How the Media Turned a Terrorist Mastermind into a Palestinian ‘Nelson Mandela’

As Hamas pushes for Barghouti’s release, it’s imperative to dissect the real persona behind the facade and its potential implications for the volatile Middle East landscape.

By Chaim Lax, Honest Reporting

The “Palestinian Nelson Mandela” (Associated Press).

A “political prisoner” (Times of London).

The man most likely to serve “as a credible negotiator of a Palestinian state” (former Human Rights Watch chief Ken Roth).

These are just some of the terms that have been used to describe Marwan Barghouti in both traditional media and social media ever since it was revealed that, as part of its negotiations with Israel, Hamas is demanding Barghouti’s release from prison.

With Barghouti’s name back in the headlines, this is a good opportunity to remind both the media and the general public about who he really is and what his potential release could mean for Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and regional stability.

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No, @thetimes, Marwan Barghouti is not a “political prisoner.” He was convicted for the murder of five innocent civilians in three terrorist attacks.

Writing a puff piece portraying him as a Palestinian Nelson Mandela is insultingly premature.https://t.co/HMxZYI2SF5 pic.twitter.com/EXT0XOtMps

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) February 5, 2024

Who is Marwan Barghouti?

Born in the West Bank in 1959, Marwan Barghouti’s introduction to Palestinian terrorism came at the age of 15, when he joined Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement.

At that time, Fatah had already conducted numerous terror attacks against Israeli civilians and civilian infrastructure.

At the age of 19, Barghouti was imprisoned by Israel for four years for his role in a Fatah terror attack.

In 1987, Barghouti was charged with anti-Israel incitement and deported by Israel to Jordan.

In 1994, as part of the Oslo Accords, he returned to the West Bank and became heavily involved in Palestinian politics, gaining a seat in the 1996 Palestinian Legislative Council election.

In the late 1990s, Barghouti became the head of Fatah’s Tanzim faction, which was responsible for internal security but also led Fatah’s terrorist campaign against Israel during the Second Intifada.

Barghouti is also alleged to have been a founding member and senior official in the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a Fatah-affiliated terrorist organization founded in 2000.

While Barghouti was initially supportive of the Oslo peace process in the late 1990s, he became more militant by the turn of the century, believing that only violence could bring about a final status agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

In 2000, Barghouti took a leading role in fomenting the Nakba Day riots in May and was instrumental in inciting the Temple Mount riots in September. The latter is widely seen as the beginning of the violent Second Intifada period.

Between 2000 and 2002, Barghouti headed Fatah in the West Bank, led the Tanzim and the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, and headed the umbrella organization of Islamic and national forces, which was responsible for much of the terrorist activity during that time.

Initially, Barghouti advocated for focusing violence against Israeli soldiers and settlers (including men, women and children) but then expanded his campaign of terror to all of Israel.

In 2002, Barghouti was arrested by Israeli forces and, in 2004, he was sentenced by the Tel Aviv District Court to five consecutive life terms for his role in the deaths of five victims of terror.

These victims included four Israelis murdered in two separate terror attacks (a shooting at a gas station near Jerusalem a shooting/hand grenade attack at a Tel Aviv restaurant) and a Greek monk who was shot while driving near Jerusalem.

In addition, the court also found Barghouti guilty of orchestrating a failed suicide bombing outside a mall in Jerusalem and convicted him of heading a terrorist network.

In its verdict, the court found that Barghouti was morally responsible for many other attacks through his encouragement of terrorism and was a key actor in acquiring funding from Yasser Arafat for Fatah terrorists.

Since his imprisonment, Barghouti has developed a mythic persona, portrayed as an ultimately peace-seeking Palestinian leader who is the only one able to unify the Palestinian factions and realistically attain a final status agreement with Israel.

However, this myth is unproven even if some media wish it were the reality.

In the more than 20 years that Barghouti has been in prison, he has made a number of statements, some of which appear to advocate for peace while others are more violent.

For example, in January 2012, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported that Barghouti had announced to reporters while at a court appearance that the withdrawal of Israel to the 1967 lines would bring an end to the conflict.

However, less than three months later, Barghouti smuggled out a message from prison that called on the Palestinians to halt peace negotiations with and boycott Israel, and sever all cooperation between the Palestinian Authority and Israel (including security coordination). The end of security coordination would ultimately lead to the rise in anti-Israel terror activities.

In 2014, Barghouti made two public statements, claiming the right of Palestinians to “resistance in all its forms” and advocating for the “re-adoption of the ‘resistance’ option” by the Palestinians.

As late as December 2023, as Israel was in the midst of battling Hamas in Gaza following the October 7 massacre, Barghouti released a message that called on the Palestinians in the West Bank to join the “resistance” against Israel and specifically called on members of the Palestinian security services to turn their weapons against Israel.

What Marwan Barghouti’s Release Means for the Region

It is commonly claimed that, as a popular Palestinian figure, Marwan Barghouti is the first in line to replace Mahmoud Abbas as president of the Palestinian Authority and that he will be able to both reform the PA and steer it toward a final status agreement with Israel.

However, according to analysts, this might not be the case.

In its study of Barghouti, the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center notes that the idea that Barghouti (who has been absent from the forefront of inter-Palestinian politics for over 20 years) is capable of becoming a Nelson Mandela-like figure, uniting all the Palestinian factions while re-igniting peace talks with Israel is exaggerated.

While Barghouti’s long imprisonment and leadership of the Second Intifada have made him a popular figure on the Palestinian street, it is unclear if he enjoys the status that the Western media apply to him.

Even as far back as 2009, the Jerusalem Post’s Khaled Abu Toameh wrote that Marwan Barghouti’s image as the Palestinian Nelson Mandela was more a construct of the foreign media and less a sentiment shared by Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

As an example of how Barghouti’s image might be larger than his actual influence, the Meir Amit Center points out that under his leadership, the 2017 Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strike “was not overwhelmingly supported by the Fatah leadership and the PA, or the Palestinian public.”

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The Lazy Fantasy of a ‘Palestinian Mandela’ https://t.co/5KAJ0TndqI My latest on the calls to release Marwan Barghouti instead of actually doing the work of reforming the PA

— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) February 2, 2024

It’s not only his questionable popularity that clouds the media’s glorification of Marwan Barghouti and anticipation of his possible release.

As Seth Mandel notes in a recent article for Commentary Magazine, Mahmoud Abbas is still clinging on to power as head of the PA. The release of his “more popular rival” is “a recipe for chaos.”

The havoc created by Palestinian infighting coupled with Barghouti’s well-known tactic of using terrorism to put pressure on Israel is a perfect storm that may lead the region into further violence and turmoil.

Thus, while the foreign media and political commentators may be laying the groundwork for welcoming Marwan Barghouti’s release, it is important to keep in mind that, despite the impression promoted by the media of a Palestinian Nelson Mandela, he is a convicted terrorist mastermind whose entrance into Palestinian politics may lead to more violence and a further deterioration of the security situation for both Palestinians and Israelis.