The Palestinian Mandela
By Uri Avnery

THE division of the Palestinian territories into a "Hamastan" in the Gaza Strip and a "Fatahland" in the West Bank is a disaster.

A disaster for the Palestinians, a disaster for peace, and therefore also a disaster for Israelis.

The Israeli political and military leadership is happy about the split, according to the doctrine "What's bad for Palestine is good for Israel". This doctrine has guided Zionist policy right from the beginning. Haim Arlosoroff, the Zionist leader who was murdered by hands unknown on the seashore of Tel-Aviv in 1933, already condemned this doctrine in his last speech: "Not everything that is bad for the Arabs is good for the Jews, and not everything that is good for the Arabs is bad for the Jews."

Will the Palestinians overcome this split?

It seems that the chances for that are getting smaller by the day. The gulf between the two parties is getting wider and wider.

The Fatah people in the West Bank, headed by President Mahmoud Abbas, condemn Hamas as a gang of fanatics, who are imitating Iran and are guided by it, and who, like the Ayatollahs, are leading their people towards catastrophe.

The Hamas people accuse Abbas of being a Palestinian Marshal Petain, who has made a deal with the occupier and is sliding down the slippery slope of collaboration.

The propaganda of both sides is full of venom, and the mutual violence is reaching new heights.

It looks like a cul-de-sac. Many Palestinians have despaired of finding a way out. Others are searching for creative solutions. Afif Safieh, the chief of the PLO mission in Washington, for example, proposes setting up a Palestinian government composed entirely of neutral experts, who are neither members of Fatah nor of Hamas. The chances for that are very slim indeed.

But in private conversations in Ramallah, one name pops up more and more often: Marwan Barghouti.

"He holds the key in his hand," they say there, "both for the Fatah-Hamas and for the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts."

Some see Marwan as the Palestinian Nelson Mandela.

In appearances, the two are very different, both physically and in temperament. But they have much in common.

Both became national heroes behind prison bars. Both were convicted of terrorism. Both supported violent struggle. Mandela supported the 1961 decision of the National African Congress to start an armed struggle against the racist government (but not against the white civilians). He remained in prison for 28 years and refused to buy his freedom by signing a statement denouncing "terrorism". Marwan supported the armed struggle of Fatah's Tanzim organization and has been sentenced to several life terms.

But both were in favor of peace and reconciliation, even before going to prison. I saw Barghouti for the first time in 1997, when he joined a Gush Shalom demonstration in Harbata, the village neighboring Bil'in, against the building of the Modiin-Illit settlement that was just starting. Five years later, during his trial, we demonstrated in the courthouse under the slogan "Barghouti to the negotiating table, not to prison!"

Last week we visited Marwan's family in Ramallah.

I had met Fadwa Barghouti for the first time at Yasser Arafat's funeral. Her face was wet with tears. We were crowded among the multitude of mourners, the din was ear-splitting and we could not exchange more than a few words.

This time she was calm and composed. She laughed only when she heard that Teddy Katz, a Gush activist who took part in the meeting, had sacrificed a toenail for Marwan: during our protest in court we were violently attacked by the guards and one of them stamped his heavy boot on Teddy's sandaled foot.

Fadwa Barghouti is a lawyer by profession, a mother of four (three sons, one daughter). The oldest, Kassem, has already been in prison for half a year without trial. She is a dark-blond woman ("All the family members, except Marwan, are blond," she explained, adding with a rare smile: "Perhaps because of the Crusaders.")

The Barghoutis are a large Hamula (extended family), inhabiting six villages near Bir Zeit. Dr. Mustapha Barghouti, the physician who is well-known for his human rights activities, is a distant relative. Marwan and Fadwa - also a Barghouti by birth - were born in Kobar village.

Marwan Barghouti's family lives in a nice apartment in a co-dominion building. On my way there, I noticed the widespread building activity in Ramallah - it looks as if new buildings are going on every corner, including commercial high-rises.

Near the door of the apartment, an embroidered sign says in English: "Welcome to my home". The apartment itself is decorated with many images of Marwan Barghouti, including a large drawing inspired by the famous photo that shows him in court, raising his handcuffed arms above his head like a victorious boxer. When the security forces were searching for him, they took possession of the apartment for three days and raised a large Israeli flag on the balcony.

Fadwa Barghouti is one of the few persons allowed to visit him. Not as a lawyer, but only as "close family" - a definition that includes parents, spouses, siblings and children under 16.

At present, there are about 11 thousand Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Assuming an average of five "close family" members, that makes 55 thousand potential visitors. Those, too, need a permit for each visit, and many are rejected for "security reasons". Fadwa also needs a permit every time, which allows her only to go directly to the prison and back, without stopping anywhere in Israel. The three sons are not allowed to meet their father anymore, since all three have passed the age of 16. Only the young daughter can visit him.

There is hardly anyone who is more popular with the Palestinian public than Marwan Barghouti. In this, too, he resembles Mandela while in prison.