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Palestine’s Mandela?
By Uri Avnery / February 4, 2008
The division of the Palestinian territories into a ‘Hamastan’ in the Gaza Strip and a ‘Fatahland’ in the West Bank is a disaster. A disaster for the Palestinians, a disaster for peace, and therefore also a disaster for Israelis.
Will the Palestinians overcome this split? It seems that the chances for that are getting smaller by the day. The gulf between the two parties is getting wider and wider.
The Fatah people in the West Bank, headed by President Mahmoud Abbas, condemn Hamas as a gang of fanatics, who are imitating Iran and are guided by it, and who, like the Ayatollahs, are leading their people towards catastrophe. The Hamas people accuse Abbas of being a Palestinian Marshal Pétain, who has made a deal with the occupier and is sliding down the slippery slope of collaboration. The propaganda of both sides is full of venom, and the mutual violence is reaching new heights.
It looks like a cul-de-sac. Many Palestinians have despaired of finding a way out. Others are searching for creative solutions. Afif Safieh, the chief of the PLO mission in Washington, for example, proposes setting up a Palestinian government composed entirely of neutral experts, who are neither members of Fatah nor of Hamas. The chances for that are very slim indeed.
But in private conversations in Ramallah, one name pops up more and more often: Marwan Barghouti.
‘He holds the key in his hand,’ they say there, ‘both for the Fatah-Hamas and for the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts.’
Some see Marwan as the Palestinian Nelson Mandela. In appearance, the two are very different, both physically and in temperament. But they have much in common.
Both became national heroes behind prison bars. Both were convicted of terrorism. Both supported violent struggle. Mandela supported the 1961 decision of the African National Congress to start an armed struggle against the racist government (but not against white civilians). He remained in prison for 28 years and refused to buy his freedom by signing a statement denouncing ‘terrorism’. Marwan supported the armed struggle of Fatah's Tanzim organization and has been sentenced to several life terms.
But both were in favour of peace and reconciliation, even before going to prison. I saw Barghouti for the first time in 1997, when he joined a Gush Shalom demonstration in Harbata, the village neighbouring Bil’in, against the building of the Modiin-Illit settlement that was just starting. Five years later, during his trial, we demonstrated in the courthouse under the slogan ‘Barghouti to the negotiating table, not to prison!’
There is hardly anyone who is more popular with the Palestinian public than Marwan Barghouti. In this, too, he resembles Mandela while in prison.
It is difficult to explain the source of this authority. It does not emanate from his high position in Fatah, since the movement is disorganized and there is hardly any clear hierarchy. From the time when he was a simple activist in his village, he rose in the organization by sheer force of personality. It is that mysterious thing called charisma. He radiates a quiet authority that does not depend on outward signs.
The war of vilification between Fatah and Hamas does not touch him. Hamas takes care not to attack him. On the contrary, when they submitted a list of prisoners in exchange for the captured soldier Gilad Shalit, Marwan Barghouti, in spite of his being a Fatah leader, headed the list.
It was he who, together with the imprisoned leaders of the other organizations, composed the famous ‘prisoners’ document’, which called for national unity. All Palestinian factions accepted the document. Thus the ‘Mecca agreement’, which created the (short-lived) Government of National Unity, was born. Before it was signed by the parties, urgent messengers were sent to Marwan, in order to obtain his agreement. Only when this was given, did the signing take place.
How will the Palestinians get out of this bind? How can they re-establish a national leadership that will be accepted by all parts of the people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, able to lead the national struggle and make peace with Israel, when peace becomes possible?
Barghouti's followers believe that at the right time, when Israel comes to the conclusion that it needs peace, he will be released from prison and play a central role in the reconciliation – much as Mandela was released from prison in South Africa when the white government came to the conclusion that the apartheid regime could not be sustained any more. I have no doubt that in order to bring such a situation about, Israeli peace forces must start a big public campaign for Barghouti's release.
What will happen in the meantime?
There is hardly anyone on the Palestinian side who believes that Ehud Olmert will conclude a peace agreement and implement it. Hardly anyone believes that anything will come out of the ‘international meeting’ that is supposed to take place in November. The Palestinians believe that the meeting is a bone thrown by President Bush to Condoleezza Rice, whose standing has been dropping dramatically. And if that has no results?
‘There is no vacuum,’ one of the Fatah leaders told me. ‘If the efforts of President Abbas do not bear fruit, there will be another explosion, like the intifada after the failure of Camp David.’
How is that possible, after Fatah activists have turned over their arms and foresworn violence? ‘A new generation will arise,’ my interlocutor said. ‘As has happened before, one age-group gets tired and its place is taken by the next one. If the occupation does not come to an end and there is no peace, a peace that will enable the members of this generation to turn to the universities, to family, work and business, a new intifada will surely break out.’
To achieve peace, the Palestinians need national unity, much as the Israelis need a consensus for withdrawal. The man who symbolizes the hope for unity among the Palestinians is sitting now in Hasharon jail.
POST A COMMENT
Uvnery seems to be drawn to people who kill Jews. Perhaps it is the Stockholm syndrome, but Uvnery was one of the few people who attended Arafat's funeral and was genuinely sorry about his passing. Undoubtedly, he is also saddened by the death of Imad Mugniyeh, who blew up Jewish institutions in Buenos Aires. Mandela doesnt have the violent record that Barghouti has. Also, unlike the situation in South Africa, the creation of Palestine must be preceded by the elimination of Israel. The definition of the Palestinian people is a nation resolutely committed to the elimination of the Jewish state (and elimination of Jews from Palestine). This is why no Palestinian leader can make peace-it requires sacrificing Palestinian identity.
