Marwan Barghouti tops Palestinian polls for PA leadership as family lobbies for his release
As the family of imprisoned Palestinian terror commander Marwan Barghouti lobbies for his release in a widely anticipated ceasefire, a Palestinian survey released found overwhelming support for him to succeed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
An image of Marwan Barghouti, the leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades now imprisoned in Israel, seen in the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza on Aprill 16, 2023. Photo by Majdi Fathi/TPS
The survey, conducted by the Ramallah-based Arab World for Research and Development (AWRAD), is the first since Hamas’s Gaza strongman and mastermind of the October 7 attacks Yahya Sinwar was killed in a chance encounter with soldiers in Rafah in October.
As recently reported by The Press of Service of Israel, Barghouti’s family and lawyers have been in Qatar engaging in negotiations over his potential release and deportation to Turkey, along with other senior terrorists. Senior Fatah officials told TPS-IL that Barghouti’s wife, Fadwa, and son Qassam have consented to the arrangement.
AWRAD’s survey of 704 Palestinians in Judea, Samaria and Gaza found Barghouti was the most popular figure to succeed Abbas.
In a three-way race between Barghouti, his cousin, independent Mustafa Barghouti, and former Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, Marwan Barghouti garnered the highest support with 45%, followed by Mustafa Barghouti at 22%, and Mashaal at 10%. The remaining 23% of respondents indicated they would vote for other candidates or abstained from answering.
TPS-IL has learned that Egypt and Qatar support Hamas’s demand to release Barghouti because they want to pave the way for him to succeed Mahmoud Abbas as leader of the Palestinian Authority. Both countries fear that without a clear plan of succession, the PA will collapse after Abbas, who is 89.
Israel is not likely to agree to Barghouti returning to Judea and Samaria under any circumstances.
Barghouti, 65, is the highest-profile Palestinian imprisoned in Israel. During the Second Intifada, he led the Tanzim militia, which was made up of various Fatah-associated terror groups. Foremost among these groups was the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which Barghouti directly commanded and which carried out numerous suicide bombings and shooting attacks.
A civilian court in 2004 convicted Barghouti for his role in the murder of a Greek Orthodox monk, a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that killed three, and a shooting attack that killed one. Barghouti was also convicted of attempted murder for an attack in which a suicide bomber’s explosive detonated prematurely at a Jerusalem mall. He is currently serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison for his role in three terror attacks that killed five Israelis during the Second Intifada.
The AWRAD survey also found 71% of Palestinians were dissatisfied with the leadership of PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Reasons included not providing a vision for the postcrisis period (76%), limited communication with the public (77%) and dissatisfaction with his approach to governance (73%)
Palestinians have not held national elections since 2005 and Abbas is now in the 19th year of what was supposed to be a four-year term. Since then, Abbas has cancelled several attempted elections amid Fatah-Hamas disagreements, most recently in 2021.
