Palestinians hope for release of firebrand

From the tree-ringed campus of Birzeit University, a narrow road leads deep inside the rocky valleys of the West Bank to the small Palestinian village of Kobar, home to a few thousand people.

At one whitewashed house, Atif Barghouti sat in the winter sunshine trying to make sense of the rumours that suggested his younger brother might be on the verge of release from jail, a release that might just revitalise the fractured and demoralised Palestinian national movement.

His brother, Marwan Barghouti, the Palestinians' most popular potential leader, sits several kilometres away, a resident of Israel's Haderim Prison, where he is serving five life sentences for five counts of murder.

In the past week there has been an apparent burst of progress in the protracted negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement, Hamas, over a vast prisoner swap.

Under the developing deal, mediated by German intelligence officers, Hamas would hand over Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured near Gaza in June 2006, in return for the release of perhaps 1000 Palestinians from Israeli jails. Several senior Palestinian officials say Barghouti's name is top of the list of those to be released.

If the deal goes ahead, it would be Israel's biggest prisoner swap in more than 20 years. The freeing of Barghouti could also be a watershed in the history of the Middle East conflict.

Barghouti once said of himself: "I am simply a regular guy from the Palestinian street advocating only what every other oppressed person has advocated - the right to help myself in the absence of help from anywhere else."

His brother said: "Marwan doesn't hold a magic wand in his hand. But he is not a dirty person; his hands were not polluted by corruption or politics. And he is on the Hamas list of prisoners ... because he is a national leader and has proved himself beyond doubt."

One of seven brothers and sisters, he was born into a poor family. Barghouti was 18 when he was arrested by the Israeli military for the first time. He was in his early 20s when construction began on Ateret, a Jewish settlement built 16km inside the West Bank, overlooking Kobar. The rows of heavily guarded, red-roofed homes are all illegal under international law.

Prison delayed Barghouti's education by several years, but he attended Birzeit University, where he was deeply involved in the Fatah student wing.

He was then punished for his role in the first Palestinian uprising, the intifada of 1987, with deportation to Jordan for seven years. He welcomed the Oslo peace accords and met many times with Israeli politicians and peace activists, always campaigning for a two-state peace deal. But until his last arrest he also led the Tanzim, Fatah's military wing, through the start of the much more deadly second intifada.

Barghouti, 50, is important on two counts. First, he is the one Palestinian figure who is most likely to bridge the bitter divide between the rival factions of Hamas and Fatah.

In jail in mid-2006 he helped author the Prisoners' Document, outlining a rapprochement between the two factions in which Hamas was finally to adopt Fatah's long-held support for a two-state peace deal.

Second, Barghouti advocates a parallel policy of negotiations with Israel together with "resistance". Given that the Palestinians have been in negotiations since 1991 and have so far failed to achieve the promise of independence, his more assertive approach resonates deeply with his people.

Ten days ago Barghouti wrote to a journalist from his prison cell outlining his position. "Betting on negotiations alone was never our choice. I have always called for a constructive mix of negotiation, resistance, political, diplomatic and popular action."

Barghouti was convicted in May 2004 for his role in three separate attacks that left four Israelis and a Greek Orthodox monk dead. The judges said he provided weapons and money for the attacks, but for the most part did not have direct contact with those carrying out the killings. He was also given two consecutive terms of 20 years for a failed car bombing at a Jerusalem shopping centre and membership of a banned terror organisation, Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which was responsible for many suicide bombings.

His justification for attacks on Israeli troops and settlers as "legitimate resistance" caused outrage among the Israeli public.

The case was regarded by Israelis as crucial in breaking the back of the uprising and the wave of killings and bombings it brought with it. That was only five years ago, for some too short a time to overturn his sentence.

Arguably the division between the Palestinian factions works in Israel's interests and Barghouti's commitment to draw Fatah and Hamas back together might represent a serious strategic threat. Many in Israel's intelligence agencies apparently think so.

Last week Silvan Shalom, a Deputy Prime Minister, said categorically that Barghouti would not be freed.

Rami Igra, a former senior officer in Mossad, said any prisoner swap would be "shameless and bottomless surrender" to Hamas.

But the late respected Israeli defence analyst Ze'ev Schiff once described Barghouti as a "charismatic, popular and worthy Palestinian negotiating partner". Gush Shalom, the Israeli peace movement, placed an advert in Ha'aretz last week that read simply: "Freeing Gilad Shalit is a moral act. Freeing Marwan Barghouti is a wise act."

Reports suggest there is still disagreement over which prisoners Israel is prepared to free, whether the list can include Barghouti, and what will happen to them once released.

Sa'd Nimr, a Fatah official and close aide of Barghouti, insists he has been told by Hamas and by Egypt that no deal will happen without Barghouti's release. "The deal is going to happen because at the end of the day the Israelis are bound to set their soldier free. The question is when, how and who will be freed?

MARWAN BARGHOUTI

Age: 50

Attitude to Israel: He supports negotiations with Israel and speaks fluent Hebrew. He also advocates resistance against Israel and Israeli settlers in the occupied territories. He is dismissive of the Israeli Administration as "only a radical right-wing Government that hangs on to settlements and occupation".

Popularity: He enjoys man-of-the-people popularity among Palestinians and has avoided the reputation for corruption that has tarnished many Fatah members. He is secular but works with Islamists. He advocates rebuilding relations with Hamas.

Predicament: He was accused of involvement in attacks that killed four Israelis and a Greek monk and is serving five consecutive life terms.

- OBSERVER, AP