A jailed Palestinian terrorist serving life for five murders is said to be top of Hamas’ list for any exchange of prisoners for Israeli hostages.
Marwan Barghouti, a veteran West Bank leader who was jailed in 2002 for murder, is known as the ‘Palestinian Nelson Mandela’ to his supporters and is seen as the key to a ceasefire in Gaza.
However, the Israeli government has not yet agreed to his release or confirmed that it is now inevitable, despite many negotiators believing it was close.
A statement in Barghouti’s name called for support for Hamas in the current war, something which his wife denies. Following this, his family say his was brutalised in prison, transferred to solitary confinement and held in the dark with loud music playing for days.
The Israeli prison authorities have not commented on the specific allegations but say they ‘operate strictly according to rules and procedures’.
Marwan Barghouti, a veteran West Bank leader who was jailed in 2002, is known as the ‘Palestinian Nelson Mandela’ to his supporters and is seen as the key to a ceasefire in Gaza
A statement in Barghouti’s name called for support for Hamas in the current war, something which his wife denies
Arab Barghouti, Marwan’s son, told the Times: ‘My father never made big promises, to build roads or schools or the best buildings. He is just someone from the Palestinian street who made the choice to dedicate his life to the struggle for the Palestinian cause.’
Israelis see Barghouti as the man who abandoned the peace process to lead the second intifada, or uprising.
In 2000, the second intifada saw bus stops, restaurants and night clubs were all bombed by suicide bombers as militants fought the Israeli army, leading to more than 3,000 Palestinians and 1,000 Israelis died.
Barghouti did not offer a defence his murder trial following these attacks, making his political role in them ambiguous.
He was certified top leader of Fatah, the largest secular political faction in the Palestinian territories, and in the Palestine Liberation Organisation, and he led and justified both intifadas.
The first uprising involved much less violence, and largely consisted of strikes and protests.
Fatah and Hamas say the second intifada was necessary because of the collapse of the peace process.
Israel accused Barghouti and other Palestinian leaders of personally masterminding some of the hundreds of Israeli civilian deaths.
Barghouti’s chief of staff, Ahmed Ghuneim, said the former leader always argued against targeting civilians, claiming other factions and individual fighters had acted independently.
Arab says the reason his father is so popular is that he has rare appeal to the different wings of Palestinian popular opinion, representing the traditional and secular wing of the Palestinian cause.
He has accepted the existence of Israeli state, and is politically in line with western calls for a two-state solution, as shown by his accepting of the the peace process and Oslo accords negotiated by the PLO leader Yasser Arafat and the Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin.
However, he has been granted legitimacy with the resistance, due to his role in the Second Intifada as leader of Fatah’s military wing, the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.
His lengthy stay in prison means he has avoided the stigma attached to President Abbas, 88, who is accused of corruption in the day-to-day running of the territory and of having compromised with Israel for little return.
An opinion poll conducted among Palestinians suggested Barghouti would receive 47 per cent of the vote in a ballot for the presidency, to 43 per cent for Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, whose standing has risen since the war began, with Abbas receiving just 7 per cent.
Barghouti was certified top leader of Fatah, the largest secular political faction in the Palestinian territories, and in the Palestine Liberation Organisation, and he led and justified both intifada
Barghouti’s appeal to both the West Bank and Gaza, Ghuneim says, is why Israel fears releasing him.
Latest reports indicated Hamas was on the verge of responding to a ceasefire offer that would involve a gradual exchange of prisoners for hostages over a period of six weeks.
The US and its allies in the Arab world want a deal to be followed by negotiations for a new government in Gaza, preferably with Hamas sidelined.
Few diplomats believe Abbas can deliver the change demanded for different reasons by Israel, the Palestinians or negotiators, but there is no clear mechanism for him to be ousted and replaced.
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