Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > Jailed terrorist Marwan Barghouti to be featured at Israeli Peace Now anniversary rally
Jailed terrorist Marwan Barghouti to be featured at Israeli Peace Now anniversary rally
April 9, 2008
Fatah terrorist Marwan Bargouti in court
Jailed Terrorist to Feature at Peace Now 30th Anniversary Rally
April 08 06:50 by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz(IsraelNN.com) Imprisoned Fatah arch-terrorist Marwan Barghouti wrote a letter in praise of the Israeli far-left Peace Now organization on the occasion of its thirtieth anniversary. The letter, which speaks of "reconciliation" and a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, will be read aloud at a Peace Now anniversary rally on Tuesday night in Tel Aviv. Kadura Fares, a PA official, will read the Barghouti text to the gathering.
"We are ready for reconciliation that will grant ours and your own children a life devoid of the threats of war and bloodshed," Barghouti wrote.
Sentenced to five life terms in 2004 for his senior role in several murderous terrorist attacks on Israelis, Barghouti is considered the most popular figure among PA Arabs. His release from jail, along with over 1,000 others, has become a central demand by Hamas terrorists who are holding IDF soldier Gilad Shalit hostage. Recently, left-wing politicians such as Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, former Defense Minister Matan Vilnai and former Defense Minister Amir Peretz have also begun to vocally call for Barghouti's release.
"The vast majority of the Palestinian people, myself included," Barghouti wrote, "are ready for a historic reconciliation based on international resolutions that will result in the establishment of two states, a Palestinian and Israeli, that will exist side by side in peace and security."
Barghouti's letter also included some demands for the "end of the Israeli occupation," including: "the construction of settlements and the confiscation of lands must cease immediately, the Palestinian institutions in Jerusalem must be reopened, the hundreds of roadblocks that have turned the Palestinian territories into a living hell and destroyed the Palestinian economy must be removed, and the policy of arrests and killings must stop, as must the siege on Gaza. ...Israel must also open the border crossings and release thousands of Palestinian detainees."
'Peace Now Gave Us Hope'
Clearly catering to his intended Peace Now audience, Barghouti continued, "From the Palestinian people who suffer, and have lived under military occupation for 40 years, I extend my blessings to you and empower you. %ad%
"The founding of Peace Now three decades ago gave us hope that there are those in Israel who oppose the occupation, the settlements and the enslavement of the Palestinian people; that there are those who call for peace between the nations and support the Palestinians' right to establish an independent state with east Jerusalem as its capital beside Israel along the 1967 borders."
Barghouti's conciliatory letter to Peace Now is in apparent contradiction both to the Fatah Constitution, which calls for Israel's destructon, and to Barghouti's personal position, expressed in December 2007, that the jihadist Hamas and Fatah should unite in a combined regime. However, in 2001, an official Fatah statement did explicitly accept a limited Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, but primarily because "a legitimate Palestinian entity forms the most important weapon that Arabs have against Israel, the outpost of the imperialist powers." http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125836
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