Ghassan Khatib; bitterlemons.org, 19.06.06

Marwan Barghouti is seen as a political phenomenon by Palestinians. He gained huge popularity during the first few years of intifada until his arrest by the Israeli occupation forces.

There are three main reasons that made him for a few years the second or third most popular Palestinian personality, sometimes after Yasser Arafat, sometimes after Arafat and Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

First, was his heavy involvement in the intifada, which started as a popular expression of resistance to the occupation and in anticipation of independence and later turned into a fierce and violent confrontation.

Second, Marwan's origins are from the grassroots. He is from a poor family in a typical Palestinian village. He experienced politics for the first time when he was elected as president of the student council at Birzeit University. Because of his involvement in the first intifada, he was deported and joined up with the PLO in exile.

The third reason is his obvious moderate politics. He is one of the most courageous Palestinian politicians, and he contributed to the transformation of Palestinian political thinking, especially within Fateh, through his advocacy of the historical compromise to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict once and for all by ending the Israeli occupation on territories occupied in 1967 and establishing an independent Palestinian state there, in addition to solving the refugee problem in an agreed-upon way on the basis of the relevant UN resolutions.

For years, Marwan was the figurehead of the so-called new guard within the Fateh movement and in Palestinian politics in general. He fought hard for reforms inside Fateh and against corruption. His growing power and the expanding political space he occupied became unacceptable to both Israel and traditional elements within the Fateh leadership.

He enjoyed the confidence and support of Arafat on his moderate political position and active role against the occupation, but he also had serious differences with Arafat on internal issues regarding the way Fateh and the Palestinian Authority were managed. His arrest was a setback to everything he stood for in Palestinian politics and contributed to the shift among Palestinian public opinion toward support for Hamas. In Marwan's relative absence, Fateh lost its most prominent, successful and popular grassroots leader.

Because of his earnest support of reform and struggle against the occupation, he enjoyed good relations with the different Palestinian political factions, including his opponents. That continued even inside prison, where he maintained both his leadership and advocacy for reform within Fateh. Thus he both headed the Fateh bloc in the last elections, and was deeply involved in the disputed within the movement in the lead-up to that vote.

He has also maintained his position as the second most popular Palestinian personality in public opinion polls in spite of his imprisonment.

The most recent example of his constructive leadership role is the Prisoners' Document, which reflected his success in achieving consensus among the most prominent imprisoned leaders of different factions on a document that is compatible with the political platform of the PLO.

The fact that the document came from prisoners and had the consent of top leaders of all the different factions, gave it huge credibility and enabled President Mahmoud Abbas to regain the political initiative and put Hamas on the defensive for the first time since the PLC elections on January 25.

The Prisoners' Document is compatible not only with the PLO's political platform but also the Arab Initiative and international legality. It reaffirms Palestinian adherence to the relevant set of resolutions of the UN and honors the international commitments of the PLO.

The document wasn't meant to be the subject of a referendum. It was meant to be a contribution to unifying the Palestinian position, something that in effect means shifting the positions of some extreme factions toward the mainstream politics of the PLO.

Because of these particular features, the document has created a healthy political debate among Palestinians. It has also exposed the politics of Hamas to general Palestinian scrutiny and, more importantly, it has generated a vigorous debate within Hamas, to the extent that the movement has been unable to reach a conclusive and unanimous position on the document.

If and when we should reach a point when Palestinian-Israeli negotiations are resumed and Palestinians are faced with the historic compromise to end the conflict, allow for a two-state solution on the basis of 1967 lines and mutual recognition, Marwan Barghouti will be an indispensable political leader.- Published 19/6/2006 © bitterlemons.org

Ghassan Khatib is coeditor of the bitterlemons family of internet publications. He is the former Palestinian Authority minister of planning, and has been a political analyst and media contact for many years.