RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Firebrand uprising leader Marwan Barghouthi has decided to run for Palestinian president from his Israeli jail cell, an official of his Fatah faction said on Thursday.
The candidacy could throw the Jan. 9 election wide open and pose a dramatic challenge to current front-runner Mahmoud Abbas, a former prime minister now caught in the glare of the charismatic Barghouthi’s popular appeal with Palestinians.
Barghouthi’s behind-bars bid to succeed the Yasser Arafat (news – web sites) as president also raised the specter of a split in the late leader’s historic Fatah movement, which went ahead and endorsed Abbas as its candidate despite Barghouti’s challenge.
“He has decided to run for president,” the Fatah official, who said he had spoken with Barghouthi’s lawyer, told Reuters. “An official announcement will be made within 24 hours.”
But Fatah ruled out running Barghouthi on its ticket by approving the candidacy of Abbas, 69, three days after a Fatah panel nominated him in a race that has also drawn several lesser-known figures.
It’s truly unfortunate that Barghouti can’t do this from outside of jail. It’d be nice to have a new generation of Palestinian leaders rather than Arafat’s old Tunisian crowd. But I also wonder if this will divide the Fatah vote to the benefit of other factions, unless it’s just a ploy for Barghouti’s group to gain more influence among PLO elders.
Here is the New York Times’ take on it, too:
Palestinian officials said Thursday night that Mr. Barghouti, upset with the vague role Mr. Abbas has offered him in a future Palestinian government, apparently wanted to run. But some Palestinians close to Mr. Barghouti say the Palestinians do not need an incarcerated president, that Fatah must remain united and that his time will come if he makes peace with Mr. Abbas.
Mr. Barghouti could run as an independent, but his candidacy would probably split Fatah. Until his name appears on the ballot, some Palestinians suggest, Mr. Barghouti may simply be reminding Fatah that his supporters, especially young militants, need to be heard and that the intifada should not be halted without Israeli concessions.
One Palestinian official said that Fatah had secured Israeli permission to send Qadura Fares, a minister without portfolio, to Mr. Barghouti to learn his intentions.
They also report that Moshe Katsav, Israel’s president, has said he would consider a pardon for Barghouti. Note that Katsav also recently said that Israel should stop building its “security fence” if Palestinians stop terrorist attacks.
Katsav is quite a maverick for a Likudnik; he’s probably the leftmost public figure in the party (Olmert and Meridor not excluded). Of course, he’s an elder statesman in a largely symbolic office, so he has the luxury of saying what he really thinks.
Avraham Poraz has also hinted at freeing Barghouti. I think that would be a good realpolitik move on Israel’s part, given that (1) a government with Barghouti in it would have much more legitimacy than one without, and (2) Barghouti as negotiator might actually be able to deliver the goods for both sides. I’m not entirely thrilled at his history, but he’s no worse than many of the other insurgent/terrorists who made peace with colonial powers, and he has quite a bit more vision than most. If the Palestinians don’t have a Mandela, they’ve at least got a potential Kenyatta.
… its the peoples choice to free him. Katsav always says what the people want to say.
And think about the future aspect for the Israelis. The next time social time bomb … the Israeli Arabs are waiting.
If you think about a picture of old Arab-style wolves that wanted to show archaic resistance that frittered away because of their non-success against the visual enemy — and domesticated dogs that adopted themselve to the needs of their existance …. it is still the same pride, the same reactions, the same culture, but we can see a growing “youth” that has the brain to see that a bloodshed is not the ultimative figure in live.
The “third power” of Israel always was the ultra-orthodox. And we all now what went wrong with them. Now its the change for the Israeli-arabs to become that 3rd-power in moderating the future between the two states and demanding equal rigths for themselves.
I like those figures like Kadoura Fares very much, because they are the furture and what they say is very realistic . And I think such guys know that it there is now and end with the old relation to Israeli-Arabs = to tell them the only way to deal with jews is to figth them. And it seems that the Israeli-Arabs are sick to be to parias in the state where they live.
And yes. Israel should recognize the chance to put the Israeli Arabs back to into the society.
There are a lot of Arabs within Israel saying that also. I hope Hashem Mahameed makes it into the next Knesset.
The work of the Hadash is very important.
But we need more influence in the knesset in the post-Sharon times. Or for now, more lawyers and some new people, that can buildt up a conservate movement . Left movements seem to be mega-out in Israel today. Water, education, jobs, rigths. I think thats something for conservatives … conservative persons that hide now because of the war have to be found. The international focus is on the West-Bank and Gaza. But we should not allow Sharon to get to fancy with his plans with the bedouins and other arabs in Israel, too.
The war maybe is over. Now the work can begin.