With a message to the press on the 16th anniversary of his detention, Marwan Barghouti has appealed to the president of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas to reject the “Agreement of the century,” the Trump administration’s plan for Israelis and Palestinians.
“We must realize,” wrote the former Fatah party secretary, who is serving a life sentence in Israel, “that in one or five years Donald Trump will be gone. Meanwhile, Jerusalem, Palestine and its people will remain and will carry on the resistance and struggle against Zionist colonialism.”
The Palestinians, he added, have the right to “resist in every way,” including armed, though he said the scope of resistance should be limited to the occupied Palestinian territories. He therefore urged Abu Mazen to create favorable conditions for reconciliation with Hamas and expressed support for the mass demonstrations organized in recent weeks close to the demarcation line between Gaza and Israel.
Barghouti, known to many as the “Palestinian Mandela,” is very popular and in the polls remains one of the major political champions, more beloved than Abu Mazen and the leader of Hamas Ismail Haniyeh.
However, the clash between Fatah and Hamas continues, despite Barghouti’s appeal for reconciliation. The Hamas police on Monday were deployed to banks amid growing protests by the approximately 30,000 National Palestinian Council employees who have not yet received their salary. Ramallah blamed a “technical problem” for the delay, but many are convinced that this was a decision by Abbas, who wants to recover Gaza from Hamas’ control.
