Mustafa Barghouti
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Mustafa Barghouti ( ar, مصطفى البرغوثي; born 1 January 1954) is a
Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
physician, activist, and politician who serves as General Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative (PNI), also known as al Mubadara. He has been a member of the
Palestinian Legislative Council The Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) is the unicameral legislature of the Palestinian Authority, elected by the Palestinian residents of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It currently comprises 132 members, ...
since 2006 and is also a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Central Council. In 2007, Barghouti was Minister of Information in the Palestinian unity government.


Early life and education

Barghouti's family is from
Bani Zeid Bani Zeid ( ar, بني زيد) is a Palestinian town in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate in the north-central West Bank, located northwest of Ramallah, about 45 kilometers northwest of Jerusalem and about southwest of Salfit. A town of ...
, a village about 15 miles from
Ramallah Ramallah ( , ; ar, رام الله, , God's Height) is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank that serves as the ''de facto'' administrative capital of the State of Palestine. It is situated on the Judaean Mountains, north of Jerus ...
, neit Birzeit. He grew up in Ramallah and his father was the municipal engineer for the nearby village of
Al-Bireh Al-Bireh, al-Birah, or el-Bira ( ar, البيرة; also known historically as Castrum Mahomeria, Magna Mahomeria, Mahomeria Major, Birra, or Beirothah) is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank, north of Jerusalem. It is the capital of th ...
. Barghouti has said that his family "has always been very political, very active," noting that under the Mandate, his grandfather and great-uncle "were jailed by the British." He has said that he "grew up surrounded by internationalist, progressive literature," and has described his family's politics as always being "shaped by opposition to social injustice, rather than by nationalism." His father, he has noted, "used to speak to us of his Jewish comrades in
Tiberias Tiberias ( ; he, טְבֶרְיָה, ; ar, طبريا, Ṭabariyyā) is an Israeli city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity, it has been considered since the 16th century one of Judaism's F ...
or
Acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial and US customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, of a square mile, 4,840 square ...
." One source has described him as being born in Bait Rima on the
West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
, although Barghouti himself has said that he was born in
Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
. He has said that he was "reshaped" by the
Six-Day War The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states (primarily Egypt, Syria, and Jordan) from 5 to 10 ...
. "I felt a huge amount of responsibility. My childhood ended then. We were now under occupation. It was the beginning of a life mission: how do we become free? The feeling of injustice was very strong. Though still a child, I felt the whole world sitting on my shoulders…. Some gave in to defeatism—
Nasser Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein, . (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian politician who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 and introduced far-r ...
had it wrong, it was better to adopt a pro-American stance—but our position was: no, we have to resist, but in a stronger, better way. I've never felt I was fighting for the liberation of the Palestinian people on purely nationalistic grounds, one people against another. It was a fight against oppression, against occupation." Barghouti is a distant cousin of
Marwan Barghouti Marwan Hasib Ibrahim Barghouti (also transliterated al-Barghuthi; ar, مروان حسيب ابراهيم البرغوثي; born 6 June 1959) is a Palestinian political figure convicted and imprisoned for murder by an Israeli court. He is rega ...
, who is the Secretary General of Fatah West Bank. He has said that he was "very active" as a student activist on the
West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
. In 1971, he went to
Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
to study medicine and spent seven years there completing his medical training.


