https://arab.news/6u5z8
Every liberation movement has its heroes, and they are rarely without blemish. The growing demand to release from an Israeli jail the best-known Palestinian prisoner, Marwan Barghouti, should not be about what he did in the past, but what he could contribute to in the future — a much better form of Israeli-Palestinian relations than the present one.
There are those who question the extent of Barghouti’s 2002 conviction for orchestrating deadly attacks against Israelis during the second intifada, for which an Israeli military court sentenced him to five life sentences and an additional 40 years. This left hardly any doubt that the military court also shared the government of the day’s view that Barghouti should spend the rest of his life behind bars. Since then, his deteriorating health has become a grave source of concern; hence the merit of the appeal to release him on both humanitarian and political grounds; not about what he did or did not do in the past, but about what he could do to bring the Israeli–Palestinian conflict to a peaceful end.
Those who met Barghouti, in the heyday of the peace process in the aftermath of the Oslo Accords, testify that he did indeed aspire to see his people liberated from occupation and oppression, but through peaceful means. He came across as a true man of peace who believed in a historical compromise between the two peoples that would lead to a two-state solution. However, as a proud Palestinian, he will not accept any agreement without dignity, and only one that ensures Palestinians’ right to self-determination and not to occupation by other means.