"The smart money is that Ismail is actually famous web troll Hashfanatic, a New York/New Jersey area unemployed nobody who trolls for a living, as it were."
Well, BigE, that makes you bereft of either smarts or money. Not Mr. Fanatic, not famous, not in NY/NJ area, and I make a nice living.
Galling, isn't it?
Funny how my presumed employment status has become a fetish among my detractors here. I wonder about this. How has unemployment become the new leprosy? Do you know anyone who's become jobless? Do you suppose that they're in that fix due to some moral failing?
I'm certainly not wealthy by the standards of my community, but our family income is still higher than that of most Americans. About 1/3 of American families make do on less than 30K a year. Lots of these folks are unemployed/massively underemployed due to the structural peculiarities of our economic system.
I have a hard time with the sneeringly heartless side of the religion of meritocracy that so many profess these days, in which "unemployed" functions like "adulterer" did several decades ago.
So, money and meaningful work are, thanks to my parents' struggles, my own hard work and no small amount of luck, the least of my worries. Looks like you'll actually have to muster up a compelling argument against my positions rather than making up comforting illusions about who I am.
I'd hate to be in your shoes.
which Anonymous are you talking to?
Exhibit 1:
"He'd rather invest his time here than at sites where his views would be answered by cheers because there are smart people here…"
Exhibit 2:
"You are so obssessed with the Jews that you obviously masturbate while reading Jewish websites. (This phony one doesn't count.) I guess if I had a wife as disgusting as yours I would do anything to get off. Poor thing!"
Case closed.
Hasn't Jewcy previously deleted posts from rabid antisemites, Neonazis, and the like? Because I'm all for passionate debates, even if they get mean and personal, but "Arab-terrorist barbaric pig" is beyond the pale of any acceptable discourse. Ismail seems man enough to brush this off with characteristic sarcasm, but it makes Jewcy look bad to keep this nastiness online.
–Z
This may be cold comfort, Adam, but I am happy to go on record in affirming that your opinions are infinitely more well-thought out and reasonable than those of our unhinged friend up there.
That said, they're wronger than tits on a rooster. But definitely more coherent than those of Mr. Cockholster….sorry, I mean Shitstain.
You realize, of course, that by engaging in this banter with me, you are as we speak being drummed out of Judaism's elect by Mr. Shitstain, the final arbiter of who's a good Jew and who's a kapo.
Not to worry, though. I'm sure the Unitarians will have you.
See, I'm actually quite well-thought out and reasoned in comparison, no?
Love your screen name, by the way.
I too would support denouncing any terrorist pig Ismails, lest they be confused with me, well-known for my humanism, my succinct, logically impeccable posts and my thoroughly non-porcine nature.
"The Arab terrorist pig is obsessed with the Jews"
Speaking of obsessions, what's with your fixation with me and my wife? Can your pre-occupation with our relationship be a displacement of some homoerotic inclinations? (not that there's anything wrong with that). Perhaps a disguised shiksa infatuation? Come on, I know you guys are all crazy about our women. 'Fess up.
Haven't gotten the final word from the Craigs-that-be re the acceptability of referring to you a "cum-soaked cockholster", so, pending his ruling, I'll just ask how you came to be such a massive shitstain.
Don't you have anything better to do than to attack Israel and Jews? I know your wife likes it because at least you won't beat her while you're on the computer. Get a life loser!
Palestine and Palestinians have never existed. It's a fraud created by the Plo. The Fakestinians are nothing but terrorists created by the Arab Islamicfacists to kill Jews and destroy Israel. Ury Avner is a wretched self-hating anti-semitic pig. Would make a good boyfriend to fellow Jew-hater Ismail. It's no surprise that "phony Jews-cy" would publish this cretin's article.
Adam-
You really need to go a little beyond MEMRI or similar sources before you pronounce so assuredly about an issue you apparently know little about.
Here are some elementary difficulties with your position:
1. Barghouti was abducted from an occupied area by the occupying force, then transferred for trial to the occupying country. These are contraventions of the both the Geneva Accords and the Oslo Accords.
2. In his preliminary appearance before the court, Barghouti argued that, by virtue of the facts cited in (1), above, the court had no jurisdiction to try him. He further declared that, while not a pacifist, he hoped for peace between both peoples. In response, the presiding judge accused him of orchestrating the killing of children, this before a single witness had been heard from. By their silence, neither of her colleagues deemed this the obvious travesty of judicial dispassion that it clearly was. How'd you like to tried before such an "impartial" court?
3. The trial itself was as stage-managed as the worst Stalinist outrages in the Soviet Union. The government permitted only a small group of journalists from friendly news organizations into the courtroom, along with a diplomat or two and a Knesset member. No civilians save members of a group called "Organization of Terror Victims" were allowed. This is an extreme right-wing, Kach-associated group which was happy to perform their assigned role, shouting at the defendant and unfurling their photos, banners etc on cue.
Adam, if this farce had occurred in any country but Israel, you'd rightly write it off as a travesty of fairness or justice.
Numerous elements in Israeli society, including many, like Shimon Peres, who are to the right of Avnery, realize that Barghouti is a valuable partner in the peace process. Once again, though, we see American Zionists outflanking Israelis themselves in demonizing Palestinian resisters.
What's Hebrew for, "More Catholic than the Pope"?
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