Career

Returning home in 1978, he "specialized in internal medicine and cardiology at Maqased Hospital in Jerusalem." At that time he was active in the Palestinian
Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...
, "part of a new form of resistance to the Occupation that developed after
Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
crushed the Palestinians during the ' Black September' of 1970." After the signing of the Camp David Accords, Barghouti said, he and his comrades "realized...that we couldn't rely on
Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
, Syria or any other country, that we could expect nothing from outside. We would have to be self-reliant, self-organized. Resistance would have to mean defying the Occupation, defying the Israeli rules." While he was at Maqased, he and "five or six" medical colleagues founded Medical Relief (MR), a volunteer organization that has developed into "a whole network of primary health-care centres, mobile clinics and outreach programmes." By 1986, "there were MR committees all over the Occupied Territories, including Gaza." He pursued further studies in Jerusalem, then received an MSc. in Business Administration and Management from Stanford University. He served as Secretary-General of the
Palestinian People's Party The Palestinian People's Party (PPP; ar, حزب الشعب الفلسطيني ''Hizb al-Sha'b al-Filastini''), founded in 1982 as the Palestinian Communist Party, is a socialist political party in Palestine and among the Palestinian diaspora. ...
(formerly the Communist Party) and represented it in the Palestinian National Council, the legislative body of the PLO, until his resignation from the PPP in 2002. He stood for election in the 1996 PLC elections, running as a candidate in the Ramallah district, but lost out narrowly after a recount. Barghouti is the President of the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees, an NGO that provides health and community services to people in the Occupied Territories. He is also Director of the Health Development Information and Policy Institute, an independent Ramallah-based think-tank that engages in policy research and planning for the Palestinian health-care system in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In addition, he was one of the founders, in October 2001, of Grassroots International Protection for the Palestinian People, a program that seeks to protect Palestinians, including those engaged in nonviolent protest, by arranging for international civilian witnesses to be present at potentially violent encounters between Palestinians and settlers or members of the IDF. Barghouti is also an associate of the
Oxford Research Group Oxford Research Group (ORG) was a London-based charity and think tank at 244–254 Cambridge Heath Road, London, E2 9DA, working on peace, security and justice issues. Its research and dialogue activities were mainly focused on the Middle East, Nor ...
. Barghouti was nominated for a
Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolog ...
in 2010 by
Mairead Maguire Mairead MaguireFairmichael, p. 28: "Mairead Corrigan, now Mairead Maguire, married her former brother-in-law, Jackie Maguire, and they have two children of their own as well as three by Jackie's previous marriage to Ann Maguire." (born 27 Januar ...
, who had won the prize in 1976.


Madrid Conference of 1991

In 1991, Barghouti was a delegate to the
Madrid Conference The Madrid Conference of 1991 was a peace conference, held from 30 October to 1 November 1991 in Madrid, hosted by Spain and co-sponsored by the United States and the Soviet Union. It was an attempt by the international community to revive the ...
, which was held with the aim of ending the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the First Intifada. In 1996, he ran unsuccessfully as a candidate for a legislative seat in the first Palestinian Authority elections. In 2002 Barghouti left the
Palestinian People's Party The Palestinian People's Party (PPP; ar, حزب الشعب الفلسطيني ''Hizb al-Sha'b al-Filastini''), founded in 1982 as the Palestinian Communist Party, is a socialist political party in Palestine and among the Palestinian diaspora. ...
. In June 2002, Barghouti,
Haidar Abdel-Shafi Haidar Abdel-Shafi (Heidar Abdul-Shafi) ( ar, حيدر عبد الشافي June 10, 1919 – September 25, 2007), was a Palestinian physician, community leader and political leader who was the head of the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid C ...
, Ibrahim Dakkak and
Edward Said Edward Wadie Said (; , ; 1 November 1935 – 24 September 2003) was a Palestinian-American professor of literature at Columbia University, a public intellectual, and a founder of the academic field of postcolonial studies.Robert Young, ''Whit ...
established the Palestinian National Initiative (''al-Mubadara al-Wataniyya al-Filistiniyya''), an attempt to build a reformist, inclusive alternative to both the established Palestine Liberation Organization and to Islamic militant groups such as
Hamas Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam ...
. Barghouti currently serves as the Initiative's general secretary. He later said that the PLO had "panicked at the thought" that
Hanan Ashrawi Hanan Daoud Mikhael Ashrawi ( ar, حنان داوود مخايل عشراوي ; born 8 October 1946) is a Palestinian politician, legislator, activist, and scholar who served as a member of the Leadership Committee and as an official spokesperson ...
and Haidar Abd al-Shafi "might assume the leadership of the Palestine national movement." At Madrid, he has said, "we sought to consolidate Palestinian unity—it was crucial that Israel should not succeed in erecting a wall between internal and external representatives." He has complained that "
Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...
was decided behind the back of the Palestinian delegation to Madrid, and by extension, behind the back of the Palestinian people." He has described the Oslo negotiations as "a technical and political disaster," complaining that while "the Madrid team had been well briefed and had 600 experts at its disposal, the PLO's Oslo negotiations were conducted by amateurs." Israel, he has said, took "gross advantage of the naïvety of the Palestinian negotiators," but the result was "so disastrous, so unjust, that even the signatories couldn't make it stick....This is why democracy is so important in these cases: because it renders the negotiators accountable to the people, answerable for every document they sign." He has said that after 1993, he and his "were conducting a struggle on two fronts," against the Israeli Occupation and against the Palestinian Authority. "Not only were our leaders completely inept at negotiating with Israel, but they were rapidly transforming themselves into a gigantic security apparatus…consuming 34 per cent of the budget." The PA, he has complained, "has functioned along the same lines as the totalitarian Arab governments that gave it refuge," trying "to control every aspect of life."


