From behind bars in Israel, veteran prisoner and “Palestine's Mandela”, Marwan Barghouti, gained the highest number of votes in elections for the ruling Fatah party's central committee.
The vote for the party's highest body came at the end of a long-delayed eighth general congress, which was held in Ramallah 10 years after the last one in 2016.
“Marwan Barghouti’s strong performance carries deep symbolic and emotional weight,” former Palestinian Minister of Economy and founder of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Hasan Abu Libdeh, told The National. “He has been elected in every Fatah congress since his imprisonment.”
Mr Barghouti is being held in solitary confinement in an Israeli jail and is unable to play a meaningful role as a member of Fatah's central committee. He was imprisoned by Israel in 2002 over “terror attacks” during the second Intifada, but remains widely popular in the party.
Mr Barghouti was elected to the 18-member committee with 1,879 votes from the 2,514 participants in the congress, followed by intelligence chief Majid Faraj with 1,861 votes, former central committee secretary Jibril Rajoub with 1,609 and Palestinian Vice President Hussein Al Sheikh with 1,570. Yasser Abbas, the son of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, received 1,290 votes.
Mr Barghouti is seen as “the antithesis of the current leadership under Mahmoud Abbas, who has been in power for the past 20 years”, a senior Palestinian figure told The National.
Mr Barghouti's popularity has grown as faith in Mr Abbas as a viable and representative leader of Palestinians has waned over issues of competency, nepotism and corruption. He placed third during the sixth Fatah general congress in 2009 and first in 2016.
Opinion polls showed that a candidate list led by Mr Barghouti would win the legislative elections scheduled in 2021. However, Mr Abbas cancelled the election, giving Israel's refusal to allow Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem to take part as the reason. Mr Abbas pledged to hold elections in his address to the congress on Thursday, without setting a date.
“If presidential and legislative elections are held, Marwan will run even from prison, as he did in the 2021 elections. This is one of the reasons for their cancellation, as his popularity, according to polls, makes him a likely winner,” said Hani Al Masri, director general of Masarat – the Palestinian Centre for Policy Research and Strategic Studies.
His election to the central committee, however, is viewed as symbolic – a message of solidarity rather than one based on his ability to function in the role. Prisoners' rights issues are central to the Palestinian cause – and are even more urgent now with Israel's passing of a death penalty law applicable only to Palestinian detainees.
Mr Barghouti, like all Palestinian prisoners since the Gaza war began in October 2023, has been denied access to the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) and is not allowed visits from his family. Through his lawyers, the family has learnt that Mr Barghouti has been subjected to torture and isolation repeatedly throughout the years he has been incarcerated.
Unlike Palestine's current ruling elite, Mr Barghouti enjoys internal support and that of its Arab neighbours, which presents a “real strategic opportunity”, Mr Libdeh said.
“He is widely viewed as the safest and most credible figure capable of revitalising Fatah and the Palestinian Authority”, he said, which can be done by “institutionalising” his influence in structures so that they can operate under his guidance, even if from behind bars.
