Two weeks after the US-brokered Gaza ceasefire deal came into effect, developments on the ground and in diplomatic spaces continue to reveal a shift in the Trump administration’s discourse towards Israel.
During a phone interview with TIME magazine, published on Thursday, October 23, US President Donald Trump gave an unexpected statement, putting forward the possibility of pressuring Israel to release prominent imprisoned Palestinian leader, Marwan Barghouti, to rule post-war Gaza.
When the US president was asked by the magazine on his opinion regarding the recent call with American pro-Israel political activist and businessman, Ron Lauder, in which he encouraged the Netanyahu government to release Barghouti from Israeli prisons, he answered:
“I am literally being confronted with that question about 15 minutes before you called. That was the question. That was my question of the day. So I’ll be making a decision.”
For many, Trump’s statement indicates that the issue of releasing the jailed Palestinian leader is being deliberated internally within the US administration.
Barghouti’s family urges Trump to push for his release
For her part, Marwan Barghouti’s wife, Fadwa Barghouti, appealed to Trump through the same magazine to push for the freedom of her husband, describing him as a “genuine partner” for “just and lasting peace” in the West Asia region.
“Mr. President, a genuine partner awaits you – one who can help fulfill the dream we share of just and lasting peace in the region,” Fadwa Barghouti said. “For the sake of freedom for the Palestinian people and peace for all future generations, help release Marwan Barghouti,” she added.
His son, Arab Barghouti, also addressed the US President, urging him to secure his father’s release in an interview with AFP.
“He’s capable and has the track record to unify the Palestinian people,” Arab noted, referring to his father.
“Someone like him represents a great opportunity for the international community to prove that they are serious about supporting the two-state solution,” he continued.
The son of the prominent freedom fighter further expressed his hope that Trump can pressure the Israelis into releasing his father, whom he portrayed as “a partner for peace”, as well.
Read More: The genocide will not end until the Palestinian political leaders are free
Arab advocated for his father as a leader, who would bring the needed reform to the underlying corruption issues that the Palestinian people have suffered from.
“We have corruption issues that we need to address as Palestinians, and we need to be brave enough to look in the mirror and to take responsibility for our mistakes,” he stated.
Arab pointed out that after the genocidal Israeli aggression on Gaza has ended, Western countries, including the United States, “need to seize the opportunity of having a Palestinian leader who is well-respected and trusted and has the same vision that they have.”
Observers suggest that Arab hinted at the reforms, which Trump set as a condition in his 20-point ceasefire deal for the Palestinian Authority to be part of ruling post-war Gaza.
Moreover, he touched on the miserable condition of his father inside the Israeli jails. Arab cited the testimonies of some released prisoners, who reported that Marwan Barghouti had been beaten during a prison transfer in September, sustaining severe injuries. Consequently, four of Barghouti’s ribs were broken, he sustained severe injuries to his head, and lost consciousness.
Barghouti’s son insisted that if Marwan Barghouti’s release was secured, “he will be playing an active role in stopping the suffering, the rebuilding of Gaza, and helping the Palestinian people overall, because that’s been his life mission.”
Ben-Gvir slams Trump for suggesting the release of Barghouti
Trump’s comments regarding the potential release of Barghouti seem to have provoked the ire of Israeli Minister for National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, who considered it an interference in the “independent sovereign state” of Israel.
“I have great appreciation for President Trump, who is undoubtedly the most pro-Israel American president. And alongside that, it is important to emphasize: Israel is an independent sovereign state – the members of the Knesset vote according to their judgment. And Barghouti is a despicable Nazi murderer, with the blood of many civilians, women, and children on his hands. He will not be released and will not lead Gaza,” Ben Gvir wrote on his account on X.
Although mainstream media has always tried to depict Ben Gvir as an extremist minister, whose actions and statements may not necessarily represent his government’s stances, the last couple of years demonstrated that his deeds reflect the policies and strategies of not only the Netanyahu administration but also the Israeli regime as a whole.
Former Israeli consul-general to New York, Alon Pinkas, also lashed out what he considered as “US interference in Israeli affairs” while speaking to Israeli media outlets on Friday, October 24.
“A person comes, admittedly the President of the United States, but a foreign head of state, and intervenes quite bluntly in the internal affairs of another country,” Pinkas said.
Read more: Ben-Gvir provokes Palestinians with threat to prominent Palestinian leader and prisoner Marwan Barghouti
The PA expresses its displeasure at Trump’s comment on its own way
Trump’s comment has apparently bothered some Palestinian circles within the Palestinian Authority (PA) too, who, according to observers, felt that appointing Barghouti to lead post-war Gaza may constitute an existential threat to their power in the occupied West Bank.
Analysts suggest that appointing Barghouti to lead the Gaza strip in the post-war era may further extend to include the occupied West Bank, should a two-state solution be reached.
A couple of days after Trump expressed the possibility of appointing Marwan Barghouti as Gaza’s next leader, Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas (89), issued a constitutional declaration, naming his deputy, Hussein al-Sheikh, as a temporary replacement in case his position becomes vacant for any reason.
The move was interpreted as an implicit objection by the PA to the potential appointment of Marwan Barghouti to rule Gaza, although he is affiliated with the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah), with which the majority of the PA members, above all Abbas and Al-Sheikh, are affiliated.
Meanwhile, Fatah denied on Sunday, October 26, any statements attributed to the movement related to accepting a proposed administrative committee to lead post-war Gaza, insisting that the head of such a committee should be a minister in the PA’s government.
The nomination of Al-Sheikh and Fatah’s declared position, have once again proven that the PA has always been the spanner in the works in terms of ending the Palestinian division and achieving national unity.
For several years, Marwan Barghouti, has been perceived by Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories, and those in the diaspora alike, as a consensual political leader and the number one candidate to become the Palestinian president.
The prominent Palestinian leader is respected by all Palestinian factions, particularly Hamas, which has been viewed by some as Fatah’s primary political rival. Releasing Barghouti, has even been a priority for Hamas in all its former and recent prisoners-for-captives swap negotiations.
This in turn is sufficient to pose an imminent threat to the completely totalitarian Palestinian Authority, which has for two decades excluded its political opponents and competitors, with the last Palestinian elections being held in 2005.
It is worth noting that no Palestinian parliamentary elections have been held since 2006 either, after Hamas won the majority of votes that same year. The shocking landslide victory of Hamas indicated that Fatah had begun to lose popularity among Palestinians, cementing the longstanding division between the two factions ever since.
The post Trump proposes releasing Marwan Barghouti from Israeli prisons to rule post-war Gaza appeared first on Peoples Dispatch.
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