Palestinian National Initiative

In June 2002, Barghouti co-founded the Palestinian National Initiative (PNI), and is currently its Secretary-General. Barghouti has explained that the PNI's "origins lie in the uprising of September 2000." When the Second Intifada broke out, "we were in the streets arguing that this was the Independence Intifada—whereas Hamas called it the Al-Aqsa Intifada." The leaders of the PPP, he charged, "didn't understand the importance of this distinction, this affirmation of secularity." Accordingly, Barghouti decided that the time was ripe "to found an alternative democratic opposition without the Party," and to that end he "got in touch with Abd al-Shafi, Ibrahim Dakkak and Edward Said, who became a very close friend during his last years." Barghouti's goal was to bring about "a renaissance of the Palestinian movement, on a footing that the outside world could understand." The PNI's manifesto, issued in October 2000, presented "a secular programme for a non-violent, non-militarized Intifada, signed by 10,000 supporters." The organization, however, was not officially established until June 2002, "at the time of the Israeli re-invasion." When its founding was announced, "Five hundred major figures joined us immediately" and " Arafat offered me a ministerial post in his government. He put pressure on the PPP, which in turn pressured me to accept. So in April 2003, I resigned from the Party." Also known as al Mubadara (sometimes spelled Almubadarah), the PNI opposes the Israeli Occupation, calls for a Palestinian state, and supports the Palestinian right of return. Among the PNI's stated objectives are the establishment of a united Palestinian leadership, the promotion of democracy in the Occupied Territories, and the strengthening of contacts between Palestinians in the Territories and those abroad. It describes itself as focusing on the release of prisoners and detainees in Israeli jails, mobilizing Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and abroad, empowering civil-society organizations, and building international support for the Palestinian cause. The group's ultimate goal is to establish an independent Palestinian state that is secure, free, and governed according to the rule of law. Barghouti describes the PNI as "a democratic coalition" that is open to the whole range of secular left-wing individuals and groups—unions, the women's movement, civil-society organizations" and that seeks "to become an umbrella for various movements." It works jointly with the PFLP, with members of Fatah, and with religious Muslims "who are uncomfortable with fundamentalism because they are democrats." The PNI's "one uncompromising rule" is that it "will only accept groups that are completely independent, both from Hamas and other fundamentalist movements, and from the Authority." It has also "worked with a variety of Israeli groups—
Women in Black Women in Black ( he, נשים בשחור, ''Nashim BeShahor'') is a women's anti-war movement with an estimated 10,000 activists around the world. The first group was formed by Israeli women in Jerusalem in 1988, following the outbreak of the Fi ...
,
Gush Shalom Gush Shalom (Hebrew: גוש שלום, lit. ''The Peace Bloc oalition') is an Israeli peace activism group founded by Uri Avnery in 1993. Avnery–a former journalist, Irgun and Knesset member–also lead the organization till his death in 2018. ...
, Yesh Gvul, Ta'ayush—demonstrating against the invasion of
Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
or against the apartheid Wall." Its strategy, Barghouti has said, "is to try to link popular struggle against the Occupation with action on the ground designed to help people stay where they are—for if they stay, Israel has failed; whereas if they go, it's we who are defeated." It is important to the PNI both to provide "direct assistance" to Palestinians and to resists "the fundamentalists," Barghouti has said. On 3 January 2003, he was arrested following an international press conference in East Jerusalem, on charges of disturbing the peace and entering the city illegally. During his detention, Barghouti was interrogated and suffered a broken knee, which, according to his account, was inflicted by blows from a rifle butt; he also reported that he received head injuries. He was released several days later. Barghouti was detained on 3 January 2006 while campaigning in the Arab quarter of East Jerusalem and was taken for questioning to a local police station. A statement on his behalf read: "Dr Barghuthi was meeting with ordinary Jerusalemites near
Damascus Gate The Damascus Gate is one of the main Gates of the Old City of Jerusalem. It is located in the wall on the city's northwest side and connects to a highway leading out to Nablus, which in the Hebrew Bible was called Shechem or Sichem, and from th ...
, discussing their needs and the situation of Palestinians in east Jerusalem, when he was approached by six undercover Israeli security agents, arrested, and taken to the
Russian Compound The Russian Compound ( he, מִגְרַשׁ הָרוּסִים, ''Migraš ha-Rusim'', ar, المسكوبية, ''al-Muskubīya'', russian: Русское подворье в Иерусалиме) is one of the oldest districts in central Jer ...
jail where he remains under detention." In a 2012 interview, Barghouti emphasized that the PNI is committed to nonviolence, which "works better because it allows everybody, and not just a small group of people, to participate. It works better because it does not allow the Israelis to claim that they are victims in this conflict. It reveals and exposes them as they are in reality: the oppressors, the occupiers, and the creators of an apartheid system." At a March 2013 press conference occasioned by US President
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
's visit to the Occupied Territories, Barghouti, noting that Obama's stated goal was "to listen," protested that "We Palestinians have been listening for too long. This passivity on Obama's part is unacceptable and dangerous at a time when the two state solution is under risk." Barghouti also lamented that Obama would not be going to Hebron, "where the geographical segregation system is very clear," and said that, given comments made by Obama in his famous Cairo speech, Barghouti had expected that he would at least "issue severe condemnations against Israeli violence against Palestinians in nonviolent resistance protests" and "praise Palestinian nonviolence as we have stuck with that end." Barghouti was further disappointed that Obama, while visiting the graves of Yitzhak Rabin and Theodor Herzl, would not be visit Arafat's grave, and that he would be visiting the
Eretz Israel Museum The Eretz Israel Museum (also known as Muza) is a historical and archeological museum in the Ramat Aviv neighborhood of Tel Aviv, Israel. Eretz Israel Museum, established in 1953, has a large display of archaeological, anthropological and his ...
, which "contains stolen Palestinian artifacts."


