[Shadow_Group] Jailed Palestinian said to be planning to seek presidency

[shadowgroup-l at lists.resist.ca]

As promised. The one person whom many people think is
the best hope for peace between Israel and
Palestine...
==========
Jailed Palestinian said to be planning to seek
presidency 

Sunday, November 14, 2004 - Page updated at 12:00 A.M.
By Ravi Nessman
The Associated Press

(IMAGE) 
EITAN HESS-ASHKENAZI / AP 
Marwan Barghouti raises his handcuffed arms as he
enters court during his murder trial in 2002 in Tel
Aviv. 

FROM:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002090519_arafat14.html<http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002090519_arafat14.html>
RAMALLAH, West Bank - Marwan Barghouti, a leader of
the Palestinian uprising jailed by Israel but perhaps
the strongest candidate to oust Yasser Arafat's old
guard of politicians, plans to run in upcoming
presidential elections, a person close to Barghouti
said yesterday. 

The candidacy of Barghouti, who supports violence but
says he wants peace with Israel, could shake up the
calcified world of Palestinian politics. By law,
elections are to be held by Jan. 9, or within 60 days
of Arafat's death on Thursday. 

Many believe the popular Barghouti, 45, is the only
leader capable of unifying squabbling Palestinian
factions, reining in militants and possibly restarting
peace efforts with Israel. 

Israel, however, is determined not to free Barghouti,
who is serving multiple life terms for his role in the
killings of four Israelis and a Greek monk. 

Barghouti also could represent the best hope for
Arafat's Fatah movement to beat down a challenge by
the increasingly popular hardline Islamic militant
group Hamas, which is considering running a candidate.


"When he takes that decision [to run], we will be near
him and we will support him," said Ahmed Ghneim, a
senior Fatah leader and another member of the
movement's younger guard. "I think he has the best
chances of anybody in the movement to win the
elections." 

Barghouti's wife, Fadwa, said she was unaware of her
husband's plans. But his brother Hisham said: "His
people around him, from the Fatah and Tanzim [Fatah
rank-and-file], want him, and if they want him, he is
looking to be president." 

Arafat's death raised speculation Israel might release
Barghouti as a goodwill gesture, but Israeli Foreign
Minister Silvan Shalom ruled that out. "He will remain
in prison for the rest of his life, because he's a
murderer, because he's responsible for the killing of
so many" innocent people, Shalom said Thursday. 

Barghouti intends to run regardless and will quit the
race only if Fatah holds primaries and he loses, the
person close to Barghouti said on condition of
anonymity. 

Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat said the
Fatah candidate will likely be chosen by the
movement's small central committee and not in a
primary. 

The committee would likely nominate Mahmoud Abbas, 69,
an old-guard politician who has taken over Arafat's
role as head of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
It is far from certain, though, whether Abbas could
defeat a Hamas candidate. 

Many Palestinians see Abbas' generation of
politicians, many of whom spent decades in exile, as a
corrupt clique with little connection to the
Palestinian masses. Younger leaders who cut their
teeth during the first Palestinian uprising in the
1980s and early 1990s have more grass-roots support
but have largely been frozen out of top positions in
Fatah, the PLO and the Palestinian Cabinet. 

Barghouti, a former West Bank leader of Fatah, has
firm street credentials. He spent six years in Israeli
jails before being deported in 1987 and was one of the
first exiles to return seven years later after interim
peace deals with Israel were signed. 

He once had close ties to Israeli peace activists and
speaks fluent Hebrew that he learned in prison. But
after the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian fighting
four years ago, he said force - including shooting
attacks on Israelis - was justified to end Israel's
occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Regardless, he still says he supports peace. 

Barghouti was considering running along with a vice
president - a position that currently does not exist -
who would handle the daily administration of the
Palestinian Authority while he remains in prison, the
person close to Barghouti said. 

Pressure on Israel to release Barghouti would become
intense if he wins. 

"If the Palestinians are going to make this work
against the really hard-line elements, the Islamists
and some of the people of Hamas, they're going to have
to have a coalition of the young guard and the old
guard," former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker
told CNN. "It would be really a very positive step in
the right direction if Israel would release Marwan
Barghouti so that he could participate in bringing
about this transition." 

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company






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