Posted on 04/15/2002 7:19:48 PM PDT by Democrats are liars
Once touted as a possible moderate successor to Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, Marwan Barghouti became the symbol of armed struggle against Israel over the past 18 months.
As the leader of the Fatah Tanzim organization in the West Bank, he has planned and helped implement multiple terrorist attacks, according to Israeli security officials.
Born in June 1960, near Ramallah, Barghouti portrayed himself as a moderate with limited political aims who advocated the right to self-defense. With the outbreak of the current intifada, he became the head of the joint coordinating body of all Palestinian organizations in the West Bank, including Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad.
In an interview two months ago, Barghouti said Oslo died with Yitzhak Rabin. "How would you feel if on every hill in territory that belongs to you a new settlement would spring up? If your best friends, with whom you fought shoulder to shoulder, continue to rot in jail? I reached a simple conclusion. You don't want to end the occupation and you don't want to stop the settlements, so the only way to convince you is by force.
"This is the intifada of peace. I'm serious. This intifada will lead to peace in the end. We need to escalate the conflict. It will be hard. Many of us will be killed, but there is no choice. Every one of us is willing to sacrifice himself.
"We have decided that [Ariel] Sharon will not bring you security, and we have succeeded.... The Palestinian people have red lines and only the people will decide.... Arafat is the leader, the symbol, he decides everything," he said.
Last July, in an interview with The New Yorker, Barghouti said that even if Israel were to withdraw from all the "occupied land," he would still seek "bigger things," such as one state for all the people.
One of the founders of the Fatah Shabiba youth organization, Barghouti graduated with a degree in political science and history from Bir Zeit University, where he was head of the student council.
He was arrested at 18 for membership in Fatah. He spent six years in prison, where he learned to speak fluent Hebrew. He was deported to Jordan in 1987. A year later, he was elected to the Palestinian Revolutionary Council. Seven years later, with the signing of the Oslo Accords, he returned from Tunis.
In 1996, he was elected as a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and harshly criticized the corruption within the ranks of the PA.
Many PA officials accused him of making populist statements to forward his own political career. They were angered by his refusal to accept a cease-fire and his frequent television appearances calling for the continuation of the intifada, while they were trying to persuade Arafat and Fatah to end the violence and try to move toward political negotiations.
Barghouti is believed to have sent hundreds of Fatah youth to the Aksa Mosque the night before Sharon visited the Temple Mount in September 2000.
"Now we will bring the issues of Jerusalem and settlements from the negotiation table to the Palestinian street," Barghouti told The Jerusalem Post in the first days of the intifada.
Barghouti repeatedly vowed during the past 18 months that the uprising would continue until Israel withdraws from the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and east Jerusalem. Barghouti argued the Palestinian street had been disappointed by lengthy negotiations, Israel's continued policy of expanding settlements, and Israel's refusal to release all Palestinian prisoners who had been arrested before the signing of the Oslo Accords. Therefore, he said, Fatah decided to take the talks from the negotiating table to the street, to force Israel to withdraw.
Barghouti accepts the idea of two states for two people, living side-by-side in peace and security, but he has said he would prefer one state for both Palestinians and Israelis. He refuses to compromise on the "right of return" for Palestinian refugees, saying most of the those in the refugee camps who belong to Fatah would not abandon their sense of entitlement on that point.
Barghouti was the senior figure of the Aksa Martyrs Brigade. Both Ahmed Barghouti, his cousin, and Nasser Awis carried out his orders for dozens of attacks, including suicide bombings, Israeli security sources said.
Among the attacks he is alleged to have ordered:
¥ January 17 shooting attack on David's Hall in Hadera that killed six and wounded 26.
¥ January 22 shooting attack on civilians on Jerusalem's Jaffa Road that killed two and wounded 37.
¥ February 25 shooting attack in Jerusalem's Neveh Ya'acov neighborhood that killed a policewoman and wounded nine.
¥ February 27 murder of an Israeli in a factory in Atarot.
¥ February 27 suicide bombing carried out by a female bomber at the Maccabim roadblock that wounded two policemen.
¥ March 5 shooting attack at Tel Aviv's seafood restaurant that killed three and wounded 31.
¥ March 8 suicide bomber killed on his way to Jerusalem.
¥ March 10 suicide bomber killed at Aram junction on his way to Jerusalem.
¥ March 27 detention of an ambulance in which a belt bomb was hidden.
They also said that Marwan Barghouti was directly responsible for operating the cells of Raed Karmi in Tulkarm, who carried out many attacks.
They daily encourage murderers, bombings,
worldwide atrocities against Jews,
Arab gang beatings of Jewish women in Germany,
Arab gang beatings of French Jewish athletes,
Kiev and European synagogue burnings,
the destruction and defacement of Jewish historical sites,
and their attempts to dismantle and destroy Israel.
They do it for their love of terrorists, especially their very-kissable Arafat.
A Palestinian State no doubt, under Islamic Law, no doubt.
Then theres nothing to talk about. You aint never going to get that.
Another terrorist who needs to meet his just fate.
But first make him sing.
Do these people have any idea how psychotic they sound? They're talking about ecalating a conflict against a group of people who suffered 6+ million dead at the hands of the Nazis, who have nuclear weapons, and whose motto is "Never Again." These people are in need of a serious reality-check.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.