2005 PNA presidential election

Barghouti announced on 29 November 2004 that he would be a candidate in the 9 January 2005 election to choose a successor to the just-deceased Yasser Arafat as
President of the Palestinian National Authority The president of the Palestinian National Authority ( ar, رئيس السلطة الوطنية الفلسطينية) is the highest-ranking political position (equivalent to head of state) in the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). The presiden ...
. Barghouti was endorsed by his fellow PNI co-founder Dr.
Haidar Abdel-Shafi Haidar Abdel-Shafi (Heidar Abdul-Shafi) ( ar, حيدر عبد الشافي June 10, 1919 – September 25, 2007), was a Palestinian physician, community leader and political leader who was the head of the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid C ...
. He became Mahmoud Abbas's main challenger after his cousin Marwan Barghouti, who was in jail for leading an uprising, withdrew from the race. Mustafa Barghouti, who was "widely seen as an outsider," campaigned on a platform of change and major PA reforms. "People are fed up with the system, they are fed up with corruption, they are fed up with favouritism and people want change," he said at a campaign rally. He called for Israel to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and East Jerusalem, to release Palestinian prisoners, and to allow Palestinian refugees to return to their homes. He did not enjoy the backing of any major political party, however, and ended up losing to Abbas, receiving 19.8% of the vote. Conceding defeat, he said, "I feel very happy, and very proud" and said that he would win "next time." Referring to his role as head of the PNI, he said, "We are now the second most important political force in Palestine, ahead of Hamas. This is very, very important." His campaign, he has said, "encountered huge obstacles: the prejudice of the world's media in favour of Mahmud Abbas (Abu Mazen), the illegal channelling of the PA's financial resources and its whole bureaucratic network in support of him, plus the massive endorsement from the Israelis and the Americans who, having made him their candidate, moved heaven and earth to impede our progress.
Hamas Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam ...
's decision to boycott the elections also worked indirectly in favour of Abbas, for the movement's leaders instructed their militants not to vote for me." He has claimed that during his campaign he was "harassed by Israeli soldiers on seven occasions" and arrested twice; meanwhile, Arab TV stations "backed the Fatah candidate." Still, "we managed to bring together a solid democratic coalition" consisting of "the PFLP, independent unions, workers' committees, eminent figures of the democratic left such as Abd al-Shafi, moderate Islamists including Abd al-Sattar Qassem and many groupings from Palestinian civil society."


2009 ''Daily Show'' interview

Barghouti appeared on ''
The Daily Show ''The Daily Show'' is an American late-night talk and satirical news television program. It airs each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central with release shortly after on Paramount+. ''The Daily Show'' draws its comedy and satire form from ...
'' in October 2009 with fellow activist Anna Baltzer, telling Jon Stewart, "We are struggling for liberty. We are struggling for freedom. We are struggling for justice. It is Palestinians who have been subjected to the longest occupation in history and a system of subjugation that is totally unjust."


2010 Canadian visa incident

Barghouti was issued a visa too late for a 2010 Canadian lecture tour, forcing him to postpone his trip. His co-sponsor, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME), accused the government of deliberately delaying the issuance of the visa. Frank Dimant, executive vice-president of
B'nai B'rith B'nai B'rith International (, from he, בְּנֵי בְּרִית, translit=b'né brit, lit=Children of the Covenant) is a Jewish service organization. B'nai B'rith states that it is committed to the security and continuity of the Jewish peo ...
Canada, said that his organization had not had anything to do with the visa delay, and that Barghouti's visit "was not an issue on the Jewish agenda." Barghouti was able to secure a visa to travel to Canada in May.


2012 tear-gas incident

Barghouti claimed that at the annual
Land Day Land Day ( ar, يوم الأرض, ''Yawm al-ʾArḍ''; he, יוֹם הַאֲדָמָה, ''Yom HaAdama''), March 30, is a day of commemoration for Arab citizens of Israel and Palestinians of the events of that date in 1976 in Israel. In 1976, ...
protest in Bethlehem in 2012, he was struck in the head by a canister of tear gas shot by Israeli forces. "I was hit with a tear-gas bomb on the side of my head and my back," Dr. Barghouti told a reporter from his hospital bed. "My scalp is injured, my right ear has problems, and they are checking to see if I have any spinal injury." An Israeli Defense spokesperson, however, said that he had been attacked by fellow Palestinian protesters. The '' Jerusalem Post'' stated that witnesses reported that "scores of Fatah activists," not Israeli forces, had attacked Barghouti as part of a conflict between his supporters and Fatah "over who should lead the Land Day protests." Among the assailants, according to one witness, were "a number of PA security officers." Jerusalem Post also stated that witnesses maintained, moreover, that "the ambulance that took Barghouti from the scene was also attacked by angry Fatah activists." After the attack, it was suggested that Fatah members may have attacked Barghouti because he had criticized it. "Fatah is like the Zionist Movement," Haaretz quoted one observer as saying. "It needs a common enemy and then it unites against it. That enemy is Mustafa Barghouti." One rumour suggested that the Syrian government had ordered Palestinian opposition groups to support Barghouti. It was also noted that some leftists were worried "that Barghouti has begun to attend the mosque and pepper his statements with quotes from religious sources."


