghouti was arrested in Ramallah on April 15, 2002, and sent to Tel Aviv for trial. Before his arrest, he declared that Israel could have “either peace and security or occupation and settlement, but never both." [2] During his interrogation regarding what Israeli authorities described as “terrorism” but what Barghouti “stubbornly described as military activity,” Barghouti told the interrogators: "In principle I am against murdering civilians on both sides … Theory is one thing, practice is another." [3] Without staging a defense or acknowledging the legitimacy of the Israeli court, Barghouti instead delivered detailed expositions of why his detention and the activities of the IDF in the West Bank were violations of international law. This included his “abduction” from PA territory after his arrest. [4]
Convicted of planning and assisting three attacks that killed five Israelis from 2001–2002 on June 6, 2004, Barghouti received five life sentences plus 40 years. All were consecutive, ensuring he would never be released. The judgment noted that those who carried out the attacks did not involve the defendant in their execution, but it also made the following observation:
While hearing recommendations for punishment the accused repeatedly stressed that he sought peace. Apparently, as far as he is concerned, the path to peace is paved with the blood of terrorism. The accused wants to represent himself as a 'political figure,' and even declares he is opposed to the killing of innocent people. His declarations contradict his actions… [5]
Politics in Prison
After Arafat’s death in November 2004, pressure from Fatah led Barghouti to abandon his prison-based candidacy for PA president. In 2006, Barghouti was one of five signatories to the National Reconciliation Document of the Prisoners, better known as “The Prisoners’ Document.” Barghouti represented Fatah, while other signatories represented Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP). The document called for an independent Palestinian state within the pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital. It also called for the Right of Return, the release of all prisoners, the establishment of a Palestinian unity government, and an assertion of the right of Palestinians to resist occupation in the post-1967 territories. Israel rejected the document on the grounds that it did not recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish homeland and “justified” the continued use of terrorism.
In October 2011, Barghouti was dropped at the last minute from the list of prisoners to be exchanged for IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, which may have reflected reluctance on the part of Hamas and Mahmud Abbas to see his release (The National [Abu Dhabi], December 22, 2011; Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, March 20, 2022). Simultaneously with the prisoner exchange, Barghouti released a 255-page book about his time in prison, which had been written on scraps of paper and smuggled out by visitors. One Thousand Nights in Solitude argued for Palestinian political solidarity and offered a guide for prisoners to resist physical and psychological torture as well as years-long periods of solitary confinement in tiny cells.
Years later, Barghouti led over 1,500 Fatah and Hamas prisoners in a 42-day hunger strike in 2017. The effort did not attract the support he hoped for, and Barghouti’s reputation took a slight hit when prison authorities released a video allegedly showing Barghouti eating cookies and snacks in the prison toilet. Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan described Barghouti as “a murderer and hypocrite who urged his fellow prisoners to strike and suffer while he ate behind their back" (Ynet, August 5, 2017).
Barghouti’s latest prison misfortunes began when a statement urging PA security officers to join the fight against Israel appeared under his name last December (Al-Ayyam [Ramallah], December 10, 2023). Though Barghouti and his wife insisted the message was not his, he was transferred from Ofer Prison near his West Bank home in Ramallah to solitary confinement at Ayalon Prison in Israel. According to Barghouti, the warden punched him on the way out and said: “I will tear you apart!” At Ayalon, he was forced to sleep on the floor, received minimal food, and was stripped naked and handcuffed three times a day while his cell was searched (Walla [Tel Aviv], January 3; Times of Israel, January 3).
Mandela or Not?
Barghouti’s wife, Fadwa Ibrahim, is the leading advocate for his release, likening her husband in 2013 to South African prisoner-turned-president Nelson Mandela. A campaign for Barghouti’s release was launched at Robben Island, Mandela’s former prison home, with the support of eight Nobel laureates, including former US president Jimmy Carter and South Africa’s Bishop Desmond Tutu (The National [Abu Dhabi], April 19, 2017). Last August, Fadwa renewed the campaign for Barghouti’s release under the title “Freedom for Marwan Barghouti, the Mandela of Palestine” (al-Sharq al-Awsat, August 2, 2023).
Yitzhak Gershon, commander of the division that captured Barghouti, has since urged his unconditional release to lead the Palestinian people: “I say this even though I know he has blood on his hands” (Haaretz [Tel Aviv], July 5, 2016). Admiral Ami Ayalon, former chief of the Shin Bet domestic security force, and General Ehud Barak, prime minister of Israel from 1999 to 2001, have similarly advocated for Barghouti’s release. Others, like former Shin Bet director Avi Dichter, have opposed any comparisons with Mandela, telling advocates of his release that Barghouti “had bought his leadership with the blood of Jews” (Haaretz [Tel Aviv], July 5, 2016).
Complicating comparisons to Mandela is Barghouti’s advocacy of peace while refusing to withdraw the possibility of violence if the peace process stalls or is seen as insincere. Armed resistance side-by-side with negotiations is his credo.
Conclusion
For years, Palestinian opinion polls have shown Barghouti easily winning any election in which he faced Abbas or Hamas leader Isma’il Haniyeh (Haaretz [Tel Aviv], July 5, 2016; The National [Abu Dhabi], December 21, 2023). Yet Barghouti’s “revolutionary” discourse has been described as providing only “generic, short-term and somewhat vague solutions” while failing to provide a long-term strategy. According to this view, “In contrast to the mild-mannered and hyper-cautious Abbas, Barghouti is deemed a remnant of the classical Arafatism; in other words, a romanticized version of a long-gone revolution” (The New Arab, March 2, 2021). Though Hamas may call for his freedom, there is no guarantee that Barghouti would be able to mount a Hamas–PA rapprochement. The current war in Gaza will lead to political upheavals within the Hamas movement, pitting its foreign-based leaders, such as Haniyah, against those who have remained under bombardment in Gaza.
Given the number of times it has seemed Barghouti’s release was imminent, it must be recognized that a hostage negotiation or even a resolution of the current conflict may not involve the release of Barghouti. He remains in prison because there are those—not only in Israel but also in Hamas and Fatah—who fear the effect of his release on their political futures. Nevertheless, he could still be elected PA president while still in prison (if and when PA elections are called), which would create a popular and even international movement for his release. If it is true that real peace can only be achieved with enemies, there may yet be another act remaining for Marwan Barghouti.
Notes:
[1] Raviv Drucker and Ofer Shelah: בומרנג כישלון המנהיגות באינתיפאדה השנייה (Boomerang: The Failure of Leadership in the Second Intifada), Jerusalem, 2005, p.80.
[2] Mouin Rabbani: “Towards a War of Attrition in Palestine,” Middle East Report, No. 218 (Spring, 2001), p.7.
[3] “Marwan Barghouti: Partner for Peace Negotiations or Terrorist?” Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, July 17, 2017, pp. 32-33, https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/Data/articles/Art_21237/E_091_17_1143954519.pdf.
[4] Lisa Hajjar: “The Making of a Political Trial: The Marwan Barghouti Case,” Middle East Report, No. 225 (Winter, 2002), p.31.
[5] “Marwan Barghouti: Partner for Peace Negotiations or Terrorist?” Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, July 17, 2017, pp. 4, 44, https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/Data/articles/Art_21237/E_091_17_1143954519.pdf
This article was originally published in Militant Leadership Monitor. Check it out here (requires a paid subscription)!
Andrew McGregor is Director of Aberfoyle International Security, a Toronto-based agency specializing in security issues related to the Islamic world. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto’s Dept. of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations in 2000 and is a former Research Associate of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs.