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The reconciliation of the Palestinian family

Marwan Barghouti, imprisoned since 2002 and accused of promoting a third intifada, is capable of bringing together the different political factions in Gaza and the West Bank

Luz Gómez

Feb 27, 2024 - 14:20CET

As the massacres in Gaza continue, the chances of a minimally just solution for the Palestinian people are receding. The Israeli government seems to have no reason to accept a ceasefire, since the hostages are not a priority; if they were, the mediation of Qatar, Egypt, and the United States would prosper, but talks continue to drag on as the assault on Rafah — the last remaining enclave where displaced Gazans are crowded together — takes shape. Netanyahu’s priority remains his political survival, closely linked to the day after the conflict comes to an end. That is what he is negotiating with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, under certain considerations from President Joe Biden. Among these is what to do with Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian government. Abbas wants recognition of the Palestinian state, Netanyahu wants neither a Palestinian state nor a Palestinian president, Abbas or otherwise. In what is supposed to be a well-calculated strategy, the Palestinian government has resigned. A necessary step for the reconciliation of the Palestinian family.

One of the specters looming in the medium-term is what the pan-Arab daily Al Quds Al Arabi has called “the dark promises of Madrid.” More than 30 years later, it seems clear that the 1991 Madrid conference was first and foremost a sack of potential Palestinian futures in the hands of Israel. In the Spanish capital, the Palestinians accepted a negotiating representation conditioned by Israeli interests on population, territory, resources, and government that postponed sine die the fundamental requirements of a sovereign state, which incidentally was not even mentioned.

The current situation is more serious, genocide aside. For Netanyahu’s Israel, Jerusalem, the West Bank settlements, and the bite it has now taken out of Gaza will not be discussed. Its terms no longer conform to United Nations resolutions 242, 338 and 425, which, at least nominally, served as the basis for the Oslo Accords. And with that, the end of the State of Palestine: there is no need to deceive oneself.

In this context, it has come to light that Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti, imprisoned since 2002, has been transferred to an isolation cell outside Israel’s maximum-security Ofer prison. He is accused, and it is assuredly true, of encouraging a third intifada. Barghouti, who admirers and detractors call the Palestinian Nelson Mandela, is a figure capable of uniting the different Palestinian political families. He is a member of Fatah, a politician, but also a guerrilla fighter, and above all, he is a popular leader forged in the street, in the struggle of the intifadas, whom Hamas respects. Biden spoke in November of “a revitalized Palestinian Authority” to govern Gaza. It would not have been the worst idea if Barghouti was being considered. It is known that in last year’s prisoner and hostage swap he was nearly released, but the ultranationalist wing of the Israeli government vetoed it.

Perhaps a return to politics is still possible.