Mustafa Barghouti

In 1991, Barghouti was a delegate to the Madrid Conference, 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. In June 2002, Barghouti, Haidar Abdel-Shafi, Ibrahim Dakkak and Edward Said 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. Barghouti currently serves as the Initiative's general secretary.

He later said that the PLO had "panicked at the thought" that Hanan Ashrawi 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 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."[2]

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."[2]

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.[1]

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, Gush Shalom, Yesh Gvul, Ta'ayush—demonstrating against the invasion of Iraq 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.[2]

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, 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 jail where he remains under detention."[4]

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."[5]

At a March 2013 press conference occasioned by US President Barack Obama'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, which "contains stolen Palestinian artifacts."[6]

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. Barghouti was endorsed by his fellow PNI co-founder Dr. Haidar Abdel-Shafi.[1] 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."[7]

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'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."[2]

Barghouti appeared on The Daily Show 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."[8][9]

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 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.[10]

Barghouti claimed that at the annual Land Day 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.[11]

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."[12]

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."[13]

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; [and] cutting off cultural relations at government level."[2] 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 [in their place]."[20]

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."[18]