Views

Barghouti has consistently criticized the PLO and Palestinian Authority for corruption. He supports
non-violent resistance Nonviolent resistance (NVR), or nonviolent action, sometimes called civil resistance, is the practice of achieving goals such as social change through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, satyagraha, c ...
as the most effective means of overcoming
Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
i occupation. According to a
Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was esta ...
report, Barghouti "supports peace with Israel based on two states with a Palestinian state in all territory occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, a capital in Arab East Jerusalem and rights for refugees." He has indicated that recognition of a right of return is a must, but that this could likely be implemented in a way mutually acceptable to both sides. In a December 2008 article, Barghouti condemned the ongoing Israeli "state terror," in which, he charged, over "290 people have been murdered." He said it was "time to expose the myths that they
he Israelis He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
have created." For example, he rejected the claim that Israel had "ended the occupation of the Gaza Strip in 2005," accusing it of intensifying its "military aggression," carrying out "frequent raids and targeted assassinations," and imposing "a comprehensive siege on the Strip," forcing Gazans to live "on the edge of starvation and without the most basic necessities of human life" and causing "a humanitarian catastrophe." Barghouti has accused Fatah of damaging the Palestinian cause by engaging in militarization, by carrying out suicide attacks even as it condemns them, and by holding talks with the Israelis even as it condemns them. He has also said, in a 2005 interview, that Hamas, despite its radicalism, "should...be included in the democratic process, and invited to participate in elections," because "Violence, extremism, fundamentalism and suicide attacks are symptoms" of "occupation, oppression and injustice." In the same interview, he admitted to being in contact with Hamas leaders. "We talk to them, try to persuade them to do this, not that. Hamas is much more than a breeding ground for kamikazes. It maintains a highly developed social network, and provides many services in health, housing and education, even if it does exploit them for political ends." In December 2008, he dismissed the charge that Hamas had "violated the cease-fire and pulled out of it unilaterally," insisting that Hamas had "not carried out an unprovoked attack throughout the period of the cease-fire," while Israel had forced Gazans "to live like animals" and "killed 546 Palestinians, among them 76 children." He accused Israel of seeking, in its most recent actions, "to insure that casualties would be maximized and that the citizens of Gaza would be unprepared for their impending slaughter" and of using "war as an advertising showcase of its many instruments of death." He also denied that Israel had limited itself to military targets and that the violence in the region originated with the Palestinians, saying that the Israeli Occupation "has been and remains the root of violence between Israelis and Palestinians." Barghouti called in 2009 for Israeli officers to be brought up on war-crime charges, saying that "Israel has killed 1,410 people, mostly unarmed civilians, including more than 400 children." He accused it of using "white phosphorus, dumdum bombs and others that released fragments that led to the maiming of hundreds of citizens, mostly children," and of targeting "schools, public institutions and civilian homes." He suggested that the International Criminal Court prosecute Israeli war criminals on the basis of the Goldstone Report and that the UN impose sanctions on Israel. Writing about the
Nakba Clickable map of Mandatory Palestine with the depopulated locations during the 1947–1949 Palestine war. The Nakba ( ar, النكبة, translit=an-Nakbah, lit=the "disaster", "catastrophe", or "cataclysm"), also known as the Palestinian Ca ...
in May 2013, Barghouti called on Israel "to recognize its responsibility for this crime, as a first step towards accountability and a just solution to this conflict." He accused Israel of "living in a state of denial," noting that its "textbooks don't recognize the rights of the Palestinian people or the Nakba." He rejected "Israel's traditional narrative and founding myth," which, he argued, is belied by the reality of "horrific massacres by Zionist militias...where even women, children, and elderly Palestinians were not spared." And he said that the Nakba "is not just a tragic moment in history" but "has been an ongoing process from that time against all of the Palestinian people." He has said that there are two possible solutions to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict: "an independent Palestinian state" covering, at the very least, all the area within the 1967 frontiers, and with its capital in East Jerusalem, and with all settlements dismantled, or "a single democratic state," no longer exclusively Jewish, "in which all citizens are equal." He complains that Israel "has sought to trap the Palestinians into a corner of the chessboard where there's no longer any choice. If we agree on a two-state solution, we are offered
bantustans A Bantustan (also known as Bantu homeland, black homeland, black state or simply homeland; ) was a territory that the National Party administration of South Africa set aside for black inhabitants of South Africa and South West Africa (now ...
. And if we say that in those conditions, we'd prefer a single, bi-national state, then we are accused of wanting to destroy Israel." In a 2012 interview, Barghouti said he was convinced the peace process was "dead." In a March 2013 interview, he said that the peace process was "frozen with no prospects of peace on the horizon," and with "an unprecedented increase in
Israeli settlements Israeli settlements, or Israeli colonies, are civilian communities inhabited by Israeli citizens, overwhelmingly of Jewish ethnicity, built on lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. The international community considers Israeli se ...
and land takeover throttling the idea of a Palestinian state." He also lamented "the intolerable economic situation," the "internal division between Fatah and Hamas," and "the humiliation that Palestinians are experiencing at the hands of settlers and also in encounters with Israelis inside Israel." Yet he said that he was given "great hope" by "the growing movement amongst people for non-violent resistance."


Boycott issue

Barghouti claimed in 2005 that the PNI did not support a boycott of Israel, while adding that it did call for sanctions against Israel, including "suspension of the EU–Israel accords...; stopping all military co-operation with Israel...; a halt to investment in Israel; ndcutting off cultural relations at government level." Despite this claim, the PNI's website reported in 2012 that the group had "recently launched a new campaign, aiming to boycott Israeli products in West Bank supermarkets." Barghouti had led a group of protesters at a supermarket in the Atira district of in Ramallah, and said that "Shopkeepers are being great. We are convincing them to take away Israeli products and put Palestinian goods n their place" In a 2012 interview, Barghouti affirmed his support for a multi-prong strategy to end the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. "Popular resistance," he said, "is a successful formula because it works both in the case of two states or one. In my opinion, the strategic choice before us is made up of four elements: the escalation of popular resistance, the BDS campaign, revamping all domestic and Palestinian economic policies to focus them on reinforcing the people's steadfastness instead of drowning them in debts, taxes and consumerism, rejecting the distinction between Areas A, B and C, and fourthly, national unity."


References


External links

*
The Palestinian National Initiative
English page
Interview with Mustafa Barghouti on Radio France International
International complicity helps Israeli "war crimes", says Barghouti
BBC Profile: Mustafa Barghouti

Speeches at University of Wisconsin–Madison
(.mp3) (Spring 2006) * ''60 Minutes'' episode
Is Peace out of reach?
' featuring Mustafa Barghouti, reported by Bob Simon, January 26, 2009
Part 1 of an interview on the Daily Show, with Anna Baltzer & Jon StewartPart 2
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barghouti, Mustafa 1954 births Living people Palestinian Muslims Nonviolence advocates People from Jerusalem Palestinian cardiologists Palestinian democracy activists Government ministers of the Palestinian National Authority Stanford Graduate School of Business alumni Peoples' Friendship University of Russia alumni Palestinian People's Party politicians Members of the 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council Stanford Sloan